A High School Students Opinion of Poetry :: Education Poetry Poems Essays

A High School Student's Opinion of Poetry Students’ opinions of poetry are very important to consider when planning how to cover poetry in the classroom. In this article, Jon C. Mladic and Douglas R. Pietrzak surveyed a high school creative writing class in Normal, IL (grades 10-12) about their opinions of poetry. They created an extensive survey concerning the students’ opinions and experiences with poetry as well their preferences for instruction. They also interview the teacher of the creative writing class in order to gather her opinions. Mladic and Pietrzak found that surveying students in creative writing classes can be very useful for any class. Students stated that it was especially dificult to write on command and that the environment of the school was not particularly conducive to writing. Students that were inclined to write on their own often cited writing as a means of self-exploration and they felt as if the environment of the school was not fitting for this purpose. In this article, Mladic and Pietrzak discuss a list of possible adjustments that could be made to the classroom to help the students feel more comfortable expressing themselves through writing, but insist that a writing classroom should be individually adapted to the unique members and interests of each classroom. Poetry as a means of self-expression has a wide-range of possible uses outside the English classroom as well that can be very beneficial for students’ personal and social development. Introduction This study is concerned with students’ opinions and knowledge of poetry so that the teacher can best adjust the classroom atmosphere to encourage student writing and creative exploration. Poetry as a topic for high school students is full of misconceptions and stereotypes. Therefore, since high school students tend to have little exposure to poetry – especially writing it – it is very important for the teacher to be sensitive and understand the dynamics of the classroom so that they are able to inspire students to feel comfortable with poetry. Poetry can be a very powerful tool of self-expression and self-exploration for students. Research Questions Essentially we have one research question: What opinions do high schools students have when approaching poetry? This question, however, led to a number of other questions. How can the classroom be adjusted to best fit your approaches towards writing? What topics do you write about in poetry? What is students’ prior knowledge of poetry?