In order to become an effective teacher, I feel as though I need to begin constructing some sort of archetypal teacher-figure to model myself after. In that light, I am grateful that my school has given me the chance to become a part of a classroom for a semester, in order to begin forming ideas about what I want to take to the classroom, and how I might approach them.
Because my concentration is in poetry, I know that I want to include poetry in my own classroom; however, the only experience I've had with poetry--for the most part--has been at the collegiate level. However, I feel like I've struck gold in this classroom, because poetry and creative writing have been honored since the moment I walked in.
One thing that I noticed in terms of how poetry is useful in any English class is this idea that explicating a poem is a small-scale example of examining a larger work. Looking at the way structure, tone, and diction in poetry is very similar to examining a novel, so I might take that sort of mindset to my own classroom. Essentially, it is helpful because it breaks the complex process down into a much more digestible chunk.
Also, in Andy's class, he has dedicated time to let students write their own work, and even share! This is a great way to build confidence in writing in a fun manner. One way I might approach this in my class is by doing an "exquisite corpse" in class, which is an exercise in which one person writes a line, passes it to the next person, and so one--the main point being that a student only gets to see the previous line and nothing more. Once everyone has contributed a line or two, the activity ends by someone reading the poem out loud, and then everyone gets to discuss all the wacky places that the poem went, why some paris of lines worked really well together, and so on. This builds creative confidence in a fun, collaborative way, as seeing in an article I recently read, called "Reinventing a Language Arts Classroom." (http://onepieceatatime.blogspot.com/2011/06/exquisite-corpse-poetry.html)
Because my concentration is in poetry, I know that I want to include poetry in my own classroom; however, the only experience I've had with poetry--for the most part--has been at the collegiate level. However, I feel like I've struck gold in this classroom, because poetry and creative writing have been honored since the moment I walked in.
One thing that I noticed in terms of how poetry is useful in any English class is this idea that explicating a poem is a small-scale example of examining a larger work. Looking at the way structure, tone, and diction in poetry is very similar to examining a novel, so I might take that sort of mindset to my own classroom. Essentially, it is helpful because it breaks the complex process down into a much more digestible chunk.
Also, in Andy's class, he has dedicated time to let students write their own work, and even share! This is a great way to build confidence in writing in a fun manner. One way I might approach this in my class is by doing an "exquisite corpse" in class, which is an exercise in which one person writes a line, passes it to the next person, and so one--the main point being that a student only gets to see the previous line and nothing more. Once everyone has contributed a line or two, the activity ends by someone reading the poem out loud, and then everyone gets to discuss all the wacky places that the poem went, why some paris of lines worked really well together, and so on. This builds creative confidence in a fun, collaborative way, as seeing in an article I recently read, called "Reinventing a Language Arts Classroom." (http://onepieceatatime.blogspot.com/2011/06/exquisite-corpse-poetry.html)