so...how does my research or reflection still matter in my current classroom? well, i think it's still relevant because every year, the students i meet hate, hate, hate poetry and find it either too boring or too hard for them to understand....and forget, forget about writing it! no way jose! that stuff stinks and i have nothing to say and wouldn't say it that way, anyway...
it makes me sad but then excited to show them the coolness of poetry (and maybe some of my slight, but totally under-control obsession with it--totally normal--i know lots of people with poe and shakespeare action figures that TALK to them when no one is around...what?)
i think this question of mine about the skills kids getting poetry is important also because they never seem to realize how cool they think, that they think in such an out-of-order (but not wrong) way that some things come totally easy to them. when they say some things, they don't get why it's so awesome and i try to stop to tell them that. sometimes i tell white lies (but maybe they're not) about something being "advanced" or "high level". i don't think i'm lying, but i might not be exact or 100% accurate if, say, some educational theorist were to walk into my classroom (thank goodness i don't know any).
i guess what i'm saying is that this is important because kids are. i get new kids every year. i don't see them the year after i have them because they go to another building and i really can't know how they're doing unless they come to visit. i think a lot of kids need someone to tell them how smart they are, even if it looks different. i think i work with a lot of people who do this or who want to do this, but it's easy for me to remember to tell them since poetry is #1 on everyone's "i hate to write this stuff" list. i don't know.
why would it be important to someone in my session at the conference? maybe because some people who teach were like my kids and it's on their list of "i hate to teach this stuff" list. or maybe they were the types of student who fished for the right answer for everything. i like the idea of coming up with more questions with every guess made....i think it's hard for some folks to not have a right answer. i'm not sure. it's not like i don't "quiz" kids on lit terms and examples of things....i just never ask "what's the poem all about" on a quiz, really, unless it's a short answer type of thing....hmmm...i think i need more journaling on this or something...i don't seem to be getting anywhere with this week's focus for the deadline draft!
sorry for the "freewrite" here....any thoughts? what about the situation in your own schools? how do the kids respond to poetry? how about the skills kids? how do the teachers approach it? i realize i may be a little fanatical, but...some people i work with actually like teaching grammar and root words! yuck, i say! so, it seems to be the same...we all have our favorite things...hmmm....more later...
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4 comments:
Honestly, this whole situation looks like art and feels like art - so if I follow the "if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck" rule - then it MUST be art. Now, if it's art you've hit the nail on the head when you consider that some teachers might be afraid of (or hate) teaching poetry. Things that have no answer seen hard for many people to handle. There is no answer book and that's scary. Perhaps what would be great for teachers is something to help them get a grasp of what's important in poetry. Not what's right or wrong - but what's important to know. That's how I approach art. Put out the important idea, make is like a "rule" and then challenge the kids to break the rule.
Also wanted to share a GREAT title for your presentation. Our inquiry group met tonight and in the course of our conversation your blog came up. We started talking about the idea that perhaps your kids don't know there is a box in which they're supposed to be thinking, and that the honors kids only want to exist inside the box. Rebecca suggested that maybe we need to find a way for kids to visit the box but not live there. How great is that! So here you go - title your presentation "How to visit the box without living there" and WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND COULD RESIST THAT!?
Okay, so I'm probably not addressing your questions exactly, but I want to comment on something that struck me about your post (apparently, it's still all about me...).
I was really intrigued by your hunch that kids actually do need people, teachers, adults to point out the complexity of their thinking. My son came home recently and said that his science teacher had told them that they need to be aware of what awesome thinkers they are. Now, of course my son dug this, but more importantly, it made such an impression on him that he brought it up in dinner conversation. Perhaps I'm overstating here, but I think it made him realize that wow, I am a kid, but I can still think in ways that impress adults.
Rebecca, Beth Lewis, and I are seeing the same thing in book clubs, especially when kids are doing their visual interpretation projects at the end. Kids simply don't seem to be aware that they are doing some pretty remarkable metaphorical thinking as well as talking in mature ways about topics many adults in our culture can't manage to have a civil conversation about (e.g., homosexuality, war, euthanasia, and organized religion to name just a few). They're almost like, "Yeah, well, you put this task in front of me, so of course I'm going to try it. That's what school is, right?"
I'm curious, though, how we can help them become aware of the significance of their thinking without mere verbal back-patting and so that they can do it again (that is, consciously think in complex ways) when a teacher isn't handing out a task that asks them to do so.
Any insights on this topic from your research?
I definitely don't think you're wrong to tell your kids that their ideas are advanced if they really are making interesting insights--advanced in poetry is a bit different from being "advanced" in the CSAP sense of the word.
As one of the teachers you mention who "don't like" to teach poetry, I can assure that you that this is important for us to think about. Part of my problem, I think, is that when I teach poetry I tend to look at a poem and try to "figure it out" and then get the kids to "figure it out" too through the Socratic method.
his is strange, because when we read more straightforward novels and short stories I emphasize individual interpretation and analysis much more. That seems backward to me. But reading your post has reminded me that part of the problem is that when I was in High School I was completely baffled by poetry.
I had a very advanced reading level but poetry just did not make sense to me. I didn't like it, but more than that, when I read it I seriously couldn't make heads or tails of it. I knew there was a box I was "supposed" to visit, definitely--there always is a "box" hidden somewhere in education and my own frustration at being unable to find it was one of the biggest reasons I disliked it so much. I think I was a bit too logical and literal at that age to really get poetry.
So I guess I'm a bit uncomfortable when teaching it; even though now I'm comfortable reading and interpreting it for myself I'm still not at home in front of the class. Time for me to start letting them "figure it out" on their own (well, hopefully with a few creative questions from me in response to their guesses to help things along, as you mention).
On Monday I'm going to choose a poem from the book to teach that I've never read before. Seriously. I've never tried that before, but I think it'll be interesting.
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