The Effects of Using Poetry as a Tool to Increase Phonemic Awareness
             and Reading Achievement in a Third Grade Classroom
             Today many children are having difficulty learning to read. Some parents are complaining about public schools not doing their job. On standardized tests, the reading scores are low and many children are neither excited about learning how to read or about going to school. The public school districts have gone back and forth from phonics to whole language and now the emphasis has shifted back to the teaching of phonics and phonemic awareness to teach reading. As teachers, we are tired of being tossed back and forth on this pendulum. We know that in the real classroom it is best to have a balance. How do teachers do that in their classrooms effectively? One way is to use new phonics-enriched textbooks. Another way is to use supplementary methods to stimulate phonemic awareness.
             This discussion brought me to wonder if increased reading achievement can be realized by using poetry as a tool in the third grade classroom. Could reading scores be increased as a result? Would children be more enthusiastic about learning to read and go to school? Could using poetry help them develop a life-long love of this art form?
             This questioning leads me to ask the following hypothesis question: What is the effect of systematically using poetry as a tool in the classroom to increase phonemic awareness and thus reading achievement?
             And, can whole language strategies such as poetry be used in the classroom to increase phonemic awareness and motivation to read, therefor reading achievement, and also help imagination, and creativity, and communication skills, therefore writing ability?
             Poetry to Increase Phonemic Awareness
             We know that a relationship exists between phonemic awareness and learning to read. In fact, recent research suggests that
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