“Now class this year as part of the first semester you will be writing a collection of poetry. There will be four poems all in different genres in your collection by the end of the semester…”
Oh no. Oh no no no. I cannot write a poem. I don’t even like reading poems. How in the world am supposed to write one, no scratch that four! I can’t write four poems! With all this new information my chest started to feel tight. My mind was spinning trying to figure out how I was going to do this. How am I not going to fail this class? I cannot write poetry.
Creative Writing class: before the class. When I started my sophomore year of high school I was already ahead of the game. With two years of high school English under my belt I was ready for what was next. At first it seemed like I had two options, American Literature or British Literature. With two English classes done and the knowledge that I had two more remaining ahead of me American or British Literature did not look all that appealing. I did not love literature classes all that much. They were fine but I would much rather read for pleasure and not analyze what I read. However, I still needed two more English credits. This is when I remembered that I had some more options that were not quite as well known. I remembered that there was also a Creative Writing class that I could take. I thought that would not be just another literature class. Sure it will be challenging but it could not be too hard. It sure
The poem by Billy Collins entitled “Introduction to Poetry” was a really great opening to the new semester. When I think of poetry I think of something that I hate reading, don’t understand, and is extremely boring. Since elementry school I have had to recite poems for the annual contest. I have had extreme stage fright, those emotions have now correlated with poetry itself. When Ms Davis first introduced this unit at the beginning of the second semester, I was dreading it. It did not seem to turn out like I expected, I enjoyed this unit a great deal.
As Young argues, the point is not to critique students’ poems for poetic elements of form but to allow students to make a personal connection with the material and to construct meanings in a different way. The benefit of this approach across the curriculum, according to Author, is that students are challenged to think outside the box, which prevents cookie cutter approaches to learning, especially in the sciences where lab reports and essays are written according to a standard formula which over time becomes a mundane and predictable task.
The teacher assigns the student a poem to be read. The student will prepare him or herself before
Poetry have existed longer than one would truly think. Infact, Homer author of ‘The Odyssey,” is one of the most epic poetry has been in existence since been around longer than most would think, Homer the author of one of the most epic poetry The Odyssey has been in existence since the 12Th Century B.C. However, poety was still existence proir to Homer. So now the question remain, why does poetry even matter throughout these years? I would definetly assume that since poetry has been around for all this years, it’s significantly important in some way. But how and why does peotry matter so much?
Dixie: I don’t think that I would peruse creativity writing if I was not in a college program. This is something that I have to do to get my degree. I will work hard at trying to get through this course with the help of the advice that I do get back on my grades. I am hoping to learn a lot by taking this class and will be a better writer when done with this class.
At the beginning of this course, I didn’t realize that my poems would be read aloud to the whole class and that other students would be given the opportunity to tear into them. So, when the line, “Nine years before Gucci - hold onto the pole”, from my poem “Carcajou Dreams” was read aloud, I quickly realized how silly my words sounded and that I was going to need to write poetry with a bit more substance. However, even though “Carcajou Dreams” wasn’t the best thing I wrote in the class, it still made people laugh, which made me want to write more. But I knew I needed to dive deeper into the craft of poetry and grow, so I attempted to explore more artistic topics when writing my next three poems, “Basque”, Homonym”, and “Y.” And as I continued writing, these poems taught me how to clean up my work and develop a specific tone.
That class is where I first came to understand that abstract language (with which my poems to that point had been positively riddled) may have an unintended effect: it can garble and even dissolve its own meaning. I swore then and there to make sure my own poems would be full of concrete language, that they
In the article by Kristina Robertson, “Writing Poetry with English Language Learners,” the author highlights the benefits to writing poetry as a way for students to experiment with English without the grammatical and structural limitations of academic writing. Poetry can be used to facilitate a feeling of comfort with language without pressure. In addition to allowing them the freedom to practice English, this method also helps them feel included by eliciting poetry based on their own lives and “rich life experiences that range from memories of their home culture to saying good-bye to loved ones and adjusting to a new life in the U.S.” The initial stage of the process is to expose students to different types of poetry. As with any text reading,
I was initially attracted to the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts (LSA) because I discovered that within its English major there is a creative writing program, which appeals to my desire to continue studying literature while at the same time developing my skills and exploring my creativity as a writer. The program within the major involves multiple workshops and tutorials on both poetry and fiction, which can provide me with the independence and flexibility to learn by writing original content and develop my own portfolio of work. Furthermore, courses within the LSA’s English major are very diverse, ranging from Intro to Autobiography to Native American Literature. This diversity will help me form a strong foundation in literature through the study of works from many eras, genres, and styles. This exposure to such a diversity of literature will also help me hone in on what style of writing I like the best and want to continue to study in my future academic career as well as in personal projects.
“…As for all the seniors, I want you to challenge yourselves this year and don’t think you’re going to cruise through to graduation.”-Mrs. Smith, County High School. Although some seniors in high school refuse to take a hard schedule, I decided to take a challenging composition course my last year of high school and learned more than ever before from it. My teacher, Mr. Bacz, focused mostly on vocabulary, grammar, and how to right an essay. Each one of these subjects combined to give me a year of hard work, which eventually paid off.
If someone had told me two years ago that I would spend my free time writing poetry, I would have asked him or her if he or she knew me at all because I knew nothing about poetry. I didn’t want to know anything about poetry. I thought it was filled with cryptic words and messages that could only be understood by a specific category of person, a category I surely did not fit in. To put it plainly, I was wrong.
One was the limited sample size. Only two classes were used, and the students all attended an early college high school. The students in the school applied to attend because they were high achieving and have intrinsic motivation. Another limitation was that the class sections were not recorded, so the field notes were not transcribed. In future studies, limitations should be addressed, and further exploration concerning student motivation and autonomy in introducing poetry should be examined. Future research should also examine the themes that would motivate students to continue reading
Often I sit at the computer, or with a pen and paper, and I think about what I should write. I reflect on my experiences with life, or with my feelings and emotions. If the subject that I write about is coming from my heart, I could write forever, opposed to something that I do not have interest in like the mating habits of fireflies. I don’t care about how, when, and much less why they procreate. I would always dread having to write a paper for my English class, and it was not until I discovered my own love for poetry that I began to enjoy writing. It was my junior English teacher in San Diego, Howard Estes. He allowed me to open my mind to not only the academic perspective of literature, but also to my
During the time in which I joined the university to begin my bachelor, there was not a first composition class. I never studied writing in a separate class. So, I immediately started reading literature. I immediately began reading some of William Wordsworth pieces. Honestly, I was preferring to join a major that is specialized in English just as a language, but because the nearest college to my town does not have such major I joined their English literature department. I am saying this to clarify that, in the past, I was not very interested in writing.
The one thing that sets humans apart from the rest of the animal kingdom is our ability to create. We’ve become experts in innovation and invention, crafting a world of metal and concrete and complex cultural interactions. One might, then, wonder why such a core beneficiary which shoved us out of primal instinct and into modern life is so blatantly neglected by today’s culture. Those who wish to pursue a creative art are called hopeless dreamers and those who have achieved it are ridiculed for making money off of “nothing but luck”. According to the New York City Department of Education’s school-based expenditure reports, library funding only accounts for .3% of schools’ expenses citywide. Reading is widely regarded as an impactful learning tool, especially in early childhood, yet it receives less than a quarter of the funding funneled into afterschool activities (1.6%). Reading encourages creative thought and often goes hand-in-hand with writing. However, parents often discourage their children from pursuing a career in creative writing. Creatively-inclined young adults who wish to become a professional in whatever creative field they enjoy are often told that they should try for a safe career and pursue their interests as a hobby. However, although those who wish to pursue a career in a creative art are constantly warned against it even by those who support them the most, creativity in and of itself is perhaps one of the most important and revolutionary aspects of