Poetry: A Means of Creating Deeper Place Connections

Abstract

The article shares poems written by 13 to 14 years old Year 9 UK geography students to communicate a sense of place. Poetry writing forms part of an exploratory investigation into ways of engaging a geography class with the study of a place. The students glean their contextual understanding from research and a day’s multisensory fieldwork. Poetry writing through its careful choice of words supports the students to represent the individual ways in which they connect with a place’s past, present, and in some instances consider its future. The activity encourages the students to express their affective and cognitive place understanding. The students use different modes to support the representation of their poems. The process of creatively representing their poems reinforces the students’ ability to communicate their unique place messages. Poetry writing allows the students to engage with a place and informs their conceptual understanding of its diverse elements.