Poetry

On this past Thursday, my practicum students had to recite a poem. They had to pick one out of four poems to recite. They had three weeks to memorize and prepare for this presentation and it was an important one, a big chunk of their reading grade. The poems were a little long, 5 stanzas or more. My teacher said she was going to do four poems throughout the entire year, so one every nine weeks. Many students did very well reciting their peoms. Some said them a little fast, but they are young and nervous speaking in front of an audience.  Others did not do well at all. Some only remembered part of the poem, while others only knew the title or first line. Some did not even know the title of the poem.

I asked some of my fellow education friends if they thought three weeks was too much time for the fifth graders. If they have too much time, they aren’t going to take the time to study and more will wait to the last minute to study. I agree with them and I think my teacher did too because after listening to so many students who obviously waited until the last minute to study, she changed her mind about the poems. She said she would do weekly poems. They would be shorter and present them every week. She would see how her students did with those compared to the first presentation.

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