Let me first begin this blog with a little bit of background to refresh everyone. I am a Secondary English Education Major. Because I am education based, I wanted to use the Boss Project as my opportunity to expand. Nicole, Denny, Travis, and I decided to work together on this project. Basically, we plan to utilize McGonial and Gee's principles in a practical unit. This involves coming up with a central unit in which we will have four different English classes stem off of. To begin we decided which English class or "subject" each of us wanted to teach. Travis was very certain that he wanted to investigate Shakespeare and Nicole quickly decided on American literature as well. Denny decided on British literature and I will proceed to tackle Poetry.Poetry, that's right! I approached this project with a small direction. I knew I wanted to have students "level up" through their discoveries. This could be by identifying vocabulary words in the poetry or demonstrating how certain poetic elements affect the meaning of the poem. The leveling up would be their point system and their "quests" would be their formal tests. I recalled one principle during my Shop Talk meeting with Dr. Shannon that I had decided to include in my lesson. This principle embodies the ability for students to redo assignments. I will give my students second chances to improve their work. This is a great idea because it enables my students to further investigate meaning in the poetry. If a student is willing to improve that means they are also willing to better their understanding and learn. Dr. Shannon encouraged me to choice pieces of literature that I feel are important and that I would like to teach. This will help me in the future because I will have at least one lesson to look back on. I have no decided if I want to look at just one genre of literature or just a few of my favorites. I like Walt Whitman and of course Robert Frost, but I will have to search through many of my textbooks to decided of which I will use for my lesson plan. By the way, my lesson plan will focus on one short class, not the entire marking period. I have decided to make a syllabus with the list of other poetry pieces I would intend to use. Getting back to the quest idea...I planned on having students do an oral presentation, written assignment, or class discussion to explain and expand upon what they had learned.
Well, these are just my starting ideas. Any poetry you recommend? It could really help me narrow it down to the pieces I want to look into. Also, if anyone has ideas I would like them too. Class, you will operate as my fellow "colleagues", so I would appreciate any feedback :)
I liked all the ideas you raised in main body paragraph. They definitely me start thinking about what I could do as I'm feeling a bit apprehensive at the moment how to approach the project. And lastly,I would have to suggest the "The Love Song of Alfred J. Prufrock," by T.S. Eliot because it's my favorite. :P
ReplyDeleteI am really looking forward to seeing how your lessons turn out! I am also thinking about ways to incorporate the learning that we are doing in this class in my future classroom (even though I am not focusing on that with the boss project).
ReplyDeleteRegarding poetry, I encourage you to look up modern poets - maybe even some youth poetry sites. This is a website of contemporary African poetry that I really enjoy reading: http://www.africanwriter.com/categories/Poetry/
It may not be directly relevant to our students or your lesson, but it is something new. I think that is something that our students can really use: contemporary, modern poets. Don't get me wrong - the classic poets are great! I really enjoy them. But I don't think kids get enough exposure to contemporary poets.
Dude - and spoken word is some of the best stuff out there. This is one of my favorites: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhPikRQRX5o
He is hilarious.
Denny- Keep me updated on your ideas. I am always willing to bounce ideas off of each other. I will have to look up that poem! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteSarah- I like your modern poetry idea. I also agree students are not exposed to it enough. I will look it up and see what I can pull from it. Thank you for your ideas Sarah.