Middle years' teacher practices and attitudes in the teaching of poetry

Abstract

Teachers were asked to determine the extent to which they believed their role in the examination of poetry to be one of six approaches; (1) interpreter of poetry, (2) facilitator of the process, (3) poetry guide, (4) small group organizer, (5) negotiated teacher and student discussion, and (6) strategic instructor. The analysis of the data revealed the following findings: (1) English instruction teachers were less likely to use the teacher-centred/individual approaches. Yet, these methods were supported by over half of teachers. English instruction teachers tended to place more emphasis on the students being at the centre of the instruction. (2) French Immersion teachers preferred methods that were group-centred. Strate y instruction was also favoured by these teachers. (3) Teachers surveyed didn't know or couldn't articulate what it was that they did in their classroom for poetry instruction as they could not discriminate between the methods presented. (4) Teachers identified factors such as student-centred positive feedback, curriculum changes, professional development by way of materials and resource people as elements that would assist change to occur in the classroom programming. (5) In-depth interviews demonstrated that teacher-centred approaches were favored contrary to the survey results which showed them to be out of favour. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)