Oct 31 2008
Teaching Poetry
Wow! Trying to teach poetry and its elements to 8th graders is really hard. I realized that the students need a lot of scaffolding just to understand the basic meaning of the poem, let alone the deeper meaning(s). I found this to be very frustrating, but I’m assuming that once I become a better teacher I will know how to help the students understand better. On Tuesday we read “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe and we had to read the poem twice just for the students to get what was going on. Cheryl, my supervisor, was there that day and she said that I should try to do more stuff before we jump right into the reading. I thought this was a great idea. She said that sometimes if your having to help students with comprehension after the story it means you didn’t spend enough time before the story. She suggested I do some prediction activities based on the readings title and cover art. I thought these were great ideas. I am going to try this in the future and see if I have more success. Happy Halloween.
3 responses so far
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Sar-bear…you crack me up…but I will tell you why later. Anyway, have you seen the Simpsons version of The Raven? I subbed last year for an 8th grade English teacher who showed that as they were doing The Raven in class. Just a thought…I like Cheryl’s thoughts too though.
I feel ya, dawgie. I’ve had some similar problems even while teaching more “concrete” things like how to understand the events of a novel and how to write a 5-paragraph essay. The pre-reading activities are good and I can say I’ve tried to do some of the same things for my memoir unit I started with, but that can be really hard to do when you just want to get to the text and discuss it. I’ve been struggling with trying to figure out just how much time to spend scaffolding on any assignment, especially if the scaffolding takes more time than the actual assignment/activity you’re scaffolding for.
On a brighter note, we’re supposed to crash and burn here and there. I’d bet we would all be amazed if we were to videotape ourselves on our first day and compare it to how we operate today. You’re not expected to know everything…yet.
I am just this week starting poetry with my 9th graders and i know some sure will need alot of help…what did you find most effective with your class? and what poems did you use? I think I am most concerned with extended metaphors and the level of critical analysis I want my students to be able to do.