Rationale
We need to help the students find a channel for their personal self-expression, and poetry is a vehicle that can traverse that channel. Whereas, in painting it is easier for the art-creator to "hide" within his expression through the use of color, it becomes more difficult to do this through literature. Poetry is a safe environment of expression. But this condemns you to be truthful with yourself, to reflect the truth when you write. What makes a good writer is his or her ability to be truthful.
Big Job! Yes, but just as in life, once words express desires and those words come from a teeming brain, and then what is put on paper becomes no longer invisible. Once visible, anything is possible. Wishes do come true when words make sense. For example, today in lunch, after opening my fortune cookie I laugh because the paper read:
"Good writing is clear thinking made visible," what a coincidence!
Further, the creative process is critical thinking in action. The problems encountered in self expression force the participant to question a myriad of variables in his quest to be truthful with himself. This is problem-solving, and problem solving always involves creativity. It does not matter if it is not appreciated by others. Creativity requires freshness or originality as a characteristic of what is created, I ask my students: "Haven't you thought, when watching a movie, why is it that you laugh aloud, or why you cry or feel sad?" You can make the people feel what you want, react how you want and, more importantly, they will learn that, during this stage of life: one's writing echoes one's emotions and thought, through the written piece resonating, feeling with the heart.
We need writers in our society. Companies hire writers in order to get across their purpose - such as a program on television, or a politician's campaign in the public psyche. Therefore, I conclude by saying that writing has the potential to become an occupation. Writers get paid well; they can persuade people, make them laugh, cry, get angry, and capture what happens in society.
This curriculum unit will be my roadmap to accelerate the vocabulary, knowledge and culture around poetry that has tremendous importance in Language Arts.
Comments: