Emotion, Language, and Discovery in Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students' Rehearsals and Performances of Poetry

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session 7
  In Roundtable Session: Insights and Discovery in Preservice and In-Service Growth With Diverse Populations

Abstract

In this study, we explore possibilities of a unit on literary analysis of poems by contemporary poets of color, through dramatic rehearsal and performance in a public school classroom in Northern California. Our study of 10th-grade students’ poem analyses, dramatic rehearsals, and deep engagement with poetic meaning demonstrates the conference theme of dreams, possibilities, and necessity of public education that is equitable and inclusive for linguistically and culturally diverse students. Poetry is the genre and embodied interpretations and reflection are the mediating factors that potentially engage linguistically diverse students in socially constructed meaning that tap emotions and affects for learning, frequently missing from conceptions and practices of disciplinary literacy (Moje, 2015).

Authors

• Sergio L. Sanchez, University of California - Davis

• Steven Z. Athanases, University of California - Davis