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Chapter 10. Experiencing literature in the poetry classroom

  • Marcello Giovanelli
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Experiencing Fictional Worlds
This chapter is in the book Experiencing Fictional Worlds

Abstract

This chapter reports on a small-scale study of studying fiction in the secondary classroom to explore how a sequence of lessons on Gillian Clarke’s poem “Cold Knap Lake” is experienced by a group of fifteen-year-old students in a UK school. In the context of the performativity agenda that persists in schools, some researchers have argued that the classroom experience of reading poetry in particular has been subjected to a more transmissive method of delivery where students can be fearful of developing individual responses. In addition, the role of the teacher as a more powerful participant in the classroom means that decisions regarding what is read, how activities are framed and how responses are articulated are usually taken by the teacher. This chapter draws on Text World Theory (Werth 1999; Gavins 2007) and interthinking (Littleton and Mercer 2013) to account for the ways in which the students in this study respond to Clarke’s poem. The chapter shows that the teacher and the material aspects of the classroom appear to foreground certain ways of interpreting the poem and discussing it, but that students also engage in using a variety of different resources to help structure their learning and arrive at a satisfactory interpretation.

Abstract

This chapter reports on a small-scale study of studying fiction in the secondary classroom to explore how a sequence of lessons on Gillian Clarke’s poem “Cold Knap Lake” is experienced by a group of fifteen-year-old students in a UK school. In the context of the performativity agenda that persists in schools, some researchers have argued that the classroom experience of reading poetry in particular has been subjected to a more transmissive method of delivery where students can be fearful of developing individual responses. In addition, the role of the teacher as a more powerful participant in the classroom means that decisions regarding what is read, how activities are framed and how responses are articulated are usually taken by the teacher. This chapter draws on Text World Theory (Werth 1999; Gavins 2007) and interthinking (Littleton and Mercer 2013) to account for the ways in which the students in this study respond to Clarke’s poem. The chapter shows that the teacher and the material aspects of the classroom appear to foreground certain ways of interpreting the poem and discussing it, but that students also engage in using a variety of different resources to help structure their learning and arrive at a satisfactory interpretation.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. List of contributors vii
  4. Preface xi
  5. Acknowledgments xiii
  6. Chapter 1. Introduction 1
  7. Part 1. Foundations of fictional worlds
  8. Chapter 2. Immersion and emergence in children’s literature 15
  9. Chapter 3. A predictive coding approach to Text World Theory 33
  10. Chapter 4. World-building as cognitive feedback loop 53
  11. Part 2. Forming fictional worlds
  12. Chapter 5. Experiencing horrible worlds 75
  13. Chapter 6. Framing the narrative 97
  14. Chapter 7. Constructing inferiority through comic characterisation 119
  15. Chapter 8. Cognitive grammar and reconstrual 135
  16. Part 3. Fictional worlds in context
  17. Chapter 9. Immersive reading and the unnatural text-worlds of “Dead Fish” 157
  18. Chapter 10. Experiencing literature in the poetry classroom 177
  19. Chapter 11. Sharing fiction 199
  20. Chapter 12. Afterword 219
  21. Subject index 225
https://doi.org/10.1075/lal.32.10gio

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. List of contributors vii
  4. Preface xi
  5. Acknowledgments xiii
  6. Chapter 1. Introduction 1
  7. Part 1. Foundations of fictional worlds
  8. Chapter 2. Immersion and emergence in children’s literature 15
  9. Chapter 3. A predictive coding approach to Text World Theory 33
  10. Chapter 4. World-building as cognitive feedback loop 53
  11. Part 2. Forming fictional worlds
  12. Chapter 5. Experiencing horrible worlds 75
  13. Chapter 6. Framing the narrative 97
  14. Chapter 7. Constructing inferiority through comic characterisation 119
  15. Chapter 8. Cognitive grammar and reconstrual 135
  16. Part 3. Fictional worlds in context
  17. Chapter 9. Immersive reading and the unnatural text-worlds of “Dead Fish” 157
  18. Chapter 10. Experiencing literature in the poetry classroom 177
  19. Chapter 11. Sharing fiction 199
  20. Chapter 12. Afterword 219
  21. Subject index 225
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