Using Poetry as a Multimodality to Encourage Reading Engagement

• In Event: 34.073 - Providing Equitable Opportunities to Educate Diverse Populations for Achievement Outcomes That Equal or Exceed Expectations

Abstract

This study examined the use of poetry as a multimodal communicative text to encourage reading engagement in selected African-American learners with mild intellectual disabilities. Framed by critical discourse theory, genre theory, and Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences, this investigation presented poetry as an alternative text (written/oral, audio, and visual) that embodied the cultural schema that this population brought to the community of learners and allowed them a plethora of ways to communicate understanding and meaning (Gardner, 1993). The use of poetry in this manner is contrary to the historical and current mainstream’s sole use of traditional narrative texts within a systemic structure aimed at achievement on standardized tests. By expanding the current structured curriculum base to be more inclusive of programs like those used in this investigation such as Lumumba’s Playground and Laughing and Learning with Language, children will be engaged in the reading readiness process.
The purpose of the investigation was to engage students in the reading readiness process to the extent that they not only embraced it, but, more importantly, were eager to participate in it. Over a period of two weeks, during the daily sessions of the regular reading block in the students’ general classroom, the study participants reported to an assigned classroom for a 45 minute-intervention. Participants consisted of four African-American students: two females and two males (with and without defined IEPs), who were judged to be reading “below basic”. The participants were selected from among second and fourth grade students who enrolled in a local school district. Using both traditional narrative and poetic texts, the intervention involved renegotiating the written/spoken word to incorporate movement, rhythm, dance, drama, play and the student’s imagination to teach, learn, and have fun.
This study explored the renegotiation of texts, both narrative and poetic. The students were more engaged with the poetic approach because of the use of rhythm, rhyme, meter, movement, tone, and technology. Furthermore, the research supported poetry as a viable culturally appropriate text and culturally appropriate pedagogy which invites and excites students to the extent that they became interconnected to the process, the subject content, and the classroom of learners. A preponderance of evidence supported the effectiveness of poetry as a communication multimodality to encourage reading engagement for African-American learners. The research suggests that when students are engaged, they are liberated to communicate meaning in a multiplicity of ways, including verbal, nonverbal communication, as well as with the use of audio and visual technology.
Reference
Gardner, H. (1993). Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences (10th Anniversary Edition). NY: Basic Books. (Original work published 1983).

Author

• Cherie Ward, Howard University