Response for Class on 2/21

When I was a senior in high school, we did a unit on poetry. For our major assignment, we had to write "I Am From" poems. These poems are meant to express where we come from, who raised us, and who we are now. I LOVED this assignment. I thought it was a way to write something that evoked emotion in the reader, but didn't need to explain everything to do it. In reading them aloud, we got to take a peek into the lives of our classmates, seeing what has made them who they are and feeling the honesty in their words. I liked how there was a freedom with this assignment, that we could speak from experience and not focus as deeply on grammar or structure. The thing about poetry is that it is unapologetically honest, and it feels more than it reads.

The "I Am From" poems remind me a lot of the "Raised By" poems Christensen discusses in her chapter on poetry. I connected with the section about the students hearing their classmates poetry. They realizes how similar they were in spite of being different. I felt the same in my high school English class. In those moments, we were connected by our pasts, different, yet the same. I think the major thing in all of the types of poetry Christensen discusses is that they all bring about a sense of community. I love the quote, "By structuring a curriculum that allows room for their lives and by listening to their stories, I can locate the right book, the right poem that turns pain in to power - while I teach reading and writing." Through poetry, students who feel alone in their experiences see that others go through the same things and have found power in their pain. As teachers, we should connect students with authors and poets who have similar experiences as they do. Giving them the tools to write poetry is to give them access to a whole other genre of literature to find themselves in.

While we can find ourselves in poetry, we can find poetry in the world around us. The author of "Finding the Poems that Hide: Why Students Should Write Poetry" discusses how she was able to find poetry in a simple grocery conversation. She goes on to say that "poems defy explanation." I totally agree with her point. There is something about poetry that allows you to write something that you can't put into words. Students should have the opportunity to read and write poetry because it diverts their attention from what can be explained to what can be felt. It is an entirely different challenge than writing a narrative or an argumentative essay. If teachers are supposed to equip students with the tools to be successful in a variety of writing styles, poetry should be included.