2nd Post, First "real" journal entry

I finished my unit this week. It was 10 lessons (5 days) of Poetry. I went over Rhythm, Melody, Imagery and Form. Some of the lessons were just awful. The kids got confused, I got confused...disaster!!! But, others were wonderful. The students understood the concepts and were able to apply then to their own poetry. One strategy I used this week was Feedback. Every poem that they turned in, I made specific comments about what they had done. I offered suggestions on how to make the line more Iambic, or give another word that would rhyme better. It seemed that after I did this the first time, the kids trusted me more. They had confidence in me as their teacher and felt like they could trust what I had to say. They asked more questions and they felt more comfortable in saying that they didn't understand something. Granted, writing comments on every paper was time consuming, but the payoff was worth the time!! I also made sure that their poems were given back to them the next day. Of course they were responsive to that. I always hated to wait for a teacher to give back an assignement. I also made sure I kept the feedback specific. For the first part of the week, the poems were assigned to them according to a particular skill: rhythm, melody, or imagery. I made sure to comment on their attempt at the skill. I also made sure to give positive feedback about whatever kind of creativity they incorporated in their poem. They have been assigned a Sonnet for Monday. I am keeping my fingers crossed that poems are Iambic Pentameter. The students had so much trouble getting the "beat". They could recognize when the beat was wrong. For example: carOL or matTHEW. But when it came to trying to find the beat in a line of poetry, they went brain-dead. I compared poetry to music all week. I talked about how the rhythm is like the backbone of the poem just like the drum beat is the backbone of the song. They would understand that part, but when it came to application, they just couldn't do it. I think it is going to take practice. This is an Honors class, so they will get it eventually. For some people rhythm comes naturally, others have to really work at it. But, I am confident that once the lightbulb comes on, it will be as natural as reading. The category they seemed to understand the most was Melody or Sound Effects. They did great at finding Assonance, Alliteration, Consonance, Onomatopoeia, etc. They even incorporated these elements into their own poetry quite nicely. Imagery was a little more difficult. Words like Metonymy, and Synechdoche confused them a little, but after many, many examples they started getting the hang of it and could recognize when the elements occurred in other poetry. Form was pretty easy for them. Finding the rhyme scheme seemed to be second nature. Like I mentioned earlier, they are supposed to write a Sonnet for Monday. The only strict criteria they were given was that it had to be 14 lines of Iambic Pentameter. I told them they could follow the Shakespearian or the Italian form, and their rhyme scheme could follow Shakespeare or Frost. I encouraged them to use Imagery and take advantage of Melody in their Sonnet, but it wasn't necessary. I am really anxious to read what they come up with. This past week has been a lot of fun. When I was prepared to the nth degree the lessons were better. I am so glad I read the chapter about Feedback. It really helped me gain a raport with the students.