Introducing Poetry
To introduce the language of Romeo and Juliet, I first needed to give the students an understanding of the writing style and some new terminology as well. So we talked about similes and metaphors, personification, alliteration, onomatopeaia, rhyme scheme, iambic pentameter and also pointed out the differences between prose and poetry. We discussed how poetry is rythmic in nature versus prose which may be but doesn’t need to be. We also discussed the idea that poetry is more emotional and prose more logical–several students had opposing viewpoints on this which lead to a short, interesting discussion.
There are really only two major things I wanted to point out about this lesson:
(1) We opened the lesson with a class discussion on why we study poetry. Students pointed out several different reasons and we explored them all. I kept pushing them to complete their thoughts though. For example, one girl mentioned that we study it and it’s important because it shows the inner emotion. I asked her, “So? Why should I study about your inner emotions? Why does it matter to me what you feel?” It ended up being a really dynamic discussion and we came to the conclusion that poetry helps make us feel connected to other people, like we’re not alone in the world.
(2) In the opening we also discussed why we don’t like to study poetry (after all of the students admitted to liking to read, write or listen to poetry) and what we could do to make it more interesting. They mentioned the language being hard to digest and they can’t really relate to it so to make it more interesting they mentioned drawing (instead of writing) interpretations, reading contemporary poetry or poetry written by their peers and acting it out.
Great discussion and I found it really interesting that they pointed out all the things we discuss in graduate classes on teaching poetry…the students even mentioned not using the word “study” because that immediately makes them not want to do it…
jpeel1
