If you know, you know. It’s poetry time again in the EDU corral. I’ve taught poetry for several years now and it is always an adventure. In fifth-grade it was fun to just see kids learn that poetry didn’t HAVE to rhyme. It was like a huge weight was taken off their little shoulders. They still whined and moaned, but we focused on the LACK of rules and 99.9% of them learned to love poetry. I still remember the one boy who went on to write many poems to several girls in class. He might have gotten the idea from me…when I quoted Robin William’s famous line from Dead Poet’s Society. (classic)
Now that I am up in the higher grades of 8th and 9th grade, you’d think teaching English and poetry in general would be very different. Well, you’d be mostly wrong. There are a few, very very few, students, who ‘get it’, but for the most part the students are still terrified of poetry.
Regardless of what my students might say, my goal is NOT to torture them. Usually. I love the creativity that can be uncovered when students actually relax and let their minds open up to the possibilities of poetry. It is a big beautiful world! One of the things I like to do is to point out the poets they already know. A hot debate usually ensues when I tout Taylor Swift as one of today’s best poets. It is amazing how divided people are on her! It reminds me of the love-hate battle we went through with Justin Bieber just a few years ago. It is true that “People throw rocks at things that shine!” Yes, that is a line from Ms. Swift and No, I am not a “swifty”, I just think she is an amazing poet.
In an effort to pull the majority of the classes out of the chaos I’ve created by my previous statement, I make amends by bringing up Tupac as another amazing poet. The dust settles a bit when I mention him…if students know who he is. I can show some of his work, and his picture, but darn it if most of his stuff isn’t on that explicit label. Try harder, man!
This week, I’m having my 8th graders use one of Tupac’s poems as a framework to write their own poems. I chose I CRY because it’s darn good…and clean! I can’t wait to see what they come up with. I am confident a few of them will use some bodily functions and a skibiddy toilet will most definitely be mentioned in at least one, but hopefully they will have fun with it. Just for fun, I’m including the original and MY take on it. If you know me you will laugh. If you don’t, you’ll be glad you don’t need me to drive you anywhere.
Enjoy! And…happy poetry month!
Cause I said so
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