2020 Post #24 -- A Diamond-Shaped Puzzle

by John Waite

Layli Long Soldier’s “Obligations 2” comes from her first full-length collection, 2017’s Whereas. It is an amazing poem that will challenge students on a couple levels. While the language is very simple, the structure is a puzzle with many answers. I can imagine students engaging with this poem both in terms of its content and its form. Possible discussion questions include:

1. What is the subject of this poem?

2. What is Soldier’s attitude toward grief?

3. How different are the different readings based on how you choose to progress through the poem? Is it possible for them to be contradictory?

4. Why would an author give the reader so much freedom in how to read a poem?

5. Since each reader can have a different experience, can the poem really be said to mean anything for certain?

6. What choices does Soldier make for the reader, and why?

7. How does Soldier’s choice of verbs help create complexity?

8. How does repetition function in the poem?

9. What word might you replace the word “grief” with?

Another possible exercise would be to have students try to create a similar poem, though possibly shorter.

Further Reading:

John Waite an English teacher at Downers Grove High School in Illinois.

Post #7 -- Falling In Love With Poetry

by Todd Nesloney

When I was growing up, I hated poetry. It didn’t interest me and it made zero sense. In reality, the only kind of poems that I was introduced to were poems written by people like William Shakespeare.

Now don’t get me wrong here, I believe there is a time and a place for poetry like that. But it never has been a place of inspiration for me.

When I read, I want to feel inspired. I want to feel like someone just took the words straight out of my heart and placed them down on paper far better than I ever could. That’s when I learned about poetry that could lure me in and hold me for hours.

When I work with students now, I try to find poets that write in a way that feels present, relevant, and honest but in a way that also provides a sense of hope.

Recently I came across the author Tanner Olson (who goes by @WrittenToSpeak on social media). I was so deeply moved by many of his graphics or blog posts he would share. Then I bought his book I’m All Over the Place, and immediately fell in love.

Tanner writes in a way that tugs at my heart, expresses my complicated thoughts, but also links in hope. "To" is one poem that demonstrates this well; it is worth sharing with students!

When working with students sometimes there is just immense power in showing a poem and asking how it makes our students feel. Allow them to express those feelings within their own writing, an artistic rendering, or even verbally expressing it. But most importantly? Making sure you, the teacher, share how it tugged at your own heartstrings. What memories or emotions did it bring up for you? Be vulnerable, be honest, be real.

Further Reading:

Todd Nesloney @techninjatodd is the Director of Culture and Strategic Leadership for the Texas Elementary Principals and Supervisors Association. He has been recognized by John C. Maxwell, the White House, and more for his work in education. He has also published several books including Kids Deserve It and his brand new children's book Spruce and Lucy.

2018 Poem #23 -- All Things Big and Small

by Zachary Sibel

In the world of spoken word poetry, it is hard to beat the work of Rudy Fancisco. His work is powerful, brilliant, and highly entertaining. While his videos are incredible -- and I suggest you use as many as you can -- his recently published anthology, Helium, presents a number of written texts that fit well as a warm-up in any class.

One text that I have used recently is a poem he first published via social media and later used in his book.

Find this poem in Rudy Fransisco's book, Helium, or in the original tweet.  

This poem is simple and presents an abundance of opportunities to talk about language and narrative.

Before introducing this poem, I talk to students about some fears that I have, things like flying and heights. I ask students if they have any fears and discuss whether they are rational or not. I end the brief discussion with what seems to be a surprising statement for some students: that I am terrified of spiders. I then show them this poem on my screen. I read the poem aloud and ask for a student reading.

The discussion can go a number of ways. Focus on the first half: "How does the poet react when asked to kill a spider, a task we all have probably done without giving it much thought?” Or focus on the second half of the poem: “What profound statement is made about the refusal of a simple task, killing a spider”.

I start with these questions but also allow student to just talk about the poem and what they got out of it. I close the discussion with the fact that since reading this poem a year ago, I haven’t killed a spider. Because of the way Fancisco addresses the idea of being “caught in the wrong place/at the wrong time, just being alive” I have tried to treat all things with a greater sense of kindness and mercy. Poetry can change us.

A suggested pairing: Read this text alongside William Blake's "The Fly"  and allow students to analyze “How does poetry allow us to see large concepts in the smallest of creatures?”

Further Reading:

Zachary Sibel is a hip-hop fan and an eighth-grade English teacher at Tohickon Middle School in Bucks County, PA. 

2018 Poem #21 -- Comfort Food

by Brett Vogelsinger

Everybody has their favorite comfort food. An omelette with bacon, macaroni and cheese, wonton soup, chocolate cake with vanilla icing, and a full box of Triscuits -- these are a few of my personal favorites.  

In the poem "Everybody Made Soups," poet Lisa Coffman takes an artistic eye to a favorite winter comfort food, and since winter does  not seem to want to let go of us here in Pennsylvania this year, it seems strangely apropos right now.  After a first read of the poem, I ask students to answer a single question.  What words or phrases do you find here that are most surprising to find in a poem about soup?


Everybody Made Soups
by Lisa Coffman

After it all, the events of the holidays,
the dinner tables passing like great ships,
everybody made soups for a while.
Cooked and cooked until the broth kept
the story of the onion, the weeping meat.
It was over, the year was spent, the new one
had yet to make its demands on us,
each day lay in the dark like a folded letter.
Then out of it all we made one final thing
out of the bounty that had not always filled us,
out of the ruined cathedral carcass of the turkey,
the limp celery chopped back into plenty,
the fish head, the spine. Out of the rejected,
the passed over, never the object of love.
It was as if all the pageantry had been for this:
the quiet after, the simmered light,
the soothing shapes our mouths made as we tasted.

Words and phrases like "great ships," "the story of the onion," "weeping," "cathedral," and "pageantry" consistently surprise my students.  We often end up discussing the fun choice of ending the poem with the image of "the soothing shapes our mouths made as we tasted."  I even ask them to pantomime what it looks like to eat a spoonful of soup. 

A follow-up question can help us go deeper and inspire writing: Why does the writer use words that seem almost too profound or intense for the topic?  How does this help strengthen the poem? 

For five minutes, students can write in their notebooks about a favorite comfort food, perhaps even using language that is a bit over-the-top to intensify the effect on readers.  Writing with them in my notebook under the document camera, I might zoom in on the "lava flows" when I slice open my omelette or capture the feeling of "base jumping" off the "cliff" of a three-layered chocolate cake slice.  These subtle hyperboles can make the mundane become extraordinary, and often that is the ambition of a poem in the first place. 

Further Reading: 

Brett Vogelsinger is a ninth-grade English teacher at Holicong Middle School in Bucks County, PA.  He has been starting class with a poem each day for the past ten years. He is the creator of the Go Poems blog and the author of Poetry Pauses: Teaching With Poems to Elevate Writing in All Genres.   Find him on Twitter @theVogelman.

2018 Poem #11 -- Crossing Genre Borders

by Charles Moore

In my experience, and maybe in yours as well, our students do not connect to non-fiction on the same level that they do with poetry.

I decided to try to address this lack of connection by using poetry to show how connected we can be with our reading lives.

Our unit would give us the opportunity to explore the research process, and we began by reading reviews.  We looked at a video game review, a movie review, a piece by Leonard Pitts and this review  that weighs the merits of our current poetry culture.

The students can notice important parts of the articles and respond to them with their thinking but they could not even fake an emotional connection to the articles no matter how hard I pushed.

We talk about poetry often in my classroom.  It is easy for me to ask the kids to respond to a poem in their writers’ notebooks, and I see them pour their thinking on to pages.  The connections they make are incredible.  They are good at it.

So I began one day with this poem, posted on Instagram by Rupi Kaur:

We talked about the poem and they noticed how it drove their thinking on an emotional level.

We talked about that reaction. Specifically, we examined how texts other than poetry can have an impact on us.  We talked about trying to use this type of connection in our reading of non-fiction texts.  

As we reached back to non-fiction, we were able to make deeper and more meaningful connections to the text, and it showed in our writing.

Don’t be afraid to leverage poetry in the instruction of other types of writing.  No matter what we think of this current generation of learners, poetry reaches them like it reaches those that came before them. 

Further Reading:

Charles Moore teaches Senior English in League City, TX.  His daily poetry picks are the most fun part of his lesson planning.