Train – Hey, Soul Sister

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVpv8-5XWOI

Hey, hey, heyYour lipstick stains on the front load of my left side brainsI knew I wouldn't forget you, and so I went and let you blow my mindYour sweet moon beam, the smell of you in every single dream I dreamI knew when we collided, you're the one I have decided who's one of my kind

Hey soul sister, ain't that Mr. Mister on the radio, stereo, the way you move ain't fair, you know!Hey soul sister, I don't want to miss a single thing you do...tonight

Hey, hey, heyJust in time, I'm so glad you have a one-track mind like meYou gave my life direction, a game show love connection we can't denyI'm so obsessed, my heart is bound to beat right out my untrimmed chestI believe in you, like a virgin, you're Madonna, and I'm always gonna wanna blow your mind

Hey soul sister, ain't that Mr. Mister on the radio, stereo, the way you move ain't fair, you know!Hey soul sister, I don't want to miss a single thing you do...tonight

The way you can cut a rug, watching you's the only drug I needYou're so gangsta, I'm so thug, you're the only one I'm dreaming ofYou see, I can be myself now finally, in fact there's nothing I can't beI want the world to see you be with me

Hey soul sister, ain't that Mr. Mister on the radio, stereo, the way you move ain't fair, you know!Hey soul sister, I don't want to miss a single thing you do tonight,Hey soul sister, I don't want to miss a single thing you do...tonightHey, hey,hey – Tonight / Hey, hey,hey - Tonight

POETIC PROMISE:

Practical Poetry in the English Classroom

Jason KurtzDell Rapids Public High SchoolJason.Kurtz@k12.sd.us

Pop Music Poets Poetic Images

Poetography Flickr Poetry Slidecasts

Creating Units/Modules Video/Music/Prose/POEMS

Fulfilling the Poetic Promise

WHERE HAS POETRY GONE? In April 2003 in the “My Turn” section of Newsweek, Bruce Wexler claimed

that no one reads poetry anymore. I contend that it permeates our society in a different way, through music.  Our students are listening to "poetry" every day.  By bringing a medium that students are familiar with (pop music & video) into the classroom, greater leaps in learning take place.

The obvious potential lies in that pop music songs and lyrics can be used as a springboard to literary interpretation. By analyzing the words in a song, as well as understanding the process and clues through which we develop our analysis, students will be able to have greater confidence in supporting their own interpretations of literature, and specifically poetry.  Associating the music or lyric with the term or concept that is being taught, also provides a mnemonic device that the student may use during recall.

Many students seem frustrated and hesitant with poetry interpretation because oftentimes, their own suggestions may differ from classroom text's interpretation. However, students usually have no qualms when asked to offer interpretations of popular musical lyrics. In fact, they seem quite eager to defend a lyrical explanation and will readily point out (without even realizing it) symbols, images, and allusions as ammunition to prove their points.

POP MUSIC POETS

How do you know you are in the presence of a poem?

By identifying the conventions of poetry

A simple way to help students identify these elements and conventions is to identify them in pop music lyrics.

Britney Spears - Circus

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVhJ_A8XUgc

There's only two types of people in the worldThe ones that entertain and the ones that

observeWell baby, I'm a put-on-a-show kind of girlDon't like the backseat, gotta be first

I'm a like the ringleader, I call the shots(Call the shots)I'm like a firecracker I make it hotWhen I put on a show

I feel the adrenaline moving through my veinsSpotlight on me and I'm ready to breakI'm like a performer, the dance floor is my

stageBetter be ready, hope that you feel the same

[Chorus]All eyes on me in the center of the ring just like

a circusWhen I crack that whip, everybody gon' trip

just like a circusDon't stand there watching me, follow me,

show me what you can doEverybody let go, we can make a dance floor

just like a circus

There's only two types of guys out thereOnes that can hang with me and ones that are

scaredSo baby, I hope that you came preparedI run a tight ship so beware

I'm a like the ringleader, I call the shots(Call the shots)I'm like a firecracker, I make it hotWhen I put on a show

I feel the adrenaline moving through my veinsSpotlight on me and I'm ready to breakI'm like a performer, the dance floor is my

stageBetter be ready, hope that you feel the same

[Chorus]

Let's goLet me see what you can doI'm runnin' this like-like-like a circusYeah, like a what? Like-like-like a circus

[Chorus repeat x2]

A simile is a figure of speech comparing two unlike things, often introduced with the word "like" or "as". Circus – Performed by Brittany Spears – Written by Lukasz Gottwald, Claude Kelly, Benjamin Levin

Simile

Sting – Shape of My Heart

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=037uSAIahho

POETOGRAPHY: http://poetography.org/

FLICKR POETRY

TWISTING POETOGRAPHY:Slidecasts

http://theunquietlibrarian.wordpress.com/tag/poetry/

“METAPHORS”Sylvia Plath

Visual metaphors and a connection to Rosenblatt’s theories of reader response.

Poetic Images:

I’m a riddle in nine syllables,An elephant, a ponderous house,A melon strolling on two tendrils.O red fruit, ivory, fine timbers!This loaf’s big with its yeasty rising.Money’s new minted in this fat purse.I’m a means, a stage, a cow in calf.I’ve eaten a bag of green apples, Boarded the train there’s no getting off.

I am a riddle in nine syllables

An elephant, a ponderous house,

A melon strolling on two tendrils

O red fruit, ivory fine timbers!

POETIC MODULES: VIDEO/LYRIC/IMAGE/POEM

Sting – Moon Over Bourbon Street

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5i_0PkOqLKA

POETRY MODULES: POEM – ROBERT FROST

Acquainted with the Night - Robert Frost

I have been one acquainted with the night. I have walked out in rain -- and back in rain. I have outwalked the furthest city light. 

I have looked down the saddest city lane. I have passed by the watchman on his beat And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain. 

I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet When far away an interrupted cry Came over houses from another street, 

But not to call me back or say good-bye; And further still at an unearthly height, A luminary clock against the sky 

Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right. I have been one acquainted with the night.

POETIC MODULES: PROSE RAY BRADBURY

POETRY JIGSAW Cooperative learning technique that values the group

and the individual Divide students into jigsaw groups (4-5) that are

diverse in terms of gender, ethnicity, race, and ability. Appoint one student from each group to be the leader. Divide the lesson in to 4-5 segments (Emily Dickinson

poems). Assign each student to study one segment (one

Dickinson poem), making certain that students have direct access only to their own segment.

Form temporary “expert groups” by having one student from the jigsaw group join others assigned to the same segment.

POETRY JIGSAW: AUTHOR APPROACH

Expert Group Collectively

discusses the main points of their segment and discuss elements to share with their original jigsaw groups.

Jigsaw Group The initial group of

students. Upon their return to

the jigsaw group, the individuals who are now experts in one segment (one Dickinson poem) present their content to the group.

http://www.jigsaw.org/steps.htm

POETRY: GENRE AND AESTHETICS Poetic Schools and Movements

http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/193

180. When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer – Walt Whitman – Leaves of Grass, 1900

WHEN I heard the learn’d astronomer; When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me; When I was shown the charts and the diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them; When I, sitting, heard the astronomer, where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room, How soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick,Till rising and gliding out, I wander’d off by myself, In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time, Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.

POETRY CIRCLES

Peer-Oriented LearningForm Evaluator

Structure, rhythm, rhymeTheme Examiner

Universal ideas, interpretationsImage Cultivator

Visual elements, symbols, figurative language

Background FilterContext: period and poet

http://www.studyguide.org/poetry_circles.htm

POETRY GENERATING LOOPS

Creating a contemporary American poem using conventionsImage Weaver

Provide concrete images for the poem (at least 2)Language Keeper

Supply words and provide word play (5 “exotic”)Metaphor Generator

Supply fresh metaphors or similes (at least 2)Music Maker

Create a sense of music (rhyme, assonance, alliteration, consonance) (try to take language keeper’s words and generate words

that sound musical alongside them—eclectic + electric)

http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/poetry-circles-generative-writing-1074.html

POETIC PROMISE:

Practical Poetry in the English Classroom

Jason KurtzDell Rapids Public High SchoolJason.Kurtz@k12.sd.us