Using Short Poems and Drama to Help Teenagers Talk About Feelings in The Classroom: The Annunciation High School Ikere Experience

Abstract

Most teachers of poetry in our secondary school still use the non participatory, lecture method of the teacher heaping his knowledge on the students which bores and make them loose interest in the subject being taught. This study uses two short poems “Of Days and Moments” and “Sometimes” as case study to demonstrate that students can concentrate to understand what is being taught, feel the mood and freely express themselves.   The study which was carried out at The Annunciation High School Ikere, Nigeria, with 18 J.S.S.3 students aged 13–14 was hinged on Geraldine Siks’ process-concept structural approach to drama which advocates that students should identify, react, make up, manage, exchange a few words, and appraise what is being taught. It is supported by the Social Learning Theory of Albert Bandura which states that people learn by paying attention, remembering, copying, and being motivated. The experiment last for two weeks where students read the poems, discussed them, and turned them into short drama scenes with clapping, movement, and chorus. The data for the study was derived from classroom observation and a Focused Group Discussion. The findings showed three results. Firstly, attention went up. The repeated lines in “Of Days and Moments” worked like a drumbeat and pulled students in. This changed ‘voluntary attention’ to ‘involuntary attention’. Secondly, understanding of feelings improved. Students said “Sometimes” showed how mood changes fast from ‘high spirit’s cloak’ to ‘painful thoughts, red-embers-drenched’. Acting the change with body movements helped them feel it. Third, talking increased as shy students joined the chorus because ‘the speech handicapped may recite without embarrassment since he is not speaking alone’. After chorus work, 16 of 18 students shared personal examples of mood swings. The study shows teachers do not need long poems or big budgets. Short poems about real life, plus drama, teach language, emotions, and confidence. This fits schools with few books. It also fits teenagers who live in ‘days and moments’ and ‘sometimes’ feelings. The study recommends that teachers should be trained in the use of dramatic methods in teaching. Again, long poems should be replaced with short poems in the school curriculum for easy understanding and application of learned lessons by the students in their daily lives.