It's the end of September. Of course I haven't written a blog post this month. (I did get a book review published on the Nerdy Book Club blog, though, but I actually wrote it in August.) To all you folks who have time to blog at the start of the school year: props to you! Another thing I haven't had the time to do yet is to read Instant Relevance by my friend and co-worker Denis Sheeran. Luckily, Denis is quite forgiving and has allowed me an extension. My next blog post will either be a recording of my interpretive dance inspired by the book or a picture of the diorama I'm going to make as soon as I finish reading it. (Denis, if you're reading this, can I please get a new copy of the rubric for the final project? I had it, but I lost it. Thanks!)
Seriously, though, even if I haven't yet read the book, I have been able to pop in to a few of the #MakeItReal Twitter chats on the book study (and no one has kicked me out because I haven't read the book yet). The other morning on the #BFC530 spark chat, Denis did encourage me to write a post. We were considering how we were going to discuss the presidential debates from Monday evening, and I realized that 1) I had no plans for doing that for the day, 2) I probably should have considered that, but sometimes we teachers live under a rock, and 3) I could still change my lesson plan for the day. So, I did.
Having taught AP English Language and composition in the past, I used to use debates and State of the Union addresses to analyze rhetorical devices. Regardless of any students' politics, this was a valid exercise. But how to cover the same material in AP literature? Hmmmm.
The idea came to me as I was chatting with my #BFC530 friends, and as soon as I shared it, I received instant encouragement to just do it: create found poems using the transcript from the presidential debates.
Here's what I loved about doing this exercise with my students. We're currently studying poetry, and their summative assessment is to write poems of their own. While students have always performed well on this task in the past, they tend to have some anxiety about it. Their level of comfort with ambiguity is often low, particularly at the beginning of the school year (which is why I actually like to start with poetry --it sets a clear standard for tolerating ambiguity). Doing this exercise gives students a low-risk opportunity to produce poetry with someone else's words while playing with form and formatting. They can capitalize, bold, italicize, punctuate and break lines as it pleases them. It allows them to create something new (whether it relates to politics or not is up to the interpretation of the readers), and to try on new and different voices. Some students preferred to work alone, while others paired up or teamed up in triads. I wrote one too, because you shouldn't ask students to do something that you haven't done yourself. After creating the poems in class, students were required to post them on our Schoology discussion board and then to analyze the meaning of at least one peer's poem. Again, this was great practice for them, not only for AP exam preparation, but also in applying critical literary theories, which we've also just started to study in depth. So, all in all, I'm glad I bumped back my lesson plan for Tuesday and pushed this in, and I'm pretty sure my students are glad, too. Here are the poems:
Untitled
You will see devastation!
(to be semi-exact)
I am DETERMINED
I know how to really work --
You can't do what you're looking to do.
That is your
opinion. Well,
That
Is
Your
Opinion…
-OA
A Poem for Ronald
Reagan is as beautiful as the gold standard -
The finest President you've ever seen.
I will make him my husband.
We'll be stronger than China,
Better than my deals.
He's the eighth wonder of the world.
-JM & TM
Untitled
WE,
tonight,
Are on The Stage,
together.
It's good to be with you.
It's going to be a beautiful thing to watch;
It's going to be a beautiful thing to watch.
AND I
look very,
very
much forward
To
Doing It.
-SL
The Top
Remain silent.
Make your life better.
Welcome to your future.
Well excuse me.
Very quickly---
We can't allow people at the top to answer
Like we haven't any fight.
What kind of devaluing futureWill we invite in?
Focus. We cannot let it happen.
Not now, not later.
Later in November 8th,
Not in hundreds of years.
Think. And look.
Who will come?
Who is really at the top?
They're stealing our people.
They close our discussion.
They want us to support their visions
And at this moment,
This evening belongs to the top.
Not the people.
But we can fight back.
We'll build together
A beautiful wonder.
We have earned our own opinions.
We can never go back.
These values are mine. For the people.
Right now, you must think.
So, let's begin.
-CP
Untitled
We are Americans.
We'll build together,
We have to support and balance,
We are determined,
We join your vision,
We bring leadership and an approach-
We do not have to judge,
We don't focus on inequality,
We cannot blame,
We know not what will come looking forward
I invite you
to invest
in US(A)
-JD & CB
Donald Trump and I
We tonight are together,
Donald Trump and I.
How are you, Donald?
It's good to be with you.
I want to welcome you.
Thank you,
But we have to stop.
Why?
This is a beautiful thing.
It's the eighth wonder of the world.
It got us into
the mess we are in.
Let's start
again.
It would be beautiful.
I know you live in your own reality,
But I’m going to be blamed
For everything
-CH & LJ
Untitled
Our Jobs are fleeing the country,
They're going to Mexico.
It's going to be a beautiful thing to watch...
Companies will come,
They will build,
They will expand-
It's a great thing for the companies to expand.
It's going to be a beautiful thing to watch...
Well, that is just not accurate.
That was a disaster…
-HS,CC & CG
Untitled
Good luck to you,
You who lives in your own reality.
Then you heard
What I said about it,
And all of a sudden
You were against it.
Good luck to you!
You who can’t bring it back.
I held all of it
To the same test,
Yet look at the differences,
All you have to do is look.
Good luck to you!!!
You who were totally in favor of it.
That is your opinion.
You can’t do what you’re looking to do,
And I’m going to be blamed,
For everything...
You will see the DEVASTATION.
Good luck to you.
I want to invest in you,
In us.
If we’re going to look up the facts,
Why were you
The better choice?
The same question to you.
-OL & LM
Untitled
So
Let’s Begin
Policies, Positions, Visions, Values
Prosperity, Honor, America
Beautiful things
They will build, they will expand
I will-
I will be gold
I’m a believer, are you…
-LH, EN &IL
Untitled
I have thought about this quite a bit,
About what worked
And how we can make it work again.
I'm a great believer in the future we'll build together.
I want to invest in you and, everybody agrees,
It's the finest deal they've ever seen.
Look, we have our differences,
So I will tell you this-
It's good to see you again.
-KH, ZB & EM
Untitled
welcome
how are you?
open, explore
don't remain silent
this evening belongs to you
focus your values,
your visions
on innovation.
we have so many minutes
for the finest reality.
for years, we hear growth.
new records
new opinions
applaud
-MB
Recent Comments