Visual Imagery as the Catalyst in Student Poetry Writing

Abstract

This study examined the effects of the use of visual imagery on the quality of student poetry writing, illustration, active engagement, and intrinsic satisfaction. Six students from one Art III, a Freshmen Art Survey course, were used as subjects. In the first and third phases of the study, students were asked to write and illustrate Haiku poetry guided by verbal instructions alone. In the second and fourth phases, students were asked to write and illustrate haiku poetry again, however, visual images, slides of various subjects of man and nature, were used as a catalyst to the writing process in addition to verbal instructions. Poems, illustrations, and student behaviors for the six subjects were scored using rubrics for each phase. To control for researcher bias in the areas of writing and illustration, instructors from the English and art departments, who were experienced in the use of rubrics for assessment, scored the student projects. This researcher scored the student behaviors, based on classroom observation during all phases of this project. Open-ended interviews were conducted with each of the six subjects at the close of phase four ofthe project. Using an ABAB single subject design, and charting one data point per student in the areas of poetry writing, illustration, and engagement for each phase, the following results were found. The scores for all six subjects in poetry writing and active engagement were higher during phase two and phase four, when the visual images were used. Scores for illustration were higher for four of the subjects during phases two and four as well. Emergent themes from the student interviews indicated a higher degree of intrinsic satisfaction with their work on the part of four of the six subjects during phases two and four, when visual imagery was used. It was also evident from the interviews that the ease at which students developed an idea for their poems was greater when visual imagery was used for all six students. It was concluded that there is a positive correlation between the use of visual imagery in the teaching of poetry writing and student success in writing, illustration, active engagement, and intrinsic satisfaction.