Reflection of YA Novels Teaching Poetry
When I looked through my blog I believe I did a great job of answering my inquiry question, the question being: How could I use YA novels to teach poetry in the classroom? I focused mainly on verse novels, but I also included some novels that have interesting characters who write poetry. I started off my blog with my welcome page that explains what the blog is about and how I personally got interested in poetry; I didn’t get interested by verse novels, but rather a regular novel that included glimpses of poetry. I then went on to my first blog post. I felt it necessary to include what young adult novels I have personally read that included poetry in them. Only one of the novels I read was an actual verse novel, the other two were novels that included poetry. I like these three novels because they all incorporated poetry in different ways. Gabi, A Girl in Pieces incorporates poetry by the main character, expressing herself by writing her own poetry. Paper Towns included poetry, but includes a famous poet’s poems in the novel. My third novel was Out of the Dust which was entirely written in free verse poetry. I believe that these three books grasp the concept I was trying to convey, which is poetry in novels can be displayed in multiple different mediums aiding teachers to find a novel including poetry best for his or her students.
My lesson plan was the part of my blog I put the most work into. I felt like I needed to have a detailed lesson to be able to answer my original inquiry question. I made sure to use Ohio Common Core Standards that aligned with a lesson. My lesson would allow a teacher to be able to see how they could incorporate YA novels to teach poems. I also included on my blog a sample of my lesson. Doing my own lesson was actually very enjoyable and something I believe students would also find enjoyable. I felt that if I had come up with an entire unit lesson plan, it would have consumed my entire blog, so I did not include it.
Genre of verse novels was another aspect I focused on. I feel as a teacher it is important to be able to explain to students what we are asking them to read. If a teacher has a better understanding of what is comprised in a verse novel, then they will be able to explain it to their students. After my research I believe strongly that verse novels are a combination of drama, novel, and poetry. Explaining why verse novels are so important to a classroom directly related to my inquiry question. I wanted to make clear to my audience the reason verse novels are important and why they should be used in a classroom.
My four main takeaways as to how it can be used in a classroom are as followed: 1) There are many different novels that include poetry and all different forms should be presented to a class. 2) Verse poetry is a less intimidating form of poetry and can lead reluctant readers to understanding and enjoying poetry. 3) YA novels can provide exemplary examples of poetry that can widen a student’s understanding of poetry. 4) Poetry in YA novels are raw and deep providing students with an outlet and may allow students to connect deeper to novels. All of these takeaways are included throughout my blog, but I thought it would be beneficial to put them all together to tie up my research and answer my inquiry question. Overall, I hope you enjoyed my blog and have a better understanding of how YA novels can be used to teach poetry in a classroom