Response to Chris's Pedgaogy Entry - Week 8

Pedagogy Forum, Week 8

Studying a novel this week, I was finding it hard to get poetry involved in my lesson plans until today. We started with a simple task of writing a defining poem in the voice of a character in the book. This worked on a few levels, because it required the students to look at the point of view of that character and see what they might think about different subjects. Today we started very basic, but we are going to work on these poems to make them stronger after they get the first idea down on paper. This also works as a review, because they have to take things from the novel to justify their choices in the poem. I know it is not exactly what we have been working on, but it is a another chance for students to be creative.

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I definitely think Chris is on the right track with this assignment. Using the novel as a jumping off point is beneficial because it offers those students, who otherwise would not know what to write about, a safety net for their poetry. By giving them a specific assignment related to a subject and setting they are already familiar with, students functioning on every level are relieved from some of the anxieties that often accompany a written assignment. Even the best writer in the class may struggle without being given any guidelines. Chris's in-class assignment harkens back to Hugo's Triggering Town, and is a fantastic way to incorporate a review. I may have to steal the idea later in the semester when I begin the novel study with my classes.