"What makes good poetry?"
This was a question that I asked my students last year after watching several youth poets perform their spoken word poetry. We also listened to contemporary music, and read a wide range of written poetry, and students were asked to reference the works that we've immersed our selves into. Here is my response:
In his spoken-word poem, "Urban Genocide," Berato Wilson says, "We die simply because nothing emphasizes life." Wilson was referencing the lower-class neighborhoods of Minneapolis and St. Paul, but his words struck me deeply. It is lines like these that drill down to the core of an issue in a way that only poetry can. By exposing the raw essence of a problem - the truth - we are forced to confront them. When poems are deeply personal and delivered with purpose and conviction, they transcend literature and become the anthems for our causes.
The Common Core State Standards don't emphasize poetry. Poetry is briefly mentioned in some of the reading standards; it is excluded entirely from the writing standards. But this doesn't mean that poetry should disappear from our curriculum. It does require more creativity on the part of teachers to figure out how to work poetry into an instructional plan in a meaningful way.
I urge you to consider how you can leverage the accessibility and personal nature of poetry in your classroom. Poetry can be used to reinforce reading standards (inferring and citing evidence immediately come to mind, as well as determining theme; in writing, poetry can help students with word choice, among other things).
If you have ideas or suggestions, please share them in the comments.
This was a question that I asked my students last year after watching several youth poets perform their spoken word poetry. We also listened to contemporary music, and read a wide range of written poetry, and students were asked to reference the works that we've immersed our selves into. Here is my response:
In his spoken-word poem, "Urban Genocide," Berato Wilson says, "We die simply because nothing emphasizes life." Wilson was referencing the lower-class neighborhoods of Minneapolis and St. Paul, but his words struck me deeply. It is lines like these that drill down to the core of an issue in a way that only poetry can. By exposing the raw essence of a problem - the truth - we are forced to confront them. When poems are deeply personal and delivered with purpose and conviction, they transcend literature and become the anthems for our causes.
The Common Core State Standards don't emphasize poetry. Poetry is briefly mentioned in some of the reading standards; it is excluded entirely from the writing standards. But this doesn't mean that poetry should disappear from our curriculum. It does require more creativity on the part of teachers to figure out how to work poetry into an instructional plan in a meaningful way.
I urge you to consider how you can leverage the accessibility and personal nature of poetry in your classroom. Poetry can be used to reinforce reading standards (inferring and citing evidence immediately come to mind, as well as determining theme; in writing, poetry can help students with word choice, among other things).
If you have ideas or suggestions, please share them in the comments.
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