Back Matter

How the Poetry Book was Made

The Poetry Book is a series of reading books in nine volumes, one for each year of the elementary and junior high schools. The distinguishing feature of these books is that they are the result of extensive analysis and experimentation to determine the selection and grade placement of poetry material.

The research work for these volumes has been carried out and directed by Miriam Blanton Huber, Institute of Educational Research, Teachers College, Columbia University, and Herbert B. Bruner, Bureau of Curriculum Research, Teachers College, Columbia University. They have had the constant help and advice of Charles M. Curry, formerly Professor of Literature, Indiana State Normal School. Every phase of teaching work is represented in the experience of the editors, and all of them have at various times made special studies in the field of children's literature.

The story of the two years spent in the preparation of these books may be briefly summarized as follows:

The first step  was to determine the poems which are now generally considered most appropriate for children of the various grades. This was accomplished (1) by considering the subjective opinions of expert teachers of poetry, and (2) by an examination of 900 courses of study and practically all of the most used textbooks, with minute analysis of 30 courses of study and 30 textbooks, in each of grades one to nine. The resulting material formed two-thirds of that subjected to experimentation. From personal choice, previous studies and the opinions of experts in children's reading, additional poems were included, largely from modern poets and material not previously used in textbooks. The experimental material comprised 573 individual poems, increased to almost 900 titles through repetitions arising from the analysis of present practice.

The second step  was to subject these poems to the test of use in actual schoolroom and teaching situations. The publishers furnished the material, printed in nine sections. Twelve experimental centers were carefully selected, in order to secure wide geographical distribution and to reach all types of pupils. More than 50,000 children and 1500 teachers were involved in the experiment. The method of procedure was such as to secure the most accurate measure of the children's interests in individual poems and to determine in what grade those interests were strongest. Twelve reaction papers were secured from each child and these data were treated statistically. Poems to the number of 535 were given definite grade placement, while 38 poems were not tolerated by children. In the changes in this placement from present practice about as many poems were raised to higher grades as were reduced to lower ones, and about the same number of differences in placement were found from the opinions of experts as from present practice in courses of study and textbooks.

The third step  was the making of The Poetry Book  in nine volumes, based upon the results of this elaborate study and experimentation. Many more poems appear than were used in and placed by the experiment. These additional poems were selected by the editors in the light of the definite interests indicated by the choices of the children. In grade three, for example, 101 titles were placed by the experimental results. Five of these poems do not appear in Book 3, and the editors have added nine, making a total of 106 titles in this book. The poems appear in approximately the order in which most teachers will desire to use them. The seasonal interest has been made a basis of arrangement, while poems without this special interest have been distributed in the order of difficulty, or so as to secure variety and balance of subject matter. The ten poems that the experiment indicated as ranking highest in grade three, in order of rank, are as follows:

1. Change About . . . . . Old Folk Rhyme

2. A Long Time Ago . . . . . Elizabeth Prentiss

3. A Boy's Mother . . . . . James Whitcomb Riley

4. America . . . . . Samuel Francis Smith

5. The Raggle-Taggle Gypsies . . . . . Old Folk Song

6. Robin Hood and the Ranger . . . . . Old Ballad

7. King Bruce and the Spider . . . . . Eliza Cook

8. Which Loved Best . . . . . Joy Allison

9. The Flag Goes By . . . . . Henry Holcomb Bennett

10. The Cow . . . . . Robert Louis Stevenson

A full account of this entire experiment, with tabulations of all results, and with suggestions for the reading and teaching of poetry in the schools, is given in Children's Interests in Poetry,  published by Rand McNally & Company. This volume, uniform in size with the volumes of The Poetry Book,  is a most significant contribution to the literature of scientific curriculum making. The nine volumes of The Poetry Book,  based as they are upon this careful and extended experimental procedure, constitute a unique example of scientific textbook making on a large scale.

The publishers will be glad to answer any inquiries in regard to the details of the experiment or in regard to the contents of The Poetry Book.