Classroom Activities
The teaching strategy in the beginning to introduce the content of ekphrastic poetry is direct instruction. As a launch activity that sparks interest among my freshmen students, I will present Van Gogh’s “The Starry Night” using a digital image. Once the students have observed the art piece, I will ask the students if they have seen this painting. To ensure further discussion, I will ask general questions about the image, color, and mood the painting creates. After the discussion, I will show an eight minute video titled “Better Know: The Starry Night The Art Assignment, PBS Digital Studios” (youtube.com). This video short gives a brief description of Van Gogh’s life and art work. The video includes an explanation of when “The Starry Night” was created and the circumstances that led to its creation. All detailed information that would interest teens and grab their attention. This will definitely lead to another discussion, and it will be important for the students to be immersed in the topic, which will lead to an opportunity for a writing assignment. Students will write a short reflection about their experience in seeing the painting, the video, and their discussion. The writing format will be a free write with the purpose of having students’ thoughts and ideas on paper.
Continuing with the ekphrastic poetry unit, my class will get a hard copy of Anne Sexton’s poem, “The Starry Night”. Students will perform a close read individually, the second read they will number the lines in the poem, highlight unknown words, and make notes of ideas, questions, and discussions topics on the side. After class discussion of the poem by Anne Sexton, and question and answer session; students will compare their free write reflection to the poem and analyze the two pieces. They will determine if there are any similarities of ideas compared to the poet. Students will share with another student what they learned about this activity. Again, they will perform a free write and reflect on the entire experience and discuss this with their partner. With my students generally being reluctant readers, I believe that this introduction activity is critical to overcome the challenges of reading, analyzing, and interpretations by ninth graders. Since my classes are 55 minute sessions, the activity described here will be two class periods, perhaps a third day to recap and summarize.
The two paintings described in the content; “Red Hills and Bones”, and “My Mother’s Kitchen” will be introduced in a similar manner. To have my students experience the vibrant colors, and the depth of the paintings, both art pieces will be displayed on screen digitally. The accompanying poems with the same titles will be presented in hard copy so students can annotate their copy. As part of the concluding activities, students will be given background information on what the Navajo people create today as art objects, and which had practical uses in the past. Students will do a mini-research on the various art pieces to broaden their knowledge of the history of utensils and tools used by the Navajos. This activity will boost interest among my students about their culture and language. Along with learning about art objects, there will be numerous teachable moments that I can share with my students especially since I was raised in a traditional Navajo home. So, this unit is an excellent opportunity for my students to learn to express themselves in English, but they will also learn about their native culture and language. Students will write an ekphrastic poem on art objects made by Navajos which are also functional pieces; such as pottery, baskets, rugs, sand paintings, and fans. Students will be free to choose what piece they’ll write an ekphrastic poem about. In conclusion, the poems and a picture of the art piece will be displayed as student work in the hallway.
The assessment criteria will be outlined on a rubric with creativity as the focus, the sincerity of the analytical work, and presentation of the writing. I don’t want to stifle the creativity of my students, so the points for the conventions portion of the writing will be lenient.
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