Poetry is something that does not come easy for many students and even teachers. Most teachers will find that teaching poetry is difficult and tedious and sometimes unsuccessful. The problem is that many teachers stick to the traditional way of teaching poetry that can be boring and difficult for students to understand. Teachers need to find ways to relate poetry to their students. One way to do this is through music.
Most music is created in a similar fashion as poetry. Music is not only constructed like poetry but it often contains many of the literary devices poetry contains like the use of metaphors, alliteration and rhyme scheme. If we, as teachers, present poetry as music to begin a lesson I believe students will be more likely to pick up the concepts. Music is something that students are very familiar with and most students enjoy listening and even writing their own music. Instead of presenting poetry in the boring ineffective way to have in the past, we should be utilizing new techniques even if they are unorthodox or different. As long as it works, why not use it?
When I learned poetry in school I hated it. I could not understand the joy in creating poetry or what was so great about it. However as I grew up I came to love reading poetry and creating poetry. I wish I could have been introduced to the many diverse ways poetry is presented and have it be something that was more exciting.
ReplyDeleteI also did not enjoy units that involved poetry but whenever my teacher included music as an example or parallel to poetry I was able to connect to poetry better. Maybe you could try a unit on songwriting rather then poetry writing , that way students will not approach it with hesitation as they do with poetry writing.
ReplyDeleteIn high school I did not enjoy units on poetry, although I do occasionally write! In a group setting its really difficult to get students to share their poetic thought with each other, for fear of being ridiculed (unfortunately). I do love poetry, however it is very difficult to get it in a school setting.
ReplyDeleteWhen studying poetry in English class, few teachers make the effort of making it fun and unique. This is the perfect opportunity to work with fellow teachers in other disciplines creating cross-curricular activities for the students'. I never connected with poetry, but as a musician and a music lover, if poetry was presented as a form of music/art I would have probably been more interested in actually learning more about it.
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting post! I remember in one of my English classes we had a section on Greek mythology and one assignment was to write a poem relating to this subject. So, instead of just writing a poem I wrote a song out and performed it for the class. I believe it was called "Persephone Blues". I had a great time doing it and the experience was fantastic. I wrote a poem out and set it to music - what more could you want!
ReplyDeleteI think you are coming from a great place and students will be very appreciative of this change you are trying to make. One thing you could do to create a lesson around this is to get yourself a regular lesson on poetry and just vamp it up a little. Add whatever changes you want and look at the two side-by-side!
This is a great idea Alex! English has never been one of my strength and if my teachers were to relate it to music I would have been much more interested in it. I think that a lot more students relate to music and especially enjoy listening to music more than poetry. If you were able to incoroporate music that the students are interested in I think that would also benefit your lesson.
ReplyDeleteIn one of my classes, a peer taught a lesson on reading using song lyrics which was also related to history and the meaning of the song. If you were able to tie in the meaning of the lyrics with the current events happening I think the students would actively participate!