A few weeks ago we had a fantastic guest speaker award winning poet, Deanna Young. It was so interesting to have her come in and discuss poetry. I thought it was great that she started her talk with a discussion, or even a critique of some of the readings we had been assigned the week before. She talked about how the article on poetry, although it was assumed that the article was promoting the use of poetry, it never actually mentions the significance of the affects of reading or writing poetry. Deanna also brought the class some great examples of how poetry can be used at different age levels, and can be used cross-curricular.
Although I thought Deanna was fantastic, I wasn’t completely convinced until she made us write our own poems. First off, poetry isn’t my forte, secondly, the topic took me back immediately: Math.
So here were the rules:
1. Cannot say Math
2. Must be at least 9 lines long
3. No number
4. Cannot directly reference number in any way
5. Must include one colour
6. Must include one emotion
And heres the result:
The Trouble with Math
I always thought it would be useless, I hated it really
I never understood how I could possibly go from being so good to being so bad at it
But then again, maybe it wasn’t me?
Maybe it was all of those awful teachers.
It was like thinking black was a colour my whole life and then finding out it’s actually a shade
What was that about?
Then I realized I would be one of those awful teachers who made everyone do this useless learning
I would have to change that mentality and find its purpose
How do I make it meaningful to students?
Turns out, 7 minutes of intensive poetry writing brings out the best in us. Some of the poems shared in the class were amazing. Absolutely incredible. Not only did we get into a great math talk, but it became a meaningful conversation. What a class!
Anyways, if there is one thing I will use in my future classrooms, or student mentoring programs it will definitely be poetry!
