LM_NET: Library Media Networking
Several of you asked for a HIT, so below you will find my original request
followed by the responses I received. Thanks so much to all who replied. You
all gave me some great ideas.
Original request:
A first-year English teacher wants to collaborate with me on teaching a
lesson on poetry. She isn't sure exactly what she wants the kids to do, but
she's very open to suggestions. She does want the students to give an oral
presentation at the conclusion of their research on a poet and a poem
written by the poet. She wants me to teach them "how to research." I have
some ideas for suggestions for her, but I wanted to ask you all if you had
done any spectacular lessons with poets/poetry that you would be willing to
share. We do have a couple poetry databases that I will guide the students
in using. The students are all freshmen.
Responses:
At a former school I did a unit with the 7th grade teacher which
I think could be done effectively at slomst any level, depending on the
poets you choose. We had a list of 20 or so poets we considered
accessible to 7th graders. Those chose one from a hat, so it wasn't their
choice--we wanted to make sure it was someone new to them. The first day
they read as many poems as they could by that person. Took no notes, just
read. That night they wrote a journal entry in response to what they read.
Anything thoughtful was accepted, but it had to have substance, not just "I
have no idea what this guy is saying." The second research day was spend
reading (no note taking, again) biographical info on the poet. Followed by
the nightly journal entry. The third work day was concentrating on a single
poem, doing the usual study of language, images, forms, rhyme schemes,
etc.Journal entry on what they had figured out. The follow up was an essay
systhesizing what they had learned. Could they see a parallel between poets
life and type of poetry he wrote? Influences by others? What does his one
poem say? This usnit was a bit of a stretch for 7's, but we tweaked it some
the next year, and decided it would work even better with slightly older
kids. The students were amazed (and somewhat frightened) that they were not
to take notes, not to print out critical articles, etc. They are actually
frightened by the lack of "props"--no huge pile of notecards or xeroxed and
highlighted papers. But it made the work truly theirs, and they found they
really could think about these things without having the former work of
others there first.
**************************************************
I teach a 6/7/8 Writing class, and my students
completed a poetry book. I gave them a variety of
poem types, if that's the right word, such as
terquain, cinqain, autobiopoem, and so on. Each
student needed to try all of the styles, and the final
project was a book. For a C, kids had to have certain
poems, for a B, all of the C poems plus, and for an A,
the B,C and A poems. I had also introduced
calligraphy, so they needed at least one piece of
calligraphy, either a poem, title page or whatever. I
also included an assessment.
**************************************************
With my freshmen English classes, I do a poetry project which
involves making a poster. Students choose a poet and research
him/her. On the poster, the students include information about the
poet (picture if possible), three of the poet's poems, and
illustrations about the poet and the poems. The students "present"
their poster to the class by telling us about their poet and his/her
style of poetry and reading the poems. This project seems to work
well for me.
*****************************************************
This is a slightly less traditional approach to the typical poetry lesson in
English class, but what about introducing spoken word poetry/SLAMs that are
becoming so popular today. You even see spoken work in Sprite commercials
now. If you're not familiar with this type of poetry, go to
www.poetryslam.com. They give a brief history, etc. I purchased the video,
Slamnation, that documents the National Poetry Slam competition in Portland,
OR a couple of years ago. It's a fabulous intro. to this "new" art form. To
tie in more traditional poetry, students could be asked to find a poet or
poems from the past that they think relate to a spoken word poet or poem
today. They could write about the tradition of oral art forms, i.e.
storytelling, poetry readings, etc. I am doing a similar unit in April in
the hopes of turning some students on to a poetry that they may find more
relevant to their lives than say, Frost.
*****************************************
One of our English teachers has the kids do a "theme" poetry project - find
several poems about love or sports or dogs or whatever. Then they put them
together with art work into a "bound" volume of poetry. Very nice! It
could be expanded to include info on one poet, and to read one of them aloud
to the class. You can try Kathy Schrock's page for ideas for lesson plans
and links (http://school.discovery.com/teachers/) or somebody may have
already done a webquest.
*************************************************
Look in School Library Journal Feb. 2001 issue, p 56....some www
sites that would enhance a school library/classroom unit. I think it is
absolutely wonderful that your English teacher is doing this with you. She
is to be commended. It is a genre that is often forgotten in recent times
and one that is so important.
**************************************
You might peek at my on-line class that I created
www.mediawizard.homestead.com
Maybe it will give you some ideas!
*****************************************
Jill Fulton, Librarian
Providence High School
Burbank, CA
jlovettfulton@providencehigh.org
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