Day 52: Editing Poetry

Agenda-
Homeroom
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Free Period
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Free Period

I decided today that I am going to try assigning seats randomly. I am going to have them draw from the coffee can of doom. It seems like a fair way to do it plus it will mix them up nicely. I tried it first with the A day kids because they tend to respond to change better than the B day kids. It seemed like it went ok. I got to see some students interact who I hadn’t seen work together before. They were well behaved too. It was a good class overall. They seem to be having good discussion now that I am giving them topics to discuss in their groups first and then share with the class. I gave out their next Holocaust Victim Cards today and I found out that some of the students had gone and looked up their victims. I was a little disappointed that they had ruined the surprise. On the other hand though, I had been worried that they weren’t into the cards. It was good to see that they were so curious. I decided to have them research their victim and include that in their Scrapbooks since they ruined the surprise. They took the initiative so they should be willing to do the work. They didn’t seem to mind the extra work.

The seniors were their usual selves. The same students again didn’t have their homework done. I asked them why hadn’t done it. They said that the questions on top of the reading was just too much. Mmmm, I’m not buying that. It isn’t that hard to write down a passage as you read and then write a page after you finish reading. We talked today about how to edit a poem. I read them a first draft of one of my poems and then I read them the finished version. We discussed that when you edit poetry you are really looking for a way to make it better. How can you show somebody something rather than just tell them. After I shared my poem some of the students were asking about things in the poem. They wanted to know if it was true. Heidi said that she understood now why I liked Aurora Leigh, because it was the story of a struggling artist. I then set them loose to edit their poems. They were much more willing to let me take a look at their own work now that I had shared mine. I’m hoping that means they felt more comfortable with me. Next, week we are going to talk about meter. I think it is time that they learned a little bit about the more technical aspects of poetry.