Walton Education Foundation

Teach living poets is a movement that celebrates today’s poets, who are diving into the real world issues and celebrations. In literature, students often struggle with poetry. We believe that this springs from their inability to relate; most often, textbooks provide poetry that is centuries-old. By providing the work of living poets, our students will have access to relevant content that speaks to their real world- socially, politically, culturally, etc. Students need to be exposed to relevant material addressing issues in today’s world, and through diverse lenses. With poetry more so than any other genre of writing, students can understand what it is to be human and to be alive right now. Through the purchase of various poetry collections, students gain access to living poets- they’ll see literature as a movement- not old, dead language in a textbook.

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Poetry: Inspiring Great Minds

grant photo
School:
South Walton High School 
Subject:
Literacy 
Teacher:
Jenifer Celko 
Students Impacted:
500 
Grade:
10 
Date:
September 17, 2021

Investor

Thank you to the following investor for funding this grant.

 

The St. Joe Community Foundation - $859.95

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Impact to My Classroom

# of Students Impacted: 150

Reading  relevant and engaging poetry, students engaged in a number of academic tasks, inlcuding but not limited to: indepth analysis, creating one-pagers, making symbolic posters, collaboration, writing poetry, and written response. Students approached writer’s craft and structure (Florida Standard) by reading the poems and focusing on sentence struture,  word choice, stanza placements, and shifts. Students demonstrated understanding of visible and intentional structural moves (author's purpose). While we do not have FSA scores back; students scored better than the national average on Pre-AP Checkpoint quizzes. AP Checkpoint quizzes allow students to demonstrate mastery of standard through cold read of poems and multiple choice questions. Students took two quizzes, a mid-point quiz and a final quiz at the end of the unit. Students did well on the 1st quiz but results improved by the end of the unit. I attached the results below. When you open the document, you will see my class results and on the left you will see the national average. 
 

 

Original Grant Overview

Goal

Teach living poets is a movement that celebrates today’s poets, who are diving into the real world issues and celebrations. In literature, students often struggle with poetry. We believe that this springs from their inability to relate; most often, textbooks provide poetry that is centuries-old. By providing the work of living poets, our students will have access to relevant content that speaks to their real world- socially, politically, culturally, etc. Students need to be exposed to relevant material addressing issues in today’s world, and through diverse lenses. With poetry more so than any other genre of writing, students can understand what it is to be human and to be alive right now. Through the purchase of various poetry collections, students gain access to living poets- they’ll see literature as a movement- not old, dead language in a textbook. 

 

What will be done with my students

Students will analyze rigorous text by making thematic connections, understanding symbolic meaning, etc. We will pair current poetry with informational texts provided within our curriculum and across contents to examine the power of the written word through multiple lenses. This approach will guarantee student buy-in because it will speak to their interests, while also allowing them to practice their critical thinking skills, as well as standards required to meet FSA and SAT/ACT requirements. Students will participate in slam poetry, spoken word, two-voice poems, poetry circles to understand mood, tone, and depth of content. Poetry is already present in our Language Arts lessons, but by opening the students’ eyes to the world of literature happening RIGHT NOW, we hope to spark their curiosity and help them to see that to be human is to write!  

 

Benefits to my students

We know that, statewide, students struggle with Craft and Structure on the FSA, regardless of writing genre (informational or literary). We also know that, for the most part, students are only exposed to dated, non-relevant poetry via their textbooks. By increasing student interest in the world of poetry by providing award-winning, current poetry collections, we will in turn shift the culture of our students as it relates to the written word. There’s no easier place to approach writer’s craft and structure than with poetry- in poetry structure is visible and intentional. In poetry, students can demonstrate their understanding of this skill, thus applying it to any form of writing. We believe test scores, critical thinking skills, and more importantly- interest in literature- will increase even as early as this year. This impact will be measurable not only in test scores, but in course grades, and student interest as well.
 

 

Budget Narrative

An American Sunrise - Joy Harjo $24.65 (set of 5)(for group work, round robins, etc...)
No Matter the Wreckage - Sarah Kay $11.31 (Set of 5)
Citizen Illegal - Jose’ Olivarez $10.87 (set of 5)
Electric Arches - Eve Lewing $10.87 (Set of 5)
Ocean Vuong - Night sky with exit Wounds 14.25 (set of 5)
Ada Limo’n - The Carrying $14.04 (set of 5)
Shout by Laurie Halse Anderson 10.99 (set of 30 for whole class discussion)
 

 

Items

# Item Cost
1 An American Sunrise - Joy Harjo $24.65 ?? $123.25
2 No Matter the Wreckage - Sarah Kay $11.31 $56.85
3 Citizen Illegal - Jose’ Olivarez $10.87 $54.35
4 Electric Arches - Eve Lewing $10.87 $54.35
5 Ocean Vuong - Night sky with exit Wounds 14.25 $71.25
6 Ada Limo’n - The Carrying $14.04 $70.20
7 Shout by Laurie Halse Anderson - 10.99 $329.70
8 Classroom Supplies for Poetry Projects (not to exceed $100.00 - Markers, Post-it notes, Poster Paper, Expo Markers (whiteboard tables) $100.00
  Total: $859.95

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Special Thanks to Our Presenting Partners

CHELCO

The Alys Foundation

St. Joe Community Foundation

Florida Power & Light

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