Inquiring with DelightReading and Teaching Poetry

Louann Reid, Colorado State UniversityLouann.Reid@colostate.edu

Tuning Up“The Guitarist Tunes Up” (poem on cover of

handout)

Note: after the conference I modified some slides so that the presentation and handouts would make sense. The new material has a light blue background.

Goals for This SessionReinforce the importance of teaching delight

in poetryTry out some activities for doing soShare resources—your experiences

But first, a word from your presenter . . .

Colorado State—The Green University•Teach preservice teachers and inservice courses for practicing teachers•Co-author of textbooks for secondary school students•Previously taught secondary school English, public speaking, and drama for 19 years•Did my dissertation on the strategies year 10 students use to read and discuss poetry.•Working on a book for teachers on teaching visual texts.

Louann Reid, Colorado State University, 2008

View from Our House in Winter

The Rocky Mountains in early summer

Hearing a New SongDigi-Poems Contest 2007 (YouTube video of

“Hinemoa’s Daughter”)

Activities Juxtaposing the Texts

Bill Manhire: Every sequence you construct has consequences for meaning.

Get a Sense before Making SenseVenn Diagrams

ImitationsBill Manhire: Find your own voice as a writer

by copying out the voices of others.

Get a Sense Before Making SenseListen to two readers read “if everything happens that can’t

be done” by e. e. cummingsGive self an initial rating for understanding between 1 and

10Reread silently. Write two certainties and a question. Form small groups to discuss certainties and questions. Mark your understanding, again between 1 and 10.Large group discusses remaining questions. Large group debriefs activity: How could you use something

like this in your classroom? In what ways does this allow students to “inquire with delight” as a way into poetry? How can this activity apply to Bill Manhire’s idea that “every sequence you construct has consequences for meaning”?

Juxtapositions and ImitationsWe ran out of time, but the other three poems in the handout

were to be used for a two-part activity.All three poems were written in imitation of an “I Remember”

poem. Ask groups of three to juxtapose the texts, that is, they should intersperse lines from each poem to create a “new” poem that speaks to them and represents their interpretations of the individual poems.

After groups perform, debrief by asking students to consider the experience. How did rhythm, line length, and so on play into their juxtaposition? Do they see anything wrong with breaking up poems this way? How did the new poems lend additional meaning to the originals?

Finally, if you have time and interest, ask students to write their own “I Remember” poem.

Principles of Teaching Poetry for DelightConstructing knowledge is more powerful

than merely receiving information.Many students and teachers need to see that

they can construct meaning in poetry rather than see it as a riddle with one answer.

Often it may be more important to “get a sense” before “making sense.”

Why Do We Need Poetry?Poetry begins in delight and ends in wisdom,

according to Robert Frost.Similarly, N. Scott Momaday, a Native

American poet and writer stresses the importance of imagination. He says that we cannot be who we are without it: “We are what we imagine. Our very existence consists in our imagination of ourselves. The greatest tragedy that can befall us is to go unimagined.”

Poetry allows us to imagine and re-imagine ourselves.

CodaShelley, A Defense of Poetry

Poetry enlarges the circumference of the imagination by replenishing it with thoughts of ever new delight, which have the power of attracting and assimilating to their own nature all other thoughts, and which form new intervals and interstices whose voice forever craves fresh food.