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2 Questions That Will Get Students Thinking About Poetry

February 15, 2016 By David Rickert Leave a Comment

For the most part, my students put up with poetry. Many of them don’t really like it. They find it difficult and it makes them feel dumb. And most of the common strategies that we use, like “SOAPS,” give them too much to manage and make them feel like poetry is too much trouble. Students need a better way to get into a poem and really understand it that doesn’t involve figuring out rhyme schemes and picking apart figurative language, at least not at first.

I find with my my students that if they can answer the following two questions, everything else falls into place a lot easier. The questions are:

What happened?

and:

How does the speaker feel about it?

The first question is surprisingly difficult for students to answer. Many of my students don’t consider a poem to have a “plot” or an “event” that takes place, but the vast majority of poems do. In “The Road Not Taken” a man takes a walk in the woods and chooses between two paths. In “Shall I Compare Thee To A Summer’s Day” the speaker does exactly that. In “Cross,” by Langston Hughes, the speaker is the child of a white father and an African-American mother. And so on.

I like to have my students summarize what happens in a poem in one or two sentences. Many of my students need some practice summarizing, and this gives them the opportunity to have a clear idea of what takes place. Also, when they write about poetry it’s important for them to start any discussion off with a concise description of what the poem is about.

The second question, “How does the speaker feel about it?” is a little trickier, but really gets students talking about the poem. For instance, when the speaker of “The Road Not Taken” sighs at the end of the poem, is it a sigh of contentment, or regret? As students think about how the speaker in “Cross” feels about being “neither black or white,” they often get into a conversation about racial identity.

Seemingly simple poems can start meaningful conversations, such as “This Is Just to Say” by William Carlos Williams (is he really sorry? Does this poem make up for taking the other person’s breakfast?) and the two questions can help unlock even the trickiest poems, like “Ode on a Grecian Urn” (does making beauty permanent rob it of beauty in the first place?

Once students can answer these two questions, they are prepared to look at the imagery and poetic devices used. This is the perfect time to work from the “what” of the poem to the “how” of the poem and look at the figurative language, rhythm, rhymes, and so on.

A perfect poem to introduce these two questions is “To A Daughter Leaving Home,” by Linda Pastan. The answer to “what happened?” is an easy one: the mother describes her daughter riding her bike independently for the first time. So then “how does the speaker feel about it?” Students will point to the fact that the mom is “waiting for the thud” of her daughter falling over, but she doesn’t fall off. Instead, she gets “smaller, more breakable with distance” enjoying here newfound independence. And when you get students to consider the title, they’ll see what the poem is REALLY about (this is a great poem for high school seniors.)

In a larger sense, one of the valuable skills we can teach students is to be able to process what has happened in their lives and determine how they feel about it (and whether their feelings about it are appropriate.) Rarely do we feel one way about something, and poets are no different. Reading poetry can help train students’ emotional intelligence in this way.

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“You Call That A Poem?” Reading Weird Poems in Class

January 24, 2016 By David Rickert 5 Comments

What does a piece of writing need to do in order to be called a poem?

This is the question I asked my seniors at the beginning of class this week. We had just finished up a poetry unit on lyric poetry and to finish off I wanted them to think critically about what a poem is with a fun, yet engaging activity. I wanted them to think about: how would you define a poem? What qualities must it have to be considered a poem?

We spent the first five minutes brainstorming about those two questions. The responses varied. Some said that a poem needed to have some sort of purposeful structure and convey an emotion. Some said that “it had to mean something.” Other were willing to accept that anything could be considered a poem. I welcomed all responses, because the next part of the class was going to challenge their notions of what a poem could be.

We strolled down to the media center to look at eight pieces of writing that have been called poems at some point, but pushed the boundaries of what a poem could be. They had to answer two questions for each poem: Is it a poem? and Why or why not? We then went back to the classroom to discuss what they thought.

Here was the most contentious example, a poem by Adam Saroyan:

lighght

Yes, that’s the entire poem. Some of my students were even angry that this would even be called a poem, especially when I told them that Saroyan was paid $750 for it! (To read the strange history of this poem, go here.)

Here’s another by e.e. cummings that students had difficulty calling a poem (click the link):

r-p-o-h-e-s-s-a-g-r

Their problem with it was they didn’t know how to read it, and if they did figure out how to read it, the payoff wasn’t all that great. Still, some thought it was really interesting.

Here’s the full list of poems that I used:

In a Station on the Metro -Ezra Pound

This is Just to Say – William Carlos Williams (although “The Red Wheelbarrow” would probably work too)

It Happens Like This – James Tate

r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r – e.e. cummings

Ode To Conger Chowder – Pablo Neruda

A Blackout Poem I Found on Pinterest (these are really easy to find. Just search for “blackout poem” and you’ll find a bunch). We had interesting conversations about this one. Some students thought blackout poems were a form a theft.

Concrete Cat – Dorthi Charles

lighght – Adam Saroyan

As we discussed these poems a few larger questions came up: Can we call a piece of writing anything that we want it to? Is that up to the author or the reader to determine? and just because we call it a poem, does that automatically make it a poem? Who gets to decide?

Students looking a t a blackout poem. — Students looking at a blackout poem.

But if you’d like to do this lesson in class, why do all the work if I’ve done it already? Click the link below and I’ll send you what I used for free. A quick trip to the copier and you can do this tomorrow. It would be a great activity at the beginning of the year, the beginning or end of a poetry unit, or any random day that you need to have a quick lesson. It’s easily adaptable to all different ages. And you don’t have to go to another room to set up the poems – you could do it your classroom with no trouble. And it will definitely take up the whole class period, if not more. (Please note: I don’t own the copyright for any of these poems, but they were all available online.)

Do you have any other poems that would work well for this activity? Let me know! I’d love to expand this lesson.

Mini-Timed Writings: Getting Students to Write More Without More Grading

January 17, 2016 By David Rickert 1 Comment

We all know that the best way to improve our students’ writing is by having them write more. However, it’s no fun to think about grading all of those extra papers, especially when you already have piles of stuff already to grade. The back log can get pretty unmanageable and frustrating, especially when you have to plan, grade other stuff you’ve collected, and finish watching the first season of Jessica Jones (or is that just me?) Mini-timed writings get your students writing more without adding a whole lot more to your grading. Plus they seem like a test, rather than a quick write or a journal, so students tend to do their best work.

A timed writing is an assessment that typically takes the whole period. Students are given a prompt, such as a personal narrative or a persuasive essay, or they might have to respond to a poem or an article. The have the period to write about it. This not only helps them prepare for the writing they will do on the ACT, SAT, and state tests, but it’s also a good measure of how much they know because they can’t consult outside sources.

A mini-timed writing only takes half the period. The idea for mini-timed writings came out of my AP classes, where timed writings are frequent assessments. I wanted to give them some practice that didn’t require the same amount of time, and then decided it worked well enough to use in my other classes too.

With a mini-timed writing, students have 25 minutes (about half the period) to write on a topic. For instance, we have been studying Emily Dickinson’s poetry for a couple of weeks, and this week I gave my students a mini-timed writing on the Emily Dickinson poem “Faith is the Pierless Bridge”:

Faith—is the Pierless Bridge
Supporting what We see
Unto the Scene that We do not—
Too slender for the eye

It bears the Soul as bold
As it were rocked in Steel
With Arms of Steel at either side—
It joins—behind the Veil

To what, could We presume
The Bridge would cease to be
To Our far, vacillating Feet
A first Necessity.

Their final assessment for the Dickinson unit is a paper, so the mini-timed writing is designed to help them prepare for that.

The prompt was simple: According to Emily Dickinson, how is faith like a bridge? I gave them the poem and the prompt, set 25 minutes on the timer, and let them have at it.

After the 25 minutes was up, I asked them to respond to the following questions at the bottom of the essay:

What did you find difficult about the poem?

What did you find difficult about writing?

What do you need to improve before the essay?

On all three questions I want them to be specific. “I need to get better at reading poetry” is not helpful. “I don’t understand how to write about word choice” is much better.

We use the time remaining in the period to discuss their responses to these three questions. Students share their struggles and I get an immediate idea of what I need to teach or review before the next formal writing assignment. I then collect their papers and read over what they wrote. I want to have a general idea of what skills we need to work on before the next essay, so I pick three things that seem to be common problems to target with mini-lessons. However, I also have good self-reflection from the students to look at that give me even more information of what they find difficult. All of this occurs in one period!

The benefits of mini-timed writings:

You can write one and debrief in one period.
Students are engaged in an authentic writing task.
You get immediate feedback on where your students need help.
You don’t have to grade them thoroughly if you don’t want to.
It’s a good test of what students can do because they can’t cheat.
They are good warm-ups for longer, more formal papers.

Try it out and let me know what you think!

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How to Grade Faster

January 5, 2016 By David Rickert Leave a Comment

I don’t know a single teacher who would rather grade than teach (and if you do, give me your address. I’ll send you a large package with a self-addressed stamped envelope with some essays. Thanks!) However, grading essays, tests, and homework is part of the responsibility of being a teacher. If students would simply learn everything that we taught them, we wouldn’t need to grade anything at all! But they don’t, so we have to grade assessments to make sure that they have learned what they need to know, and make adjustment if they don’t.

If you’re an English teacher like me, you can easily be bombarded with papers. It can seem like the stack will never get smaller and just when it does, a new set of papers comes in. What can you do? Here are some strategies that have helped me over the years. And no, assign less work is not one of the strategies.

Set a deadline.

My goal is to get papers back a week after they are handed in. I don’t always accomplish it, but setting this deadline for myself is one of the best ways I’ve found to help me stay on task and get them back quickly.

If you’re especially brave, tell your students your goal. It will help keep you accountable.

Find your most productive time.

I have 1st period and 7th period off, and I’m a much quicker grader in the morning than in the afternoon. My mind is fresh and I don’t get distracted easily. On the weekends if I have papers to grade I’m likely to do them first thing in the morning on Saturday and Sunday. Those are the times when I feel like I can crank out a bunch of papers. Make sone tea, turn on some classical music, sit in the early morning sun, and I’m ready to go.

Be aware of the times of day that seem to work best for you. Grade during those times and do other tasks during the other times. I don’t check my email first thing once I get to school, because that can easily rob me of fifteen minutes I could have spent grading. I save that for much later in the day.

Pair grading with something you like to do.

On the rare occasions where I’m grading something in the evening, I like to have a glass of wine. I know some teachers who love to grade in their pajamas – even in the afternoon! Pairing something you don’t want to do with something you like to do is a great way to make the task less of a chore. Put on some of your favorite chill out music and grab that pen and go.

Create cues.

Yoga teacher Erica Jago always lights a candle in her office when she writes. This signals to her mind that it’s time to get to work.

Similarly, we can create these cues in our own lives that signal to our brains when it’s grading time. Make a cup of tea, listen to a certain CD, go to a certain place in the building. I like to grade in the media center in our school with a cup of tea. Once we signal to our brains that grading is what we are supposed to be doing, it’s easier to get in the flow and crank out some papers.

Don’t grade for yourself.

I have been guilty of putting way too many comments on students’ papers. I put comments on the paper to justify the grade I give them rather than to teach them how to do better the next time.

Excessive comments take up time, and if the students don’t read them when you hand them back, it’s a waste of time. Don’t grade to prove that the students deserve the grade you give them. Only put meaningful, purposeful comments that will help students do better the next time. If the students have questions about how they can do better, or don’t understand the grade they received you can address it then. A good rubric will also help you to make less comments.

You can also make the argument that if your assignment is summative – like a test or an exam – you don’t need to add any comments at all. If you’re only trying to assess what students have learned, all you need to do is give a grade.

Timeliness beats thoroughness.

I could go through a stack of essays and add numerous comments and mark every mistake, but if I hand them back two months later, it would do much good. Feedback is best when it’s received as quickly as possible. It’s much better to only mark a few things and get papers back quickly rather than be meticulous and get them back long after the students have forgotten what they’ve written.