October 15th, 2012
Last week at my co-op school, Walter Murray Collegiate, I was priviledged to experience something I had never previously known existed: Slam Poetry (or as it is also referred to as- Spoken Word). Jeremy Loveday and Scott Thompson came to Saskatoon from Victoria, B.C. to participate and compete in the 2012 Poetry Slam National Championship last week. This was a phenomenal and educationally rich opportunity for the students in ELA throughout the school to gain insight into the various other forms of art and expression that are available for them to channel their creativity. After their presentation in the auditorium, my english class in the following period was invited to participate in a Slam Poetry workshop instructed by Jeremy Loveday himself. He taught the students attending how they can begin writing spoken word, or even just poetry/writing in general, and methods they can use to efficiently maneouver their way out of a writers block. The students were very engaged in this alternative use of class/instruction time, and all of them took it extremely seriously!
In regards to Chapter 5 of Kelly Gallagher's text, Deeper Reading, my enriched english class at WMCI, they are studying Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird. My co-op teacher who instructs this particular class, had the students who had finished reading the novel go back into the text and find a particular passage that they felt was "significant". In terms of significance, it could have been a piece of the text (quote, paragraph, page, chapter, etc.) that they either liked or felt was relevant to the theme(s)/character development/plot context in the novel. This particular deeper comprehension method used by the teacher was beneficial for the students, in that some of the passages that the students in the class brought up exposed ideas or critiques that had been passed by in the first initial reading. A couple of the students' contributions even brought new light to the teacher regarding hidden ideas and/or relevances to historical occurrences that even he had not caught.
By applying this strategy in To Kill A Mockingbird studies in grade 11, I realized how many students were unable to successfully find relevant significance(s) in a passage. A first-draft reading is still the only exposure the students feel they need to have with a text for it to be relatable to them, or that they feel is sufficient in drawing all the deeper meanings. Unfortunately we know this is not true, so I feel it is very important, as educators, to introduce first AND second-draft reading techniques to students as early as grade 9, so that when they enter into older grades or even post-secondary education, they are prepared with the proper tools they need to succeed to the best of their abilities.
Hey Ashley! I agree that we have to begin teaching deeper reading earlier than most ELA classes do. If ELA classes are only using first draft reading they are missing much of the signifigance of the story.
ReplyDeleteI'm also still jealous I missed out on slam poetry.