Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Beach ch. 12 (132-8)
Reading poetry has always been difficult for me. It wasn’t until recently that I actually found reading poetry enjoyable. Beach gives three suggestions that I think would really help get students invested in poetry: (1) have students bring in their own poems and/or find poems online that they enjoy; (2) construe the definition of poetry by including concrete poems and song lyrics; and (3) pair poems with stories or novels instead of teaching a poetry unit. I also like the idea that poetry should be performed, not just read. Students should select a poem and perform it for the class. I also thing that in order to understand poetry, students need to be taught to respond to key words and phrases, visualize the scene, use their senses, identify with the speaker, and ask questions while they’re reading.
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Yup. Those are the "ins" to the poetic form, for sure. I just reviewed a book by an author who talked about rap as a form of poetry (Feel These Words), and was so impressed with the depth of understanding and the complexity of the poetry that these marginalized kids wrote. They were largely failures in the school system but had found their voices in writing. If we can make it real for our students, they are far more likely to try "poetics."
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