1.2 Course Overview/Rationale
This poetry course has been designed as a response to a perceived need of Primary Education students, Curriculum (Secondary) students and English Literature (BA) students for support in their language studies.
Students commencing the poetry segment of their language courses often display a lack of confidence in their ability to engage with poetry, much less teach it later. It seems their experiences in primary and secondary education have not helped them to develop a full understanding of the nature of poetry, its form and purpose. Exposed to poetry during their tertiary studies, they often encounter a fundamental lack of understanding, knowledge and expertise which prevents them from doing well in their tertiary poetry courses. Moreover, they feel inadequate to transmit, later on, an enthusiasm for poetry to their own students.
The current K-6 syllabus (1998) encourages teachers "to develop students' enjoyment, confidence and independence as language users and learners" (p.6). It is hoped that the student teacher will, through a greater understanding and appreciation of poetry and its place in living, feel adequate for this challenge in the area of poetry in the classroom.
Moreover, the 7-10 syllabus (2002) emphasises the role the English teacher has in building "confident communicators, critical and imaginative thinkers, lifelong learners and active participants in society" (p.7). A confident poetry teacher can promote this aim by enabling students to access meanings in life from the feelings and reactions expressed in poetry and to relate them to their own experiences.
By Stage 6 English students are expected "to understand the complexity of meaning, to respond to texts according to their form, content, purpose and audience" (Stage 6 English Syllabus, 1999, p.6). This poetry support course may help the prospective English teacher gain a solid base from which to launch out on such a journey.
Students of English literature may also find this course useful as a means of reinforcing their basic understandings and therefore, be enabled to engage more deeply with poetry and its significance in life and literature.