Poetry and Public Life

Classroom Activities

Activities for Visions of America: Celebrations and Criticisms

Klier mentions in his article that Roy Harvey Pearce “believes that the history of American poetry could be written as the continuing discovery and rediscovery of Whitman.”³² With this idea in mind, I would want us to start with Whitman, characterizing his writing style, then as we read Guthrie, Dylan, and Ginsberg, we would compare and contrast each poet to Whitman. Using debate circles, we would end the week debating who is most Whitman-esque and why. With this activity, the key focus is on familiarizing students with the language to help analyze and characterize poetry and concentrating on using textual evidence to develop argumentation.

When teaching Whitman,  I would focus on how his use of cataloguing, anaphora, imagery, diction, the length of lines, and even subject matter can be points of comparison for the other poets studied. I would have students— either for homework or classwork— make T-charts of how each poet, Guthrie, Dylan, and Ginsberg, are similar in style to Whitman and how they are different.  These T-charts must have textual evidence with line numbers used. When they get to class the next day,  students sit in groups of 5 and they number off 1-5. Then, the teacher would assign number 5 as the judge and 1-4 as the debaters.

Write the debatable question on the white board: “Who is most like Whitman: Guthrie, Dylan, or Ginsberg?”  Student 1 gets to pick which poet is the most like Whitman. Using their T-charts and poem annotations, Student 1 will have one minute to prepare for their argument, and then one minute to argue. Student 1 must use textual evidence to support their argument. Student 2 will automatically argue for a different poet, even if they don’t agree with the side they are representing. Student 3 can must champion the one poet that hasn’t been mentioned yet. Subsequently, Student 4 will help support student 1, 2, or 3’s choice. The judge takes notes on the arguments and decides which poet comes closest to writing like Whitman. At the end of the 4th round, the judge indicates to the class which side wins and explains why. This activity not only will sharpen their argumentative skills, but will help familiarize students with literary devices which help in our year-long discussion about visions and versions of America.

Activities for Versions of America: Celebrations and Criticisms

Using giant post-it notes and their own post-it note annotations from the poems we study, we will hold a visual tug of war over America’s greatness. I will create two giant post-notes using chart paper, labeled something like: “Yay America” and “Boo America” or “America’s Great” and “America-- it’s not perfect.” Again, how you the teacher label these will be determined by your classroom environment and school community.  I would post these on the wall -- somewhere easily accessible for students. As we read poems through this section of the unit, I will ask students to keep post-it annotations. I will have them write down passages from the poems they read that either sing America’s praises or do not. On that post-it, along with the quotation with MLA citation, they will need to explain why it celebrates or criticizes America.  When they find a quote, they will then stick the quote and explanation on the appropriate giant post-it note. You can even invite students to find poems or songs they find on their own to add to this visual tug of war. Remind them to cite their sources and use proper MLA formatting. At the end of this, I want students to see both why we celebrate and why we need also criticize our country, and ultimately reflect upon what these two actions do for our own understanding of America. Finally, students will write a reflection about the importance of celebrating and criticizing America and why we need to examine so many different visions and versions of our country.

Activities for American Visions of Conformity and Nonconformity

One activity found in Poetry of the Place would be to have students partner up  and concentrate on the idea of American visions of conformity and nonconformity, maybe giving them a specific concept or idea to work with.  One student would “write three questions along the lines of ‘What is…’ or a phrase beginning with something like, ‘If _________,’ or ‘When ________,’ and the partner responds with an answer or corresponding phrase in the form of ‘it is ________’ or ‘then __________,’ however, neither knows what the other is writing.”³³ For example, you might give the topic of conformity. A student might write, “What is being the same?” The student’s partner might write, “It is sheep.” Sometimes what they write will make sense and sometimes it will be a little nonsensical, but overall, the responses should share a common theme. This would be a fun introductory activity to get students thinking about these abstract concepts.

One last idea for a possible activity for this week would be to have students act out two poems, a technique that I was taught by Quraysh Ali Lansana during a workshop. I would block the poem for “We Real Cool,” giving each student a specific line to deliver and enact. For example, if the student gets the line “We / Strike straight,” I might have the student say this line while pretending to shoot pool. At the end of the poem, have students say the last line in unison with a very somber tone. After modeling how to create a performance of the poem and watching the performance of “We Real Cool,” I would want students in groups to block and perform a poem from this particular week.

Activities for American Versions of Race and Gender

Have students write about a societal issue or American culture from 13 different perspectives,³⁴ using some of the stylistic choices we focused on. The goal of this activity would be to have students examine different versions of America and to have “Students [open] themselves to multiple perspectives and [find] their own voice amongst them.”³⁵ This will really drive home the concept of why it is so important to look at different versions of America.

Culminating Activity

In McVee et al.’s study, the teachers asked themselves why not use digital media (something that teenagers are very familiar with) to help show the poet’s “use of sound, movement, spatial positioning, and images.”³⁶ With this idea in mind,  I would love at the end of this unit to have my students create their version of a distinctly American poem -- either celebrating it or criticizing it -- using one of the poets we have studied and discussed during the unit as inspiration for their own creation.  They must use language, literary devices, and form similar to those of poet they are inspired by. Along with composing their own poetic vision for or version of America, they will use PowerPoint, Google Slides, iMovie, or HitRecord to create a digital representation of their poem, concentrating on their own “use of sound, movement, spatial positioning, and images.”³⁷ They also need to consider the desired effect on their audience and how they want their poem to be experienced. For example, students can pick appropriate colors, fonts, music, images, etc. to help convey their desired effect on their audience and illustrate their true vision or version of America.

McVee et al.’s  study concluded that through the use of digital media, students “focused on how to communicate the meaning that they wanted to experience. This moved them from fears that they would not produce a ‘correct’ interpretation.”³⁸ The authors also described how “Many students’ reflections captured a newfound sense of agency from owning a poem or from exploring language in new ways.”³⁹ This would be the desired outcome for my students. With this in mind, I would offer my students extra points on their project to post to social media or on HitRecord. This activity would not only strengthen their writing and analysis skills and add to our discussion of visions and versions of America, it would allow my students to bring in their own passions and interests and to express their unique and ever changing view of their country and their place in it.