Immersion in Writing

Every writer of poetry is first a reader of poetry.

Georgia Heard

For the Good of the Earth and the Sun: Teaching Poetry

David N. Perkins, in Making Learning Whole: How Seven Principles of Teaching Can Transform Education (2009), coined wonderful terms to identify two tendencies in teaching: elementitis and aboutitis. Elementitis is teaching which focuses first on the elements of what is being learned without ever putting them together. Students, rather than experiencing a complete example of what they are learning, spend lots of time on the bits and pieces. An example of elementitis is when students learn lots about letters and sounds on worksheets but never actually read books. Aboutitis is the habit of “learning about” something without every actually learning it. Imagine the students who experience lots of lessons about writing but never actually get to make the decisions writers make.

In his research, Brian Cambourne (1988, 2020) identified the Condition of “Immersion” as a necessary part of all learning. Immersion is the opposite of elementitis and aboutitis. Immersion, when we speak of literacy learning, involves beginning with a complete, full, and rich language experience to allow learners to “see and understand the processes necessary for creating an approximation of this demonstration in other settings” (Made for Learning, 2020). Reading aloud to students is an example of teachers immersing students in a complete reading experience. Engaging with a complete, meaningful experience of what we are learning is critical for helping students figure out how and why all the pieces fit together as they do.  In addition, students immersed in what they are learning “experience the intellectual, physical, and emotional aspects of the something being learned.”

In writing workshop, every unit begins with immersion in the genre being studied. For example, in the days and weeks before beginning to teach students to write poetry, we immerse kids in reading poetry. Regie Routman writes in Kids’ Poems: Teaching Third and Fourth Grades to Love Writing Poetry (2000), “Poetry need to be heard and experienced!” Regie’s words affirm Georgia Heard’s (1989) quote that begins this post: “Every writer of poetry is first a reader of poetry.”

So, taking Regie’s and Georgia’s advice seriously, my third graders and I have been reading a daily poem since I started learning alongside them two months ago. This anticipated moment starts our time together every single day. And, at the end of the week, the students get a copy of each poem to add to their ever-growing collection of poetry at home.

Regie also suggests teachers find out what kids think about poetry as they begin the unit and let the students’ attitudes and perceptions guide your teaching. Better responsive teaching advice doesn’t exist (and it doesn’t just apply to poetry writing). While the student responses to this question are a great assessment of their understandings, it’s also a great assessment of the influence you’ve had on student learning throughout the immersive experiences you’ve provided.

Into the Classroom

“What do you know about poetry?” I asked on the day we launched our poetry writing unit. I was poised to chart their thinking, curious what they had taken from our daily immersion in poetry.

“What’s poetry?” came a voice from the group.

“Poetry is writing poems. We can call poems ‘poetry,’ too.” Several “oh, yeahs…” came from the students. (I hadn’t thought about the term ‘poetry’ being confusing for them—oh, what we learn when we listen to kids!).

I restated my question with my new learning, “What do you know about poetry or poems?”

“They can be about anything,” began one student.

 Another student added quickly, “Like about special things or people.”

I jotted these ideas quickly on our chart, then paused for them to continue.

“Poems look different,” another student offered.

“Say more about that,” I probed.

“Well, they don’t look like stories. You know how stories go to the end (said while making horizontal movements with his hand). Poems don’t do that.”

“So, poems look different on the page, you’re saying?” The student agreed and I added this to the chart.

There was a long pause before the next idea bubbled up and I resisted questioning to get more ideas for the chart. If their knowledge ended here, I still had learned a lot to guide my teaching.

But then a student began hesitantly, “Well, sometimes they rhyme.” Almost immediately another voice piped up to add, “But sometimes they don’t.”

Inwardly I was celebrating two things: first, their knowledge of poetry didn’t begin with rhyming and, two, they knew that only some poems rhyme. Rhyming was not seen by the students as the defining element of poetry.

“What else do you know about poetry?” I continued.

“A poem makes you feel things like happy,” one student shared. “Or sad,” said another. “Or they can make you laugh,” added a third. “They make you feel an emotion,” I said and wrote.

Finally, one student shared, “The words are kind of special,” with her words trailing off after her last word. It was obvious she was figuring out how to put her tentative ideas into words.

“What do you mean, special?” I ask.

“Well, like the words help you know things. Like, they are about things. Like, they give you ideas.”

Teacher decisions that affect the Conditions of Learning

·       Most teachers say, regardless of the grade, the first thing kids say in response to the question ‘What do you know about poetry?’ is the same: It rhymes! Because the first ideas that come to mind for these students is topic, their expectation for what they will write and how they will go about writing it is distinctly different from students who believe poetry must rhyme. Immersion in reading poetry, or whatever genre is being written, can make such a difference in where students begin their writing journey. As a result of being immersed in the genre, students can become more comfortable writing whatever kind of writing we ask of them because they know what the writing looks and sounds like. Immersion matters tremendously!

·       Using Regie’s question to reflect on what is known about poetry (or whatever genre being studied) is also a helpful reflection on the teaching we’ve provided during the immersion. Our demonstrations and the language that accompanies them is important. Just as I learned the word ‘poetry’ wasn’t synonymous with ‘poems’ for my students, we get strong insight into what language we need to add to our discussions with students so they truly understand our demonstrations.

·       Two additional questions Regie suggests we ask our students is what they like and dislike about writing poetry (which of course could be asked of any genre). I asked the dislike question after they’d written poems in two writing workshop experiences. Their responses reflect struggles writers of all ages have with any type of writing: coming up with a topic, beginnings and endings, running out of time (and, of course, when your hand hurts! Ha!). Immersion allowed the students to focus on themselves as writers because they had full and meaningful experiences of what they will be writing—they weren’t trying to figure out what I meant when I said ‘poetry’ (well, once I connected the word to ‘poems’!!).

·       After two weeks of writing poetry, I paused at the beginning of the workshop to ask the students what they enjoy about writing poetry. The list, as you can see in the photo, went on and on. I finally had to press pause so we could get on with actually writing poetry. Just as we had immersion in reading poetry, by this point, we had immersion in writing poetry, too. Their responses come from a place of ‘doing.’ These students see themselves as “doers” of writing poetry, a principle of Engagement. These students are not just writing poetry, they see themselves as poets.