DOCUMENT RESUME ED 432 780 CS 216 827 AUTHOR Somers, Albert. B. TITLE Teaching Poetry in High School. INSTITUTION National Council of Teachers of English, Urbana, IL. ISBN ISBN-0-8141-5289-9 PUB DATE 1999-00-00 NOTE 230p. AVAILABLE FROM National Council of Teachers of English, 1111 W. Kenyon Road, Urbana, IL 61801-1096 (Stock No. 52899-0015: $14.95 members, $19.95 nonmembers). PUB TYPE Books (010) Guides - Classroom - Teacher (052) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC10 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Class Activities; *English Instruction; High Schools; Internet; *Poetry; *Poets; Student Evaluation; Teaching Methods IDENTIFIERS Alternative Assessment ABSTRACT Suggesting that the teaching of poetry must be engaging as well as challenging, this book presents practical approaches, guidelines, activities, and scenarios for teaching poetry in high school. It offers 40 complete poems; a discussion of assessment issues (including authentic assessment); poetry across the curriculum; and addresses and annotations for over 30 websites on poetry. Chapters in the book are (1) Poetry in America; (2) Poetry in the Schools;(3) Selecting Poetry to Teach;(4) Contemporary Poets in the Classroom;(5) Approaching Poetry;(6) Responding to Poetry by Talking;(7) Responding to Poetry by Performing;(8) Poetry and Writing; (9) Teaching Form and Technique;(10) Assessing the Teaching and Learning of Poetry;(11) Teaching Poetry across the Curriculum; and (12) Poetry and the Internet. Appendixes contain lists of approximately 100 anthologies of poetry, 12 reference works, approximately 50 selected mediaresources, 4 selected journals, and 6 selected awards honoring American poets. (RS) *********************************************w********************************** * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * * from the original document. * ******************************************************************************** U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND Office of Educational Research and Improvement DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION BEEN GRANTED BY CENTER (ERIC) EA This document has been reproducedas /received from the person or organization originating it. /14-pAA_ CO Minor changes have been made to .0 improve reproduction quality. .TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES °Points of view or opinions stated in this INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy. BEST COPY AVAILABLE Teaching Poetry in High School Editorial Board: Jacqueline Bryant, Kermit Campbell, Bobbi Fisher, Xin Liu Gale, Sarah Hudelson, Bill McBride, Gerald R. Og lan, Helen Poole, Karen Smith, Chair, ex officio, Peter Feely, ex officio 4 Teaching Poetry in High School Albert B. Somers Furman University National Council of Teachers of English 1111 W. Kenyon Road, Urbana, Illinois 61801-1096 Staff Editor: Zarina M. Hock Editorial Assistant: Jessica L. Creed Interior Design: Doug Burnett Cover Design: Pat Mayer NCTE Stock Number: 52899-3050 © 1999 by the National Council of Teachers of English. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. It is the policy of NCTE in its journals and other publications to provide a forum for the open discussion of ideas concerning the content and the teaching of English and the language arts. Publicity accorded to any particular point of view does not imply endorsement by the Executive Committee, the Board of Directors, or the membership at large, except in announcements of policy, where such endorse- ment is clearly specified. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Somers, Albert B., 1939 Teaching poetry in high school/Albert B. Somers. p. cm. ISBN 0-8141-5289-9 (pbk.) 1. PoetryStudy and teaching (Secondary) I. Title. PN1101.S63 1999 808.1'071'2dc21 99-32205 CIP 6 This book is dedicated to the memory of my parents, Albert B. Somers Sr. and Margaret Pritchard Somers BEST COPYAVAILABLE vii Contents A Note to the Reader ix Permissions xi I. Background 1. Poetry in America 3 2. Poetry in the Schools 11 II. Selection 3. Selecting Poetry to Teach 25 4. Contemporary Poets in the Classroom 47 III. Approaches and Methods 5. Approaching Poetry 65 6. Responding to Poetry by Talking 90 7. Responding to Poetry by Performing 108 8. Poetry and Writing 125 9. Teaching Form and Technique 145 10. Assessing the Teaching and Learning of Poetry 158 11. Teaching Poetry across the Curriculum 166 12. Poetry and the Internet 183 IV. Resources Appendix A: Anthologies of Poetry 195 Appendix B: Reference Works 202 Appendix C: Selected Media Resources 204 Appendix D: Selected Journals 209 Appendix E: Selected Awards 210 8 viii Contents Works Cited 213 Author 219 ix A Note to the Reader ccasionally in a poem, a poet will imagine his audience, as Ted Kooser does in "Selecting a Reader" (p. 55) .For this book, my 0imagined reader is a high school teacher who is fond of poetry, and open to new approaches, new possibilities. She may bea little gun-shy from teaching itfinebut she hasn't given up. She is a teacher of everyday, ordinary students, the kind who think they don't like poetry but often find, with someone's help, that they do. This book has a single broad purpose: to encourage future readers of poetry. I think we need to teach poetry in such a way that more ofour students will occasionally want to read it after they leave us. You would expect me to be a reader of poems, and I am, but I don't pretend that liking poetry is easy. It takes a little work. As Chapter 3 explains, I reject far more poems than I embrace. Still, the ones I love burn brightly in my imagination. They are stuck on my walls, tuckedaway in folders and books, in boxes and cubbyholes. I often swappoems with friends and colleagues, and among the poems I've sharedare "Spring" (p. 44) and "For the Ex-Wife on the Occasion of Her Birthday" by Thomas Lynch. I once sent a copy of "Flying at Night" (p. 55) to a former student serving in the Peace Corps, whose response led me to include it here. This book assumes that anyone can like poetry, that a lot of poetry is approachable and fun. And poetry is fun to do things withto talk about, write, write about, act out, and so on. As teachers, we can mine these veins no end. A few parts of the book may need elaboration: Chapters 1 and 2: These chapters establish the context, offering my take on the American mind-set toward poetry and about the role schools have played in creating it. The poems in the book: I've included over forty. In some cases, though, I've cited or even described a poem, but not included itfor several reasons. For one thing, publishing a poem requires acquiring permission, a time-consuming process. Moreover, the famous ones (such as Langston Hughes's "Mother to Son" ) are easily found. And most important, if I ask you, in effect, to go looking for a poem, you may find others you like even more. The classroom scenarios included here and there: These vignettes are not transcribed recordings of classes. They are the synthe- sizedand sometimes imaginedgleanings of hundreds of high school classes I have taught or observed over the last thirty-five years. The names of teachers and students are fictitious. 10 x A Note to the Reader For the most part, Teaching Poet?), in High School is a practical book. I offer guidelines and ideas, but none of them is foolproof or totally new. Certainly many of my suggestions are not unique to me; I have borrowed and refashioned from so many sources that I've lost count. Where I can, I try to give credit. Throughout the book, I cite numerous resources, some of which are out of print. Happily, many of these out-of-print books can still be found in public and college libraries. The book voices strong opinions, which I hope will help to open many conversations about poetry's place in the classrooms of America. That can only be healthy for both the art and the audience. I would like to be a part of such a dialogue. If you have comments or questions about the book or the subject, if you'd like to share a poem, or even if you need a copy of a poem I've mentioned that you can't findlet me hear from you. i i Xi Permissions We gratefully acknowledge the publishers who generously gave us permission to reproduce the following material: "The Drunkard and the Pig" from The Oxford Book of American Light Verse published by the Oxford University Press, 1979. "An Aeronaut To His Love." Reprinted by permission of Louisiana State University Press from PAITERNS OF POETRY: AN ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FORMS, by Miller Williams. Copyright 1986 by Louisiana State University Press. "On Reading Poems to a Senior Class at South High" by D. C. Berry. Reprinted by permission of the author. "Shooting Rats at the Bibb County Dump" from Armored Hearts: Selected & New Poems © 1995 by David Bottoms. Reprinted by permission of Copper Canyon Press, Post Office Box 271, Port Townsend, Washington 98368. LUCILLE CLIFTON: "reply" copyright 1991 by Lucille Clifton. Reprinted from QUILTING: POEMS 1987-1990 with the permission of BOA Editions, Ltd., 260 East Ave., Rochester, NY 14604. "November Night." From VERSE by Adelaide Crapsey. Copyright 1922 by Algernon S. Crapsey and renewed 1950 by The Adelaide Crapsey Foundation. Reprinted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. "who are you, little i," copyright © 1963, 1991 by the Trustees for the E. E. Cummings Trust, from COMPLETE POEMS: 1904-1962 by E. E. Cummings. Edited by George J. Firmage. Reprinted by permission of Liveright Publishing Corpora- tion. "Small Dark Song." Reprinted from Philip Dacey: How I Escaped from the Labyrinth and Other Poems by permission of Carnegie Mellon University Press © 1977 by Philip Dacey.