Article 1: “I” poems – April Kauffman

Article 1: “‘I’ poems: Invitations for students to deepen literary understanding” by Linda Kucan

The authors of this article support the idea of inviting students to write “I” poems before and after reading texts.  They state that encouraging students to write about the text will deepen the meaning of the text.  Because the students have to think about the text differently to write, they will pick up on things they may have overlooked the first time.  This will work to improve comprehension as the students need to have a deeper understanding in order to write about what they have read.

I think the example in the article pertaining to the locations of Maine and Kansas in the book Sarah, Plain and Tall, was extremely interesting.  The students wrote “I” poems about both locations.  This enabled them to have a deeper understanding of how Sarah is motivated in the book.  This exercise allowed the students to enhance their prior knowledge and therefore they could make connections better as they read the book.  This is an awesome learning tool for increasing comprehension, encouraging deeper understanding and analytical thinking.

Questions:

1. Can this technique be overused?  If other content areas besides Language Arts use this often, can the students who are uncomfortable using their imagination and writing to express themselves begin to rebel against these types of assignments?
2. Does the benefit to the student in increased comprehension and understanding of the text justify the additional time required for “I” poem assignments when there is such a push on teaching the curriculum and teaching to the tests?
3. Some students do not enjoy writing, would these assignments in other content classes ruin their interest in those classes?

-April Kauffman