The purposes of the study were: (1) to develop and test a new measure, of appreciation of poetry, and (2) to determine the relationship between appreciation of poetry and (a) creative performance in poetry, (b) silent reading ability, and (c) subjective assessment by a teacher of a student's level of appreciation. Following a review of some of the major attempts this century to define and measure appreciation of literature, the procedures adopted in the study were outlined. Based on the findings of the research, it was decided to employ poetry rather than prose in the new measure, and design it specifically for the junior secondary level. The test, called the Poem Comparison Test, consisted of twelve poems. Each poem was in two versions, the original and an inferior imitation, and the subject was asked to rate each of the two versions. In order to measure creative performance in poetry three other measures were also developed specifically for the study. These measures were: the Rhyme Test, the Rhythm Test, and the Imagery Test. So that the subjects' responses would be as little restricted as possible, all three of these tests employed an open-ended format. Two outside markers were employed to score the Rhythm Test and the Imagery Test. Silent reading ability was measured by the Gates-McGinitie Reading Test, Survey E, Form 2M. The subjective assessment of the students' level of appreciation was measured by a questionnaire, also developed specifically for the study, and given to the teachers of the students involved in the study. The subjects were grade eight and grade ten students in a large metropolitan secondary school in an average socio-economic section of the city. The testing took place in April, 1975, and complete data were obtained for 95 students. The main questions that the study was designed to answer were: (1) Is there a significant, positive correlation between appreciation of poetry and creative performance in poetry? (p>.5) (2) Is there a significant, positive correlation between appreciation of poetry and silent reading ability? (p>.5) (3) Is there a significant, positive correlation between students' appreciation of poetry and their teachers' assessment of their level of appreciation? (p>.5) (4) Do appreciation of poetry and creative performance in poetry increase from grade eight to grade ten? (a=.01) (5) Are girls better than boys in appreciation of poetry and creative performance in poetry? (a=.01) Based on the data obtained, the following conclusions were drawn: (1) There is not a significant, positive correlation between appreciation of poetry and creative performance in poetry (2) There is not a significant, positive correlation between appreciation of poetry and silent reading ability (3) There is not a significant, positive correlation between students' appreciation of poetry and their teachers' assessment of their level of appreciation, (4) Appreciation of poetry increases from grade eight to grade ten, but creative performance in poetry does not. (5) Girls, are better than boys in creative performance in rhyme and rhythm, but not in appreciation of poetry or creative performance in imagery. The overall conclusions for the study were: (1) there is a factor of appreciation of poetry which is distinguishable from both creative performance in poetry and silent reading ability, and (2) that the measure of appreciation of poetry developed specifically for this study could provide a valid tool for both the researcher and the classroom teacher. / Education, Faculty of / Graduate

This research report is submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in Education by coursework and research report. School of Education, University of Witwatersrand. Johannesburg, July 2015. / This report explores the ways in which meaning is constructed, adapted or altered as Grade 9 English Home Language learners redesign the meaning of a poem multimodally in the English classroom in a state secondary school in Johannesburg. A unit of poetry work was designed to explore how learners, working together in groups and independently of the teacher, ‘shift’ across and within modes in the process of redesigning meaning. An array of prescribed poems chosen from official sources – one selected per group – which served as a foundation for designing and creating multimodal artefacts and ensembles, was set as primary texts. The main purpose of this report, then, is to determine how meaning is constructed in learners’ responses through their products and presentations in a pedagogic approach that is informed by both multimodality and multiliteracies. The two core concepts in this report – design and modes – are recognised as significant concepts in analysing learners’ multimodal artefacts in this chain of semiosis and compared with the characteristics of the original ‘poem on paper’. A multiliteracies pedagogy and multimodal artefact design are used to provide the Grade 9 learners the support to ‘unlock’ their potential and encourage resources to emerge from which they can construct meaning in innovative ways. Since the learners work collaboratively in groups to redesign the meaning of a poem multimodally, findings suggest that this strategy fostered the interaction of ideas, learner activity and engagement and learner verbalisation of ideas. Learners’ ideas were developed, articulated, clarified and transformed within the groupwork discussion and were made visible in their multimodal artefacts. Learners’ final products in the chain of semiosis were of good quality. In the process of redesign, as agents of meaning making, learners used semiotic resources and the integration of modes to represent their poem multimodally. The words themselves had to be extracted from the poem, redesigned and represented in another form or mode. Finally, this pedagogy demonstrates that it is possible for learners to be active designers of meaning while remaining within the prescriptive parameters of the relatively recent Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) curriculum. Learners were able to successfully reshape and resemiotise the primary text into other modal artefacts, which one could taste, smell, touch, see or hear.

This thesis is a study of the problems of teaching poetry to English speaking pupils at South African senior schools. It is a study of what is generally agreed to be 'a peculiarly difficult department of teaching' Reeves 1958. Some would go as far as to suggest that the teaching of poetry is the most difficult aspect of any school subject : "No topic in the school curriculum has so many pitfalls as the teaching of poetry in the classroom: it is easier to go astray in attempting to promote aesthetic responses to a poem than in any other kind of lesson. 'Currey {19S8) p. 126.' If one may judge too by the number of complaints from a large body of teachers (see Chapter Four) about the difficulty of teaching poetry successfully the assessments given by Reeves and Currey appear to be well- founded. Additional weight is given by some of the attitudes of pupils themselves towards poetry and the poetry lesson (see Chapter Three). Further confirmation is evident at Teachers' Conferences and from examiners' reports that examination questions on poetry are often among the most badly answered and the least popular of all questions set. Even more significant, perhaps. were the responses from two separate graduate student teacher groups (U.E.D. English Method classes, Rhodes University 1965, 1967). When asked at the beginning of the course to name the one type of English lesson they felt least confident in handling, 42 of the 64 student teachers answered, 'The poetry lesson'. Into. p. 1.

Poetry often exists as a neglected form within high school English Language Arts classrooms. Whether taught with trepidation or avoided with anxiety, few teachers feel adequately equipped to teach the reading and writing of poetry. This may feel obvious in an era fixed on quantification of one variety or another. How could poetry—that, allegedly, most luxurious of linguistic forms—flourish in the STEM-nutrient-rich soil of contemporary educational priorities? By first charting the historical precedent for today’s poetry pedagogy, then considering why teachers bother to incorporate the form, and, finally, framing the classroom as a site for communal practice and formation, this dissertation works to build a robust sense of poetry’s educational possibilities for student and teacher alike. Relying on qualitative interview conversations with three public high school English Language Arts teachers who lead poetry-rich classrooms, I draw from the fields of English education, practice theory, educational philosophy, and ritual studies to offer a rehabilitated, prismatic conception of the teaching of poetry. Further, this dissertation argues for a definition of poetry teaching as a particular practice that embodies a character of community, quality of inhabitance, and concern with meaning in ways essential for our contemporary educational moment.

published_or_final_version / abstract / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics

published_or_final_version / Applied English Studies / Master / Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics

No description available.

The study of poetry has become entrenched in most secondary school English syllabuses, including the English First Language Higher Grade syllabus of the Cape Education Department. This acceptance of poetry as a part of the formal academic programme has, however, been accompanied by a demand that could be considered contrary to the spirit of poetry: that an examination should conclude the study. The problem is exacerbated if this examination is set and controlled by an external body, since the nature and objectives of a standardised, mass examination frequently conflict sharply with the aims of studying poetry. The implications of such control over the examining of poetry go beyond this, however. These include the defining and narrowing of the course of study by means of lists of prescribed poems selected by a committee often far removed from the world of the candidates and the significant combined effect of these lists and the style of questioning adopted by the external examiners on methods of teaching. Furthermore, the influence of the external examination is not restricted to the final year of study; the approach to poetry during the entire senior secondary course (of three years) tends to conform to the pattern laid down by the final examination paper. This domination of the external examination over the study of poetry is acknowledged but not condoned. There is undoubtedly a need for further research into alternative ways of assessing a poetry course. In the face of reality, however, this study seeks to identify and analyse the many features of external control that influence the study of poetry; and to consider ways in which examinations in poetry can be devised, approached and used to the best effect in order to fulfil the aims of studying poetry. The most important of these aims are held to be the pleasure and enjoyment of personal engagement with a poem, where there is a meeting of minds, a generation and deepening of emotion and feeling, extension of awareness and stimulation of imagination.

No description available.

published_or_final_version / abstract / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics