The Importance of Being Earnest: Using Poetry and Inquiry in the Classroom

I want my students to be earnest learners, having purpose in their own education. However, it is my responsibility to create an atmosphere enabling them to express and explore.  This week's reading was on poetry (The Multigenre Research Paper by Camille Allen) and Setting up invitations ( by Van Sluys). 

I needed to read Allen's take on poetry because she explained why students should use it and she gave me ideas on how to be a more confident poet.  My parents encouraged me to read at a young age, but I was never asked to express my own feelings and thoughts on paper. Someone else's kid would show off a packet of grade A poetry, and my folks would command me, "Just do it! It can't be that hard if so-and-so could do it." Throughout k-12 schooling, our teachers probably had us write and read a couple of poems during a "poetry unit."  From early on, I developed an apathy for reading or writing poetry because I wasn't properly guided.  Now that I'm in the school of education, I realize perhaps many of my teachers rushed through poetry because they felt incompetent themselves.  What I loved best in this reading, was how a student's research finding could be presented through poems.  I love how a multigenre research paper allows students to play with words to express the same amount of learning a 6-pager report does. 

I'm still not quite sure what an invitation is after reading and rereading Van Sluys. From what I understand, it is an inquiry activity the teacher plans ahead of time and invites students to probe and reflect on?  Anyhow, I like how any subject can be covered and integrated because students will "read, write, think, compose, and challenge meanings. They communicate with others, pose problems, formulate questions, explore possible responses, as well as organize new inquiries." I can't remember the article I read in E-555, but a principal listed 10 methods of a successful school. One of them was having a curriculum in which the subjects overlap each other. Furthermore, the students should be the one asking the questions and answering them through guided research and discussion. 

This literacy activity reminds me of the quote, "we learn how to read to learn."  I feel that in a classroom with children of different interests and ability levels, an activity such as this will allow everyone to utilize their strengths. If some students are talkers while others are writers, they all have an opportunity to contribute. There are some people who initiate ideas and questions, while some people are better at coming up with solutions and responding.

*Edited 10 minutes later*
As I'm reading through other blogs and responding. I'm relieved to know that I wasn't the only person open about my lack of confidence in poetry. Nor was I the only person still unclear about an invitation after reading Van Sluys. However, I believe that everyone is serious about providing the best learning opportunities, whether it is using poetry and/or planned inquiry activies.