Summary
For the first half of the semester we had the opportunity and privilege of working with students from Heights Middle School . We met with them for six weeks, learning and discovering poetry together, which all led up to a big poetry performance at Mesa Verde Elementary. The poetry program was fun and successful. Much of this success was due to the four major strands of work: communication, research, technology, and collaboration. These strands also incorporate the five dimensions of learning: confidence and independence, knowledge content, skills and strategies, use of prior and emerging experience, and reflectiveness.
Our project began due to the communication of school faculty and our UNM professor in coordinating the poetry program. Each week we would begin by communicating poems to the students through both words and actions. We would then discuss with the students what the poems meant and would help them interpret and memorize the poems they chose to perform. It was through this communication process the students became more comfortable around us and allowed us to help and encourage them. It was rewarding to witness a boost in confidence in the children which in turn boosted my own. Once they gained this confidence they were able to be more active participants and more independent with their poems. They began to trust in their ability and skill to perform in front of others. One specific example of this was Mariah. She was a student we worked with at Heights, who was extremely shy and timid. She opened up to as and allowed one of my classmates, Ryan, to really work with her. Through his time, patience and encouragement, Mariah stood up performance day and did a wonderful reading of Captain Hook by Shel Silverstein.
Research was vital obtaining our goals with the poetry project. Our professor did great research as to what poems we should present to and teach the Heights students. We needed to know the students content knowledge in order to make our program effective and worth while. This was important, because the works chosen needed to ones that would challenge the students, but also help them to learn the aspects of poetry we were trying to teach them, in such a short period of time. They needed to be appropriate for their reading levels and be something they were capable of memorizing. It was a pleasure to see the Heights kids actively thinking and learning as they took the knowledge that they already had and added to it each time we met with them. They developed new skills and enhanced ones they already had, and in the end put on a wonderful performance that reflected their hard work and new found skills.
We did not use technology in our every day interactions with the students, but it still played a role in the poetry performance. The sound system we used at Mesa Verde was very helpful. It allowed the Heights students to be heard by the audience, especially whose who were shy and nervous. I personally, used technology to create a slide show with pictures depicting the words of one particular poem. We had planned on using a projector to show this slide show along with an internet clip, to enhance some of the poems. This did not turn out as planned, but via commuter the students were still able to view some of the slide show. Luckily for us the loss of technical support did not hinder the show. Technology, however, can be a great tool to boost and support nearly any project.
Collaboration, along with communication, is one of the key and most important steps, that allowed our poetry program to be a success. We each used prior experience as well as what we learned along the way, to contribute to the process. We collaborated with our professor to develop and carry out a plan of instruction each week. We collaborated as UNM poetry coaches to present and teachthe poems to the students. (Someone was always willing to jump in and do what was needed to achieve our goals.) And most importantly, we collaborated with the Heights students, helping them to prepare and present their poems to the elementary children. We worked together to come up with costumes and creative was to make poetry telling fun and engaging. And through this partnership we were able to learn and grow as professor, coaches, and students, and to put on a wonderful presentation, that will hopefully inspire other children to delve into poetry.Each of the strands of work, though some played larger roles than others, when combined allowed us achieve our goal for the first half of the semester, which was to turn middle school students onto poetry through creative drama.
Evaluation
I am proud to have been a part of the creative drama poetry project, and proud to have worked with such great peers. Everyone worked hard and stepped up to the plate. I feel that myself along with my classmates, should receive nothing less than an A for the first half of the semester. I hope that our dedication and hard work will be reflected in the grades we are given. I believe that students should work for their grades and feel that I have earned an A in Children's Literature up to this point. I have really enjoyed the semester thus far. I have been forced out of my comfort zone at times, but am grateful because I learned all the more because of it.
I am looking forward to the remainder of the semester, and the opportunity I have to read children's books. I love to read, especially to my children, and look forward to finding new and wonderful literature that I can share with them. I am eager to step out of my comfort zone once again and delve into books that I may not have chosen on my own. I think that much can be learned when we are required to step out of the box, and the bar is set high. I plan to continue to work hard and get the most I can out of the time remaining in our Children's Literature course.
I feel that the poetry practicum was an excellent activity, and a great way to start of the course. I feel that through collaboration on the behalf of all involved it was, in the end successful. there were kinks that needed to be ironed out along the way, but I also think that that is sometimes necessary for learning. With the short amount of time we had with the students I think it may have been even more successful to have had a more decisive schedule so as to utilize all of the time we had with the students more efficiently. It would have also beennice to have had more time with the students. It would have been nice to get to know them better and to learn and grow form each other a bit longer.