I think writing poetry and writing about poetry are pretty much connected but to a certain degree, they also require different approaches. When writing poetry you focus on things such as creativity, expression, form, and imagery. It’s about playing with words to create meaning beyond face value. On the other hand, writing about poetry is more analytical. It's more about breaking down the elements of a poem and how those particular elements contribute to the poem's overall message. Essentially when you write poetry you are creating your own message while when you write about poetry you are dissecting someone else's message.
Personally, I've never been a big fan of writing poetry I have always found it difficult. It is probably one of the literary genres I struggle with the most. In the beginning, I honestly was not excited to be doing a poetry unit in class but now my mindset has completely shifted. I was shocked that I had an easy time writing my own poems and even enjoyed it too. I think the assignments we did in class were all super fun and approached poetry in a way that made it seem managble.
After this experience, I learned new ways to make poetry units fun for students. I really liked the wrecking the first person assignment, it was super creative and made lots of us in class come up with awesome poems. I also enjoyed the whole poetry slam reading we did in class. I think reading our poems in front of each other brought us closer together as a class. I can definitely see this activity work as a team-building exercise. In general, though I think what I took away the most from this experience is how it's absolutely possible to make English class fun.
Hey Rose! I totally agree that poetry can be really intimidating. It can be scary enough to open yourself up and attempt to bare your soul or share an experience through writing at all, much less trying to make it artistic and interesting and engaging through the addition of figurative language and poetic language/functions. Taking away that intimidating nature is so important when teaching poetry to students and encouraging them to write their own, so using an exercise like "Wrecking the First Person" or just giving them a way to write a poem about something that isn't necessarily personal to them might help students to embrace the practice of writing poetry. When they don't have to worry about being vulnerable, they can enjoy the process more.
ReplyDeleteHey Rosemary!
ReplyDeleteI’m with you on having never been a big fan of writing poetry. For me, it was always difficult trying to balance expression with perception, and I think this will likely be the case with future students. As much as students would like to express themselves through poetry, I feel like many will still shy away from fully engaging in the activities due to potentially coming off as “cringey” or “emo.” Though I can’t say for sure, this was at least my experience in high school, and even now at CSUN. Although the classroom dynamic has shifted, I can’t help but feel a bit awkward having to perform a piece of poetry in front of my peers. I would like to use this activity in my future classroom, because as you pointed out, it does bring the class closer together, but I think high school students might be off put by the idea because of how much more they value their peers’ perception of them. I think you have the right idea of using a low-stakes practice exercise like “wrecking the first person,” as it gets them into the writing process without requiring them to express vulnerability.
Hello Rosemary,
ReplyDeleteI also think that there is a different approach to both writing poetry to writing about poetry. I’m really glad that you enjoyed this poetry assignment we had. I too am not the biggest poetry fan, but I also had a good time writing these poems. You had a really creative poem in response to the wrecking the first-person prompt. Writing from the perspective of your dog was a really cool take and your poem was one of my favorites of the night. I think it takes interesting prompts to get students excited to write their own poetry and just like you mentioned, it would help a class get closer together. Building community can be difficult at times and doing an assignment where they can write about their own experiences and interests can bring students together. I got to know so much about our peers from class that I wouldn’t have known otherwise.