David Harrison and Dr. Georgia Heard discuss their innovative work using poetry to develop students’ fluency and comprehension. An Interview with Dr. Sam Bommarito

.Introduction

Today’s interview continues the discussion about using poetry as a gateway to both comprehension and fluency. Two well-known experts in poetry, David Harrison and Dr. Georiga Heard talk about the nuts and bolts of how teachers can do that. Let’s first look at their biographies.

BIOGRAPHIES

David L. Harrison

David is Missouri’s 7^th Poet Laureate. He writes for all ages, including poetry, fiction, and nonfiction for young readers and classroom books for educators. His 110 titles have sold millions of copies worldwide, been anthologized more than 200 times, and translated into a dozen languages. David Harrison Elementary School is named for him as well as a conference room in Springfield’s main library. Among his numerous awards are The Christopher Medal, Pioneer in Education for distinguished service to public education, and Laura Ingalls Wilder Award for Children’s Literature. Two of his books have represented Missouri at the National Book Fair in Washington, D.C. He was one of six poets selected by the N.Y.C. Public Library System as 2020’s best books of children’s poetry. National Council for Teachers of English has five times chosen his work for its,”Most Notable Books of Poetry for Children.” He has two degrees in science and two honorary doctorates in letters. He is Drury University’s poet laureate and hosts a weekly newspaper column, Poetry from Daily Life. David has new books with four publishers due out this year. He lives with his wife Sandy in Springfield. His website link is http://davidlharrison.com .

Georgia Heard                                                

Georgia Heard, recipient of the 2023 NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children, is the author of over 20 books, including a range of children’s books as well as resources for teachers. Her children’s books include Welcome to the Wonder House (co-authored with Rebecca Kai Dotlich), My Thoughts Are Clouds: Poems for Mindfulness and Boom! Bellow! Bleat! Animal Poems for Two Or More Voices. Her books have been recognized with honors such as the Lee Bennett Hopkins Award, the CCBC Choice Awards, Bank Street Best Children’s Book of the Year, NCTE Notable Children’s Books and Junior Library Guild Selections. She is also a literacy expert in the field of teaching writing and has published numerous books including Awakening the Heart: Exploring Poetry in K-8 (second edition) which was cited by Instructor Magazine as one of the 12 Books Every Teacher Should Read and Heart Maps®: Helping Students Create and Craft Authentic Writing about which she gave a TEDx talk on Mapping Your Heart LINK.

Georgia Heard received her M.F.A. in writing from Columbia University is a founding member of the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project in New York City where she spent fifteen years teaching writing to children from kindergarten to adults and coaching teachers in the New York City public schools. She is the founder of The Poet’s Studio (www.ThePoetsStudio) an online writing workshop platform for teachers and writers and lives in South Florida with her family. You can learn more about Georgia at her website: www.georgiaheard.com and follow her on X and Instagram: @georgiaheard1.

Here is the YouTube VIDEO of the interview:

My thoughts about this interview:

I’ll begin by discussing information I came across during my recent interview with Tim Rasinski and Lynne Kulich. One of the studies they reported on indicated that the mean effect size for meta-analyses on repeated reading is .76, which is quite large. To put those results in context, the National Reading Panel found a mean effect size of .44 for systematic phonics and that finding has been used as the main scientific evidence for systematic phonics instruction ever since. So, in my opinion, repeated reading and the educational practices surrounding repeated reading are well worth implementing, especially since the effect size for those practices have been found to be almost double that of systematic phonics.

One of the issues with implementing repeated reading is identifying teaching practices that teachers can use to scaffold students into wanting to read and then reread and reread. Poetry is especially suited to achieve that end. It is meaning-rich. Poems are often short, making them great candidates for inclusion in literacy lessons. Poems are perfect when we want students to read to perform. This is where experts in the creation and use of poetry, like David and Georgia, can give us teaching tips on how we can help our students improve their fluency and comprehension. Let’s review some of the points they made during the interview.

Don’t tie poems to a chair and beat them to death.

Do invite students to immerse themselves in poems.

Don’t turn poetry lessons into inquisitions requiring students to answer endless questions about things they find irrelevant.

Do use the open-ended questions suggested by Georgia to help your students interact with the poems they read.

Don’t take the joy out of reading and writing.

Do make helping your students find the joy in reading and writing a priority. Readers Theatre, writing their own poems, and reading to perform are all ways to help students develop a love of reading and writing.

Don’t underestimate the power of poetry.

Do take the time to read about how to use poetry effectively. Good starting points would be to find the teaching tips in books like Awakening the Heart: Exploring Poetry in K-8 (second edition) LINK and The Fluency Development Lesson: Closing the Reading Gap Professional Development Book  LINK.

Remember that I am not saying we should ignore the research around systematic phonics. I am saying we need to add to that research. Teachers of older readers are often looking for things to help their students acquire and use the knowledge of sound-symbol relations they need. When I speak to them at conferences like Write to Learn in Missouri, I often tell them not to forget the power of repeated reading, the use of poetry and the use of readers theatre. I’ll have much more to say about that in the future. Be on the lookout for the Missouri Reader’s upcoming special edition about using poetry to enhance literacy instruction.  

For now- Happy Reading and Writing

Dr. Sam Bommarito (aka, the guy in the middle taking flak from all sides)

Copyright 2024 by Dr. Sam Bommarito. Views/interpretations expressed here are solely this author’s and do not necessarily reflect the views of any other person or organization.

For links to other material mentioned during the interview, please e-mail me at bommaritosam@yahoo.com. Include the words Harris & Heard resources in the subject of the e-mail.