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Report prepared by Jana Kay Slater, PhD
September 15, 2002
What is the value of poetry education? Why should teachers allocate time for instruction in
creative writing when they are held accountable, not for the visual and written arts so
prominently posted on their classroom walls, but for the results of their students’ standardized
test scores in reading and math?
A rigorous evaluation of the Bridges poetry education program provided clear answers to
these questions. During the 2001-2002 school year, nearly 450 children in seventeen 4th
grade classrooms participated in the Bridges program; these children received fifteen to
seventeen weeks of poetry education lessons from a professional "poet in residence."
Following participation in a CPITS' residency, students demonstrated the following significant
achievements: ability to write expressive poetry, positive attitudes about writing poetry, and
knowledge about poetry. During interviews and focus groups, teachers reported that students
also experienced increases in vocabulary, critical analysis skills, and reading comprehension.
Poetry education was felt to be particularly beneficial for students who were "struggling" in
school, especially in the areas of writing and reading. The evaluation also suggests that
poetry education holds promise as a youth development strategy.
A quasi-experimental evaluation design involving a "treatment" group (17 classes of students
who received poetry education) and a "comparison" group (three classes of students who did
not receive poetry education) was used to measure student gains associated with poetry
education. Information about the effects of this program was gathered through student,
teacher and principal surveys; focus groups; observation; and a student writing assessment.
Selected results from the evaluaton of the Bridges program are summarized below. For a copy
of the full report, A Poet Came to My Class: Benefits of Short- and Long-Term Poetry
Residency Programs, contact California Poets in the Schools at the address listed below.
This evaluation (including the corresponding residencies) was funded by the California Arts
Council, National Endowment for the Arts, Walter and Elise Haas Fund, Miranda Lux
Foundation, and the Silver Giving Foundation.
What is the Value of Poetry Education?
What students said:
° It was fun!
° It makes me feel good to see my work.
° I had trouble with writing before I wrote poems.
° It helped me organize my thoughts.
° It helped me with my vocabulary.
What teachers said:
° Poetry education filled a void that we didn’t know we had. Or had forgotten to notice that we
had.
° I had a student who came to our school in December. He had very little self confidence, he’d
had very little schooling before and was way below grade level. A typical writing paragraph was
very hard for him. He had ideas but didn’t have the skills to put those ideas into a paragraph
form. It was exciting to see him writing poetry because he could express his ideas; it also
improved his peers’ perception of him as well.
° For some kids it was a fine reading comprehension activity. Poets brought in these poems
on butcher paper and kids had to read the poems and respond to them. For my reluctant
readers, that was a really helpful activity.
° I liked to see the kids analyzing the poetry. They would think critically. It was a great way to
teach critical thinking. They would look at a poem and pull out emotion and meaning from the
writing. We do a lot of critical thinking with math skills but it was great to do it with a piece of
writing.
° I showed the kids’ poems to their parents. Especially for the parents of kids who are
struggling writers. I’d say, this is what your child has produced. The parents were like, oh my
gosh, my child can write a poem like that?
° I have a few boys in my class who are, you might say, quietly rebellious. It seemed like this
was the perfect medium for them. The poems that they wrote were very strong and even edgy.
They were really proud of it. It was a good opportunity for them to say stuff that was inside them
that they really hadn’t said before. Some of the best poems came from the boys who you
would think, "oh, poetry wouldn’t be his thing."
° I would tell other teachers that having a poet in your class broadens you, makes you a better
teacher, and makes you a better student. I learned stuff from the poet…
What poets said:
° I have a bilingual student who, at the beginning, I was lucky if I could get one line out of this
kid. He was really unfocused, antsy, and didn’t want to participate. And now I’m getting one to
two pages of poetry from him. Something exploded with his writing and he’s really proud.
° Her parent told me that "Hannah" had problems with dyslexia and writing and spelling and
all this stuff. I told her that Hannah was doing great in my poetry section because we don’t
focus on that stuff at all. I think as a result it has allowed her to be a writer in a way she’s never
had before.
Key Research Results:
Ability to write expressive poems improves
Pre-and posttest writing samples were collected from students. Standardized numeric ratings
of posttest poems were significantly higher than ratings of pretest poems. Following Bridges,
student poems were more likely to express enthusiasm, evoke a sense of emotion in the
reader, use vivid description and colorful language, and clearly express a message that is
insightful and creative. As shown below, the mean rating scores of poems produced by
students in the comparison classes did not change between the pre- and posttest.
Attitudes about poetry and writing poetry improve
By the end of the school year, the percentage of students with positive attitudes about poetry
and writing poetry increased significantly. Student enjoyment of writing increased as did
confidence in poetry writing ability. There were no significant changes in the responses of
students in comparison classes on any items related to attitudes about poetry.
Teachers notice improvements in their students’ attitudes about poetry
Following Bridges, classroom teachers estimated that significantly higher percentages of
students were enthusiastic about poetry, enjoyed writing poetry, were confident in their ability
to write, and were able to write creative poems (see below). They also estimated that fewer
students were fearful about making a mistake or were unable to get started when instructed to
write a poem.
Knowledge about poetry increases
Participation in poetry education was associated with statistically significant – and in some
cases quite dramatic – increases in student knowledge about poetry. As shown below, there
were no changes in the responses of students in comparison classes on items related to
knowledge about poetry.
Poetry education shows promise as "youth development" strategy
Teachers and poets reported that poetry education was especially beneficial for struggling
students (e.g., reluctant writers, reluctant readers, special needs students, ESL students,
emotionally distant students and those struggling academically).
There is one little girl from Korea who couldn’t speak any English a couple of months ago.
She is doing pretty well now. She is very enthusiastic about the poetry. She writes and reads
her poems. Sometimes you can’t understand a lot of what she says. But she always writes
poems. (poet)
Teachers and poets also reported that poetry education improved empathy and cooperation
between students; provided a source of joy and humor for students; provided an important
avenue for self expression; and increased teachers’ expectations for low performing students.
Teachers benefit in multiple ways
Teachers learned new techniques for teaching poetry and gained new confidence in using
poetry to enhance instruction across the curriculum. After observing their students during
poetry education sessions and reading their poems, teacher expectations of students,
especially those who are low performing academically, increased.
When I teach poetry in the future I feel like I’ll do a much better job given what I’ve seen
demonstrated by the poet teacher. A much better job. What I did before was very elementary.
(teacher)
How it affected me as a teacher was to make me re-commit again to getting creative writing
back in the curriculum. (teacher)
The poet provided me a great opportunity to observe my own kids. I could pick out a kid I
wanted to observe and just do it. I can’t do that when I am the teacher. I could really see how
they paid attention and what they created. (teacher)
Characteristics of Bridges and Comparison Groups
Twenty classes participated in the Bridges program. Seventeen received the poetry education
curriculum (Bridges) and three classes did not (comparison). There were no statistically
significant differences at time of pretest between groups in student age, gender or grade level.
The mean number of students per classroom, however, was significantly higher for the
comparison group, due to a single comparison class with 36 students.
California Poets in the Schools
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