Cultural Voices, Creative Awareness

Back when Jennifer Berry (@mrsjmberry) worked in England, English teachers taught poetry as its own unit: students were expected to know and be able to discuss different elements of “named poems” and then follow a similar approach when it came to “unseen poetry.”  

Multicultural Poetry was one of the components of the test UK English teachers had to prepare students for, and it was here that she learned about and fell in love with the voices of John Agard, Imtiaz Dharker, Sujata Bhatt, and Moniza Alvi.  While teaching in England, the English Department always had the chance to go to London to listen to these poets and ask them questions; Berry’s favorite part of the trip was when the poet’s answered questions.  When asked if something could be interpreted one way, the poets would always smile and say they had never thought of that interpretation, – but they loved it. 

 When she returned to the US, Berry began integrating poetry into her units to support learning (when studying Things Fall Apart, her classes read “The Second Coming” by W.B. Yeats and when reading Other Voices, Other Vistas, they read a selection of poetry from authors around the globe), but she couldn’t let go of that separate poetry unit she grew to love in England.

Here’s how she crafted a poetry unit into 10th Grade World Literature.

 

1. Select a region

Historical context is probably Berry’s favorite part of exploring cultural poetry. Learning the background of the author is important, but this also leads to learning about the culture and history of the people of a certain place.  Over the years she has taught these poems as a unit, she has learned that students know very little about places like the Middle East unless they have a family connection to these places. We look at current events, podcasts, history, and famous individuals to come from these countries. When writing about poems, it helps when students can understand where the author was coming from and offer an opportunity to practice non-fiction reading and writing skills alongside the literature.

2. Compare and contrast

One benefit to poetry is our ability to compare and contrast without having the length of the text to worry about. When you are careful with your poem choices, there will be subtle and unique similarities between poems, giving students less to work with and more time to develop their thoughts and ideas when building an analysis.  Berry often put the poem titles on a piece of paper and let students come up with the connection, quotes, and most importantly – discussion.

3. SPITS 

English teachers love acronyms,  especially when it comes to writing. You have to remember, in England you take a test when you were 16 years old and your score on that test determines the trajectory of your life. We liked to give students acronyms so they could remember techniques and strategies for analyzing. Berry always liked SPITS because it covered all of the key components of analysis and took the emphasis away from quotes.

 

4. Getting Creative

There are so many wonderful things about teaching poetry, but one thing is for certain:  if you empower students to believe that they are allowed to interpret language in their own way, they are far more likely to infer, guess, try, and play with language.  Reading between the lines is what makes analysis – what better way than with poetry!