287 – 287 - Classroom Teaching and Pedagogy
R Is for Rhyme? Statistics Class 'Stanza Part' with Poetry!
Lawrence M. Lesser
The University of Texas at El Paso
Poetry is a mode of statistics educational fun (CAUSEweb.org/fun; my Jan. 2020 J. of Humanistic Mathematics piece; larrylesser.com/poet-larry-ate). Adapting Emmons (2017) taxonomy, I explore 3 poem types: statistics as major subject, statistics-informed structure (e.g., shape or sampling), or statistics language/imagery applied to something nonstatistical. At a mid-sized public R1 open-access HSI university, I write/incorporate statistics poetry for 40-student sections of statistical literacy and offer them (extra-credit) chances to make their own (my 2018 eCOTS poster). Our student-randomized experiment (Nov. 2016 JSE) included only 1 poem (yielding 3 percentage points improvement) so more study is needed on possible benefits: making content memorable, consolidating concepts (to fit concise form), breaking stereotypes, lowering anxiety, building community, distinguishing everyday and statistical language, and having easier entry than, say, song. I overview references, resources, and class-tested tips (e.g., in our fall 2019 Teaching Statistics column) to have diverse students use poems to prompt recall or process or to explore language, structure, or content connections.