Admission: while I am a middle-aged married man and father of four, I have had a man crush on Jimmy Fallon ever since his time on Saturday Night Live. Consequently, I was ecstatic when he became host of and have since watched every episode of The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon. All nine seasons, totaling 1627 episodes as of April 1, 2022 -though mostly after DVR’ing them.
As I write that, I am not sure if that is a badge of honor, find a hobby, or a need to seek counseling.
Regardless, I have seen and enjoyed them all. In addition to Jimmy’s charm and amicability, I love the witty writing, the childish sense of humor, and the creativity of skits such as “Tonight Show Superlatives,” “Freestyling with the Roots,” and Fallon and Kevin Bacon’s “First Drafts of Rock.”
Several of my favorite bits involve the use of random generator (as seen below).
While I know a random generator is not unique to Jimmy Fallon, it was while watching an episode, amidst my boyish giggling, where I thought, “This could work in English class!”
And thus, my Random Poetry Writing Assignment was born.
During National Poetry Month we read a poem a day, trying to explore and maybe even teach a little about a variety of genres. As the month nears its end, students take a turn with my randomizer. While I can’t afford fancy graphics or cool sound effects, the premise is simple: each student will draw a genre, a topic, and a silly word (though my generator has changed several times over the years by using a character from a novel, vocab words that we study, pop culture references, etc.).
They are then to compose a poem meeting the criteria of their randomizer. The combinations can provide a sense of -dare I say- fun: a limerick about pickles with the word whippersnapper, a narrative poem about slow Wifi that contains the word onomatopoeia, or a sonnet about hangnails including the word hullaballoo.
The assignment often forces them to explore definitions, revisit poetry/genre specifics, and tap into their creativity. Mostly, it allows them to interact with language -which is one goal of poetry. And the structure of it all usually turns out to be a winner in the kids’ eyes -which is the main goal of teaching anything really.
In addition to the randomizer idea that spawned from the show’s skits, I also show the spoken word performances that have appeared over the years. I always use the clips directly from The Tonight Show’s YouTube page to reinforce the notion of how mainstream poetry is.
Two of my favorites are Rudy Francisco’s performances from his collection Helium – “Complainers” and “Rifle II.” Both are very well received by students and have provided a myriad of discussion possibilities. And it almost always leads to requests for my copies of Helium.
His support for poetry and poets makes me only love him more. But I promise, it’s in a healthy, non-stalkerish kind of way.
Further Reading:
Jason Hepler is an eighth-grade English teacher and basketball coach in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
