Guided Inquiry: Poetry

Poetry can be a challenging genre for some students to engage with, which makes it a good candidate for an independent inquiry unit. When students get to choose their poet, collection, and subject matter, there is a sense of ownership over the poetry which helps them persevere through its perceived challenges. Increasingly, English teachers are welcoming lyricists into their classrooms as poets, and the interactive journals below could easily be used for studying lyricists as well. I have had students use these journals with lyricists ranging from Bob Dylan to Post Malone, and the poetry theory and lesson were just as easily applied to their works.

The Interactive Journals below rely on using Thomas Foster’s How to Read Poetry Like a Professor: A Quippy and Sonorous Guide to Verse as an accompaniment. The sections are divided into poetic features with assigned readings from the book that guide the students’ inquiry into their self-selected poet. Using Foster’s text as a companion makes it easy for the teacher to focus the instruction on poetic devices rather than poems themselves, and Foster’s use of examples from famous (out of copyright) poems are a helpful resource for teachers to include in their illustrative lessons. Students then have to apply their new knowledge to their poet’s work which forces them to own their knowledge and authentically engage in skill application and higher level thinking. Even though students are exploring different poets in an independent inquiry unit, they can still work collaboratively by sharing poems and using each other as a resource to check for understanding (Is this an example of a metaphor? I interpret it to mean “this” – What do you think?). When the teacher is viewed as a knowledge ‘expert’ on poetic features, but not on the poetry itself, this can transform the teacher’s role to be one of coach and collaborator rather than an all-knowing evaluator. This is also a great way to invite students’ interests and personalities into the classroom, as well as giving students an opportunity to be exposed to and engage with a wide range of poetry.

Teaching Resources

A Note about the Resources

There are two versions of the Poetry Interactive Journal. Version 1 is intended for the students to answer the questions by approaching the poetry or lyricists collection as a whole. While this holistic approach can lead to more insight about the collection and the poet, it is also easier for students to provide superficial responses. Version 2 asks students to choose examples from three different poems to answer or provide evidence for each question, which is a more scaffolded approach. In my experience, high ability students do better with Version 1 because they can often hold more in their heads and see patterns and connections more clearly. Students who need or like more clear and direct frameworks for their thinking do better with Version 2.