http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVpv8-5XWOI
Hey, hey, hey
Your lipstick stains on the front load of my left side brains
I knew I wouldn't forget you, and so I went and let you blow my mind
Your sweet moon beam, the smell of you in every single dream I dream
I knew when we collided, you're the one I have decided who's one of my kind
Hey soul sister, ain't that Mr. Mister on the radio, stereo, the way you move ain't fair, you know!
Hey soul sister, I don't want to miss a single thing you do...tonight
Hey, hey, hey
Just in time, I'm so glad you have a one-track mind like me
You gave my life direction, a game show love connection we can't deny
I'm so obsessed, my heart is bound to beat right out my untrimmed chest
I believe in you, like a virgin, you're Madonna, and I'm always gonna wanna blow your mind
Hey soul sister, ain't that Mr. Mister on the radio, stereo, the way you move ain't fair, you know!
Hey soul sister, I don't want to miss a single thing you do...tonight
The way you can cut a rug, watching you's the only drug I need
You're so gangsta, I'm so thug, you're the only one I'm dreaming of
You see, I can be myself now finally, in fact there's nothing I can't be
I want the world to see you be with me
Hey soul sister, ain't that Mr. Mister on the radio, stereo, the way you move ain't fair, you know!
Hey soul sister, I don't want to miss a single thing you do tonight,
Hey soul sister, I don't want to miss a single thing you do...tonight
Hey, hey,hey – Tonight / Hey, hey,hey - Tonight
Jason Kurtz
Dell Rapids Public High School
Jason.Kurtz@k12.sd.us
POETIC PROMISE:
Practical Poetry in the
English Classroom
Pop Music Poets
 Poetic Images

Poetography
 Flickr Poetry
 Slidecasts


Creating Units/Modules

Video/Music/Prose/POEMS
WHERE HAS POETRY GONE?



In April 2003 in the “My Turn” section of Newsweek, Bruce Wexler claimed that
no one reads poetry anymore. I contend that it permeates our society in a
different way, through music. Our students are listening to "poetry" every
day. By bringing a medium that students are familiar with (pop music & video)
into the classroom, greater leaps in learning take place.
The obvious potential lies in that pop music songs and lyrics can be used as a
springboard to literary interpretation. By analyzing the words in a song, as well
as understanding the process and clues through which we develop our analysis,
students will be able to have greater confidence in supporting their own
interpretations of literature, and specifically poetry. Associating the music or
lyric with the term or concept that is being taught, also provides a mnemonic
device that the student may use during recall.
Many students seem frustrated and hesitant with poetry interpretation because
oftentimes, their own suggestions may differ from classroom text's interpretation.
However, students usually have no qualms when asked to offer interpretations of
popular musical lyrics. In fact, they seem quite eager to defend a lyrical
explanation and will readily point out (without even realizing it) symbols,
images, and allusions as ammunition to prove their points.
How do you know you are in the presence of a
poem?
By identifying the conventions of poetry
A simple way to help students identify these
elements and conventions is to identify them in
pop music lyrics.
POP MUSIC POETS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVhJ_A8XUgc
Simile
A simile is a figure of speech comparing two unlike things, often introduced with the word "like" or "as".
Circus – Performed by Brittany Spears – Written by Lukasz Gottwald, Claude Kelly, Benjamin Levin
There's only two types of people in the world
The ones that entertain and the ones that observe
Well baby, I'm a put-on-a-show kind of girl
Don't like the backseat, gotta be first
I'm a like the ringleader, I call the shots
(Call the shots)
I'm like a firecracker I make it hot
When I put on a show
I feel the adrenaline moving through my veins
Spotlight on me and I'm ready to break
I'm like a performer, the dance floor is my stage
Better be ready, hope that you feel the same
[Chorus]
All eyes on me in the center of the ring just like a
circus
When I crack that whip, everybody gon' trip just
like a circus
Don't stand there watching me, follow me, show me
what you can do
Everybody let go, we can make a dance floor just
like a circus
There's only two types of guys out there
Ones that can hang with me and ones that are
scared
So baby, I hope that you came prepared
I run a tight ship so beware
I'm a like the ringleader, I call the shots
(Call the shots)
I'm like a firecracker, I make it hot
When I put on a show
I feel the adrenaline moving through my veins
Spotlight on me and I'm ready to break
I'm like a performer, the dance floor is my stage
Better be ready, hope that you feel the same
[Chorus]
Let's go
Let me see what you can do
I'm runnin' this like-like-like a circus
Yeah, like a what? Like-like-like a circus
[Chorus repeat x2]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=037uSAIahho
POETOGRAPHY:
http://poetography.org/
FLICKR POETRY
TWISTING POETOGRAPHY:
Slidecasts
http://theunquietlibrarian.wordpress.com/tag/poetry/
Visual metaphors and a connection to Rosenblatt’s
theories of reader response.
“METAPHORS”
Sylvia Plath
I’m a riddle in nine syllables,
An elephant, a ponderous house,
A melon strolling on two tendrils.
O red fruit, ivory, fine timbers!
This loaf’s big with its yeasty rising.
Money’s new minted in this fat purse.
I’m a means, a stage, a cow in calf.
I’ve eaten a bag of green apples,
Boarded the train there’s no getting off.
An elephant,
a ponderous
house,
A melon
strolling
on two
tendrils
O red fruit,
ivory fine
timbers!
POETIC MODULES:
VIDEO/LYRIC/IMAGE/POEM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5i_0PkOqLKA
POETRY MODULES: POEM – ROBERT FROST
Acquainted with the Night - Robert Frost
I have been one acquainted with the night.
I have walked out in rain -- and back in rain.
I have outwalked the furthest city light.
I have looked down the saddest city lane.
I have passed by the watchman on his beat
And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.
I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet
When far away an interrupted cry
Came over houses from another street,
But not to call me back or say good-bye;
And further still at an unearthly height,
A luminary clock against the sky
Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.
I have been one acquainted with the night.
POETIC MODULES: PROSE
RAY BRADBURY
POETRY JIGSAW

Cooperative learning technique that values the group and
the individual





Divide students into jigsaw groups (4-5) that are diverse
in terms of gender, ethnicity, race, and ability.
Appoint one student from each group to be the leader.
Divide the lesson in to 4-5 segments (Emily Dickinson
poems).
Assign each student to study one segment (one
Dickinson poem), making certain that students have
direct access only to their own segment.
Form temporary “expert groups” by having one student
from the jigsaw group join others assigned to the same
segment.
POETRY JIGSAW: AUTHOR APPROACH

Expert Group

Collectively discusses
the main points of
their segment and
discuss elements to
share with their
original jigsaw groups.

Jigsaw Group
The initial group of
students.
 Upon their return to
the jigsaw group, the
individuals who are
now experts in one
segment (one
Dickinson poem)
present their content
to the group.

http://www.jigsaw.org/steps.htm
POETRY: GENRE AND AESTHETICS

Poetic Schools and Movements

http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/193
180. When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer – Walt Whitman – Leaves of Grass, 1900
WHEN I heard the learn’d astronomer;
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me;
When I was shown the charts and the diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them;
When I, sitting, heard the astronomer, where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out, I wander’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.
POETRY CIRCLES
 Peer-Oriented

Form Evaluator


Universal ideas, interpretations
Image Cultivator


Structure, rhythm, rhyme
Theme Examiner


Learning
Visual elements, symbols, figurative
language
Background Filter

Context: period and poet
http://www.studyguide.org/poetry_circles.htm
POETRY GENERATING LOOPS
 Creating
a contemporary American poem using
conventions

Image Weaver


Language Keeper


Supply words and provide word play (5 “exotic”)
Metaphor Generator


Provide concrete images for the poem (at least 2)
Supply fresh metaphors or similes (at least 2)
Music Maker

Create a sense of music (rhyme, assonance, alliteration,
consonance)

(try to take language keeper’s words and generate words that
sound musical alongside them—eclectic + electric)
http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/poetry-circles-generative-writing-1074.html
Jason Kurtz
Dell Rapids Public High School
Jason.Kurtz@k12.sd.us
POETIC PROMISE:
Practical Poetry in the
English Classroom