![]() You are precious … You are deserving of respect,” she tells the room. “And most of all, you are good enough.” As Vella’s voice shakes, she begins to ask: “Why am I not good enough?” But by the end of the poem, she’s turned the question on its head. ![]() The slam poem, which Vella performed for her class and on video, begins with a list of ways a girl can fit in - trendy outfit, styled hair, tight Converse shoes. ![]() ![]() She wanted to tell girls her age that they were talented, smart and beautiful - no matter how often they were told otherwise. When Olivia Vella’s seventh grade teacher asked every student to write a monologue on a topic about which they were passionate, Vella immediately knew what she wanted to say. Students have fun analyzing it and coming up with their own three-stanza parody.Posted by Queen Creek Middle School on Tuesday, May 23, 2017 This poem has always been a favorite to teach because of its brevity and ability to provoke discussion. "This Is Just to Say," by William Carlos Williams They call him Iron Gut with his overpowering demeanor and scruffy beard under his dark piercing eyes I think he was in the war or got shot in the stomach or something He just sits upright on his porch in his dark wooden chair with a blank stare And still to this day I wonder why they call him Iron GutĤ. Students tend to become more intrigued when they hear Brooks actually reciting the poem on audio, and a great follow-up assignment-one in which students write about members of their own community-often results in some fascinating insights. Not only do Brooks’ unique line breaks spark discussion around the purpose of enjambments and rhythm in poetry, but the poem also speaks to her own views of the community around her. Kids love responding to the poem by writing about their own high school experience-it really forces them to be intentional in examining and drawing conclusions about the building they enter every day. We then traced his words to actually locate the speaker as he walks us through a typical school day. As a class, we looked at his purposeful use of repetition to convey a message. Listening to and watching the poet Malcolm London speak about high school issues piqued the interest of some of my most disengaged students. ![]() If your students are anything like mine, they have a lot to say about how a school should be run. " High School Training Ground," by Malcolm London More often than not, the assignment sparked good conversations at home, and the students end up learning something they didn't know about their names (I know I did!).Ģ. I had students write about how they got their own names after a close reading of her vignette " My Name," which turned out to be a wonderful assignment to start the year and introduce themselves to the class. So many of my students could access Cisneros’ informal, playful, and deeply personal language. Here are the four poems that engaged my students, no matter what their comfort level with the form: I had the privilege of teaching poetry to a wide range of high school students this year, from those who had scribbled poems all over their binders to others who vehemently denied having ever written a single line of poetry. ![]()
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