The new school year is upon us: a fresh start for students, teachers and parents alike. A new start for us here at POL too. One exciting development is this blog-a place for you to exchange tips and ideas, get questions answered and have discussions about teaching and learning poetry.
NEW LESSON PLANS–We have heard your requests for more lesson plans and we’ve added links to two plans by Chicago author and teacher Eileen Murphy. Both these lesson plans use “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden to explore meaning through sound and performance techniques. Murphy chooses this poem as an example of how sonic devices can be used to develop characters and conflict within a poem. (Also, check out this very cool animated reading of the poem on the PF website.)
Which brings us to this question: If you could choose only ONE poem to teach to your students, what would it be, and why? What one poem is essential for your students to leave your class with? Is it a poem that students really respond to, or one that lends itself perfectly to teaching poetic form in the classroom? Does it lend itself to lively class discussions, or do you teach it simply because you love it?
Students: Do you have any memorable experiences learning poems in the classroom? Are there any poems that have become especially meaningful to you because how they were taught?
this website is amazing i cant wait to participate in this sport!!!!!!
In 8th grade I had a choice of memorizing the Gettysburg Address or O Captain! My Captain! by Walt Whitman, for 10 extra credit points. It was only a choice, I didn’t have to, and it was just that one time. I memorized it, working on it for three days straight.
I’m in 12th grade now and I have never forgotten that poem.