Frances Vitali, Presenter
LISTEN:
Take a listen to Parent and Child Heebie Jeebies by Natalie & Michael Basinski
What is it? How would you describe it?
With partner:
1. complete metaphor - POETRY IS........................
2. share your experiences with poetry
A little about Natalie & Michael Baskinski:
They are a daughter and father performing artists involved in collaborative textual poetry, which is considered experimental poetry. Michael is a Curator of the Poetry/Rare Books Collection of the University Libraries, SUNY at Buffalo. His poems, articles and reviews are in numerous publications. He has performed choral voice collages and sound texts with his intermedia performance ensemble, The Ebma, for over 20 years.
Rationale:
My philosophy under girding this demo is that we are all natural poets. We think in metaphors, for as Benjamin Whorf said, “Language is the greatest show man puts on.” I personally love poetry-write it, read it, memorize it, and mingle with poets and artisans. Poetry is a form of storytelling and another medium in which to express ourselves, for after all, we are storytelling primates. Poetry is often misunderstood and misrepresented among any random disciplined group of people (teachers, writers, for example) because they do not understand it.
I was grappling with the question of how to engage UNM undergraduate students and 7th and 8th graders into the world of poetry as a way of storytelling about themselves. In doing so I realized I needed to commune with poetry on a deeper level. I needed to help dispel the usual myths and deconstruct what poetry really is. I fell short of owning a skill set, so to speak, of supporting UNM coaches of how to dig deeper with their middle school students and getting beyond the rhyme to the reason. I shared a strategy from the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy Portals into poetry: Using generative writing groups to facilitate student engagement with word art by Linda Young (September 2007, 51(1), pp. 50-55). However, I was just scritch-scratching the surface. I wanted to provide better learning supports for students to engage and connect in meaningful ways when we continue with this project next year.
Experiences with reading, listening and interpreting poetry, needs to precede writing, as Blau (2003) and other poets recommend. Reading Blau's (2003) The Literature Workshop provided theoretical and practical insight in thoughtfully interpreting poetry. This teaching demonstration is adapted from one of Blau's (2003, p. 36) exercises: Experiment in Reading a Poem with the goal of engaging and guiding students collectively and individually in poetic inquiry of textual competence and literary discourse.
I consider this teaching demo as a first draft in my evolution of this inquiry. This has provided opportunities to conduct some background reading and garner resources in continuing this poetic focus. Thank you for joining me and contributing to my inquiry quest.
Blau's Experiment in Reading a Poem
READ & LISTEN:
STEP 1. Three Listenings with Notes & Questions
(Notice what you find interesting, troubling, difficult to understand, questions, particular lines or anything else you observe as a listener.) After each listening:
1. Rate your understanding of the poem on scale from 1-10 with zero meaning you do not understand the poem at all and 10 meaning you understand it perfectly.
2. Make notes on what you are noticing.
3. At the end of your third listening, do the same as before adding:
a. Write a brief account of what happened to you as a listener and your understanding of the poem
over the duration of three listenings.
b. Write out any questions you may still have about this poem.
c. Refrain from talking to each other about the poem just now.
Born in Chicago in 1954, Sandra Cisneros grew up with her Mexican father, Mexican-American mother, and six brothers. Sandra substituted reading books and writing poetry for the sister she did not have. Salvadore Late or Early is from a collection of brief vignettes about a woman's life on the Texas/Mexican border. She brings insight of humor and love to her characters which many times are semi-autobiographical. (enotes and amazon.com)
TALK:
STEP 2. GROUP WORK
Join up with two other people into groups of three. Share what happened to you or to your understanding of the poem over the course of the three readings and questions you still have.
......Rate your understanding of the poem one more time.
STEP 3. NOTICING WHAT HAPPENED
Any remaining problems for you as listeners of the poem? Any groups encounter problems that were not cleared up?
STEP 4. GROUP FEEDBACK
How many of you rated your understanding of the poem higher on the last rating compared to the first?
How many of you rated your understanding of the poem higher on the second rating compared to the first? And after your third listening? And higher after your work with the group?
Did any of you rate your understanding lower rather than higher after additional readings? Can you explain why this may have happened?
Did you feel you were helped by your work with others in your group?
STEP 5. READING, INTERPRETATION, CRITICISM - kinds of thinking identified
Robert Scholes (Blau, 2003, p. 51-52) identifies three types of textual competence as follows:
1. Reading (text within text) - what are the facts, what does it say?
2. Interpretation (text upon text) - what does it mean?
3. Criticism (text against text) - what is its value, so what? What implications does it suggest?
PROCEDURES
STEP 1: OBSERVATIONS
Notice what you find interesting, troubling, difficult to understand, questions, particular lines or anything else you observe as a listener.
After each listening:
1. Rate your understanding of the poem on scale from 1-10 with zero meaning you do not understand the poem at all and 10 meaning you understand it perfectly.
2. Make notes on what you are noticing.
3. At the end of your third listening, do the same as before adding:
a. Write a brief account of what happened to you as a listener and your understanding of the poem
over the duration of three listenings.
b. Write out any questions you may still have about this poem.
c. Refrain from talking to each other about the poem just now.
#1 Listening & Reading OBSERVATIONS
Rating: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Notes:
__________________________________________________________________
#2 Listening & Reading OBSERVATIONS
Rating: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Notes:
__________________________________________________________________
#3 Listening & Reading OBSERVATIONS
Rating: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Notes:
a. Write a brief account of what happened to you as a listener and your understanding of the poem
over the duration of three listenings.
b. Write out any questions you may still have about this poem.
c. Refrain from talking to each other about the poem just now.
STEP 2: GROUP WORK
· Join up with two other people into groups of three.
· Share what happened to you or to your understanding of the poem over the course of the three readings and questions you still have.
· Rate your understanding of the poem one more time.
Rating: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
CLOSING NOTES: (Writing Prompts)
"Reading is a social process, completed in conversation. Students will learn literature best and find many of their best opportunities for learning to become more competent, more intellectually productive, and more autonomous readers of literature through frequent work in groups with peers" (Blau, 2003, p. 53).
"Having students work in groups helping each other solve the textual and conceptual problems that difficult texts pose for them turns out to be the most practical way available to put students into something like one of the roles that teachers usually occupy....in such a collaborative relationships, everybody gets to be the teacher and everybody gets to be the learner, according to her needs and strengths moment to moment" (Blau, 2003, p. 56).
A student writes about the value of the group presentation of poetry in Golub (1988):
"Sometimes it is too easy to accept the opinions of your professors because of their experience and imposing demeanor, but with other students you feel you are on equal ground. By this interaction I was forced to scrutinize my own conclusions and rethink many of my first impressions" (p. 71).
Mezirow (1991) in Artistic ways of knowing (Lawrence, 2005) reflects that "transformational learning occurs when learners reexamine their normal assumptions and realize new perspectives" (p. 68). The collaborative group work provides an opportunity to connect to stories on cultural, emotional and experiential levels that can elicit different levels of reading, interpretation and social criticism.
CLOSURE
WRITE: (Choose one of the following)
aHow will this exercise help you with working with your own students?
aDraw a portrait of Salvador with brief description.
aWrite an entry in Salvador's journal as if you were Salvador.
aWrite your own poem inspired by Salvador.
REFERENCES
Professional Reading
Blau, S. (2003). The literature workshop: the texts and their readers. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Coles, R. (1989). Teaching and the moral imagination. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Collins, B. (2001). Sailing alone around the room: New and selected poems. New York: Random House.
Golub, J. [ed.]. (1988). Focus on collaborative learning.Urbana, IL: NCTE.
Henning, D.G. (1992). Beyond the read aloud: Learning tto read through listeing to and reflecting on
literature. (Bloomington, IN: Phi Delta Kappa.
Lawrence, R.L.. [ed.]. (2005, Fall, No. 107). Artistic ways of knowing: Expanded opportunities for teaching and learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Lyon, G. E. (1999). Where I'm from, where poems come from. Spring, TX: Absey & Company.
Schoenbach, R., Greenleaf, C., Cziko, C., Hurwitz, L. (1999). Reading for understanding: A guide to improving reading in middle and high school classrooms. [The Reading Apprenticeship Guidebook]. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Where poetry comes from [videorecording]. Sante Fe: Lannan Foundation.
Young, L. (September 2007). Poetry portals: Using writing groups to facilitate student engagement with word art. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 51(1), pp. 50-55.
Poetry Resources
51 types of poetry at http://www.poemofquotes.com/articles/poetry_forms.php
Anipoems at http://amuribe.tripod.com/anipoems.html
APRIL POETRY MONTH at http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/41
Assessing Poetry Writing at http://www.poetryclass.net/assess.htm
Blended Zine (FPL Teen Zone Publication) at http://www.infoway.org/teenzone/blended/index.asp
Collaborative textual poetry. Sugar Mule Literary Magazine.Contemporary Poetic Forms at
http://poetry.about.com/od/poeticforms/Poetic_Forms.htm
Giggle Poetry at http://www.gigglepoetry.com/
Gotpoetry.com at http://gotpoetry.com/
Glossary of Poetic Terms at http://www.poeticbyway.com/glossary.html
Library of Congress Poetry 180 at http://www.loc.gov/poetry/180/
Library Resources-Poetry at http://www.colegiobolivar.edu.co/library/poetry.htm
Poets & Poetry at http://www.poets.org/
Poetry for Children at http://poetryforchildren.blogspot.com/
Poetry Exercise for Middle School at http://ncte2008.ning.com/forum/topics/in-the-center-poetry-for?page=1&commentId=2256925%3AComment%3A16647&x=1#2256925Comment16647
Poetry for Kids at http://www.kathimitchell.com/poemtypes.html
Poetry Lessons at http://www.poetryclass.net/lesindex.htm
Poetry Movements at http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/193
Poetry Zone at http://poetryzone.woodshed.co.uk/index2.htm
Teen Ink: Poetry at http://www.teenink.com/Poetry/
Types of Poetry at http://www.teachervision.fen.com/tv/printables/TCR/1557345902_43-44.pdf
Word Central (Merriam-Webster) at http://www.wordcentral.com/
UNM Student Poems
What will you bring me? edited by Daniel Tabor at http://dtaborii.tripod.com/id32.html
Life's Mystery edited by Kristin Ransom at http://raynecanyon.tripod.com/id15.html
Rain & Banana poems edited by Roderick Harlan at http://rharlan5.tripod.com/id8.html
Rain & Banana poems edited by Sarah Gaston at http://slgaston92.tripod.com/childrensliteraturespring2009/id8.html
UNM Children's Literature Class Collection (see Poetry Writing/Reflection pages) at http://unm443.tripod.com/443collectionsp09.html
Photo Albums of Students
Tibbetts Middle School Poetry Night on May 7, 2009 at http://poets09.ning.com/
Frances Vitali | fvitali@unm.edu | 505.330.1536 | http://poetrydemo.ning.com/profile/FrancesVitali