PCox English Blog

When I mentioned poetry to my ninth-grade replacement English students, all nine groaned and at least two instantly said, “I hate poetry.”  I had them choose and read aloud a poem during the poetry read-aloud contest (Poetry Out Loud) in my school, but the poetry unit I had planned for the end of the year fell by the wayside as I found myself out of time.

http://www.cac.ca.gov/poetryoutloud/images/POL-Poster-2009.jpg

Luckily, this year, I have these students again, and I plan on starting the year off strong with poetry.  After reading websites on teaching poetry and searching for poetry blogs, I have more ideas on how to make poetry part of my classroom.

I plan to read poems in class often during the year, not just during our poetry unit but also for fun, to tie in with themes from other literature, to connect to nonfiction we read, and to share what students contribute.   A variety of poems will be included, ranging from Shakespeare’s sonnets to ee cummings poems to song lyrics to student choices.  Students also will write their own poetry.

Overall, although I would like to instill a lifelong love of poetry in my students, I will be happy if they see poetry as an approachable and enjoyable form of literature.

I will show my students the following videos so they can perhaps gain a different perspective of the power and appeal of poetry.

BBC Poetry from Nitro Presents on Vimeo.

The King Blues Itch from Nitro Presents on Vimeo.

Tags: literature, Poetry, poetryoutloud, read_aloud

One of my best teachers was Mrs. Hepburn, who taught eighth-grade English.  She was incredibly dignified.  I wish I knew more about her, but when I look back , I think of her as someone who might have had a theatrical background.  She stood straight and dignified, enunciated her words perfectly, and had what we all thought were extremely high expectations of her students.  My memory is that generally we responded with hard work.  

One of her famous assignments was the memorization of 250 lines of poetry.  I have a difficult time imagining myself doing this today, but I did it then.  Each of us chose our poems and then stood and recited our memorized lines to the class.  I memorized Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s 130-line “Paul Revere’s Ride,” James Whitcomb Riley’s 112-line “Farmer Whipple-Bachelor,” and some other short, forgotten poem that I picked to put me over the required 250 lines.

My memory of actually memorizing the poems is vague, but I have vivid memories of nervously but proudly reciting my poems and seeing my peers recite theirs.  I remember being especially impressed by a friend who not only memorized about 14 different poems but also created a three-dimension prop for each. 

I have read various articles that tout the positive results of memorizing poetry.  One author writes that “one of the best aspects of learning a poem by heart is that you get to take a poem inside of yourself.” (http://articles.poetryx.com/articles/64/#value#value).  I want this for my students.  My students are kids who struggle with literature of all kinds, and I want them to experience both the pride of memorizing a poem and the ownership of having a poem become theirs.

Tags: memorization, Poetry, poetryoutloud, read_aloud

1.       Read the poem slowly, following the punctuation, to get a general idea of what it means.  Pause slightly at a comma, pause longer at a semi-colon, and stop at a period.

2.       Determine the meter (how many feet or stresses there are in each line).

3.       Look for the rhyme scheme.  Remind them of the ABABCDCDEFEFGG idea – Shakespeare’s sonnets.  You’ll see the little light go on in many eyes.  “Oh yeah, I remember that.”

4.       Read the poem out loud.  Notice the rhyme scheme.

5.       Remind students that poets very carefully choose every word they use, so they need to look up any unknown words.  Different students can look up different words – make it fun.

6.       Again, read the poem out loud.

7.       Determine whether there are breaks in subject or mood. 

8.       What is the emotion of the poem (tone)?

9.       Re-read the poem once more.

Now students will be ready to take a stab at understanding the poem.  This can be done in a whole-class discussion, with everyone contributing their ideas and opinions. 

 

 

 

 

 

Tags: literature, Poetry, poetry_structure, reading

Welcome to our poetry unit in which we will explore the world of poetry together by reading a variety of poems and talking and writing about what we read.  

When I mention the word “poem” to my students, I am met with a variety of reactions.  Some students quickly tell me they love poetry and do not get enough opportunities in school to read poetry, whereas others groan and tell me that that poetry is too difficult to understand and they dread reading poems. 

In this unit, we will read poems that you and I will choose.  As an introduction, link to and read part of an article by Dr. Higgins entitled “How to Read A Poem When A Teacher Assigns It for Homework.”  Read the brief introductory paragraph and numbers 1-5. 

After reading Dr. Higgins’ thoughts, write a one-paragraph response to what you have read.  For example, you may have your own ideas on what poetry is or what its purpose is.  Or, you may have other reasons why you want to read poetry, or you may have a favorite poem that you would like to share.  Perhaps you thought of an example of your own when you read #2, about the purpose of poetry. 

Assignment: Write a one-paragraph response.  You also may read the rest of Dr. Wiggin’s article if you like, as we will be looking at, and discussing, #6 and #7 in class.

I hope you are as excited as I am to be setting out on our poetry unit.

Tags: literature, Poetry

Welcome to your brand new blog at Edublogs.

To get started, simply log in, edit or delete this post and check out all the other options available to you.

Also, please consider becoming an Edublogs Supporter – you can remove ads from yours and other blogs, upload up to 5GB or audio, video and every other sort of content and access great features under your ‘Plugins’ menu.

Supporters are what keeps Edublogs running and providing free blogs for education, so give it a go today

For assistance, take time to view our some helpful introductory videos, read through our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) or stop by The Edublogs Forums to chat with other edubloggers.

You can also subscribe to our brilliant free publication, The Edublogger, which is jammed with helpful tips, ideas and more.

And finally, if you like Edublogs but want to be able to simply create, administer, control and manage hundreds of student and teacher blogs at your school or college, check out Edublogs Campus… it’s like Edublogs in a box, all for you.

Thanks again for signing up with Edublogs!