Poetry

I always hated poetry! When a teacher said "poetry unit," it meant "Barbara is going to get a very poor grade." I do not remember learning anything about poetry until late middle school, at which point I was told my poems were not creative enough. How can someone else judge my creativity? My creativity! I felt like I was being compared to the other studnets in my class. Some of my peers could write amazing poems, and their poems always received an 'A.' I always spent a lot of time reading and writing my poems, carefully choosing words and trying to make my poems fit the formula, but teachers did not recognize that.

Chapter 11 in Tompkins did not focus on creativity, but rather playing with words and forms of poetry. Page 387 describes three questions that should be asked in order to assess the studetns work:

• Has the student experimented with the poetic form presented in the minilesson?
• Has the student used the process approach in writing, revising, and editing the poem?
• Has the student used wordplay or another poetic device in the poem?

These are three great questions to ask. These questions do not focus on creativity, but rather on the students trying to use what they have been taught. Not all students will be good at writing poetry, especially if they are discouraged. It is more important to me that my students play with words and write something that they think is good, rather than worrying that I will never be impressed with their work because some students are better at writing poetry. How do you think students poetry should be assessed? Do you agree with this, or is creativity important?