Lifelong Learning

Most of my living is made with teaching poetry in the schools as part of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts' Arts-in-Education program. I've been working as a poet in schools for the past nine years. Over the course of those years, the level of documented planning required for residencies has gone from almost none to finely-honed, intense collaborations between visiting poet and host teacher. I think there's probably a happy middle ground somewhere, but I have to say that the extensive planning I've been doing for advanced residencies has helped me to focus, and it is (at times) inspiring. I usually start out with a summary of plans for what I'll be doing with students at a meeting with the host teacher. It may look something like this:


Classes:
3rd & 9th period Creative Writing
6th period English

Creative Writing Classes – Focus on Playwriting & Short Fiction
Weeks 1-2

• The importance of journaling
• Reading and exploration of current short play forms
• Understanding dialogue
• Understanding subtext
• Understanding plot
• Plot outlines
• Monologues
• Clustering the ideas of “disability” –journaling
• Imagery – writing plays on the theme of “Disability”
• Literary elements in short fiction
• Reading and exploration of contemporary short fiction
• Writing of short fiction

• Short plays will be submitted to vsa.org as part of their short play contest.

Weeks 3-4

• Literary elements in poetry
• Self-Portraits
• I Believe poems
• All of Us: Character Poems
• Altered pages and sonnets
• Odes
• Anti-Love Poems
• Cross-Modal Poems: Writing in the Key of Red
• Ekphrastic Delights: Poetry from Art
• The House That Sang: Poems from Community

• Short writings will be chosen for inclusion in book project with visiting book artist.


English Class – Focus on Reflective Memoir and Poetry
Weeks 1-4

• The importance of journaling
• Memoir
• Personal essay vs. transactive writing
• Discovering one’s beliefs
• Writing the essay that confirms a belief
• Micro-memoir writing
• Self-Portraits
• I Believe poems
• I Am America poems (Whitman, Hoagland)
• All of Us: Character Poems
• Altered pages and sonnets
• Fragments of Translation: Sappho
• Anti-Love Poems
• Cross-Modal Poems: Writing in the Key of Red
• Ekphrastic Delights: Poetry from Art
• The House That Sang: Poems from Community
• Literary elements in short fiction
• Reading and exploration of contemporary short fiction
• Writing of short fiction

• Short writings will be chosen for inclusion in book project with visiting book artist.

• I Believe essays will be submitted to National Public Radio for consideration.

That seems pretty detailed, right? Nope. Not enough. Current trends in teaching suggest that students need a "statement of learning" and of course there is always assessment. So pre-planning makes way for something that includes a "Big Idea" statement of what the goal of the lesson will be, a Statement of Learning that is a summary for students as to what will be covered that day, a list of the PA Arts and Humanities standards that are covered, a list of the PA Language Arts standards that are covered, an explanation of the process and procedures of the lesson, and a brief listing of what roles the poet and teacher will take in presenting this lesson to the class. Team-teaching is the key here, which is great since it only reinforces that the poetry being shared matters.

More often than not, I have more material to work with than I have the time to cover it all. Forty-five minute class periods sprint. It's better to have too much planned than too little though, and I know the lessons are working when I am learning something too. When I put together ideas for workshops and residencies, I set this goal for myself: Discover and be an enthusiastic explorer of language. All of the details fall into place from there. With luck. It's a lot like writing a poem in that way - you can have all the elements in place, but without the spirit, it's just not a poem. So, I approach teaching in the same way I approach writing a poem - with awe over what works and wonder over how to put together the pieces of the ideas that shatter.