COMPREHENDING POETRY:

ELEMENTARY STUDENTS WITH LEARNING

DISABILITIES (LD) UTILIZE MULTIPLE

INTERPRETIVE OPERATIONS

Georgette G Lee PhDUniversity of Illinois at Chicagoglee24@uic.edu

PURPOSE:to examine and describe the interpretive operations used by fifth and sixth grade students with and without LD, and to determine if any difficulties encountered while making sense of the poems may affect student enjoyment.

PARTICIPANT DEMOGRAPHICS

The research was conducted in three randomly selected elementary schools from a public school district in a large Midwestern state. The suburban district serves primarily African American (91.9%), Hispanic (3.7%) and Asian (3.4%) students coming largely from low-income households, with approximately 96% of students receiving free or reduced-cost lunch. Thirty-two students, matched by grade, gender, and ethnicity, participated in the research, of whom, 16 were students with LD; 18 males, and 24 African Americans, and 8 Hispanics. The mean Star Reading GE scores for the students with LD is 2.6 (SD 1.8) and 4.8 (SD 0.8) for AA students.

MODES OF INQUIRY: In this descriptive study, two unfamiliar

poems (“October Saturday” by Bobbi Katz, and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost) were presented to the students on separate days. Students were pulled out individually by assigned number from their class to go to an available room for about 20 minutes per session.

Students were read the title of the poem and the name of the poet by the researcher, and asked to make a prediction of what the poem would be about.

MODES OF INQUIRY: The researcher then asked the students if

they had read the poem before to ascertain any prior knowledge about the specific poem. Participants listened to the second reading, and interrupted to make comments or ask questions about the poem. Following the second reading, participants were asked questions about the poem (geared at targeted operations), and students were instructed to refer to their personal copy of the poem to assist in the comprehension task.

DATA ANALYSIS: Data were analyzed using open

coding procedures (Strauss & Corbin, 1990). The students’ use of interpretive operations was captured by qualifying the important aspects of their verbal responses as categories of the poetry comprehension process. Categories were developed through a three-tiered process of open coding, axial coding, and selective coding. The researcher transcribed verbatim the entire contents of the tapes, yielding 64 transcripts.

DATA ANALYSIS: The units of analysis were the students’

rapport with the researcher during the first poetry session, the answers to the 12 comprehension prompts, and student online comprehension represented by any unsolicited questions or remarks made during the second reading of the poem.

Reliability of the coding of the data included a) peer debriefing with a graduate student, b) intercoder reliability, and c) triangulation of the different kinds of data collected.

RESULTS: Students with LD: Utilized as great a range of lower and

higher order interpretive operations as did their AA peers.

Used title as cue to the poems’ meaning and made inferences about the seasons and activities of the poems.

Identified literary devices such as repetition, rhyme, personification, alliteration, and comparisons, and stated how these functioned in the poem.

RESULTS:Students with LD:Identified theme and created visual

and sensory imagery to come up with underlying meaning.

Generated questions about the poem and poet that revealed lingering thoughts.

Expressed enjoyment of the poems based mainly on their topics.

HOW DOES THE POEM MAKE YOU FEEL? Happy, cause the leaves are falling, and I

like to play in the leaves It makes me feel like going outside and

raking. Like relaxing, because the sound of the

leaves nervously chattering makes me want to take a break.

It makes me feel happy inside because I like snow. It may be cold, but it's fun to play in.

Happy, (I) like walking in the snow out in the woods.

good, nice, a little bit scared, exhausted…