Christensen Chapter 5

I really enjoyed reading this chapter on Christensen. I AM NOT A BIG FAN OF POETRY!!...I'll admit it. Whenever it is brought up in class, I groan and I know I going to complain. The poetry that I always encounter and have been forced to try and interpret is just interesting, its so hard to understand. I don't believe that I know how to write poetry because I have been brainwashed into thinking that all poetry has to rhyme and talk in metaphors. But then when I read chapters like this, I notice that poetry is so much more and the I learn to appreciate poetry more.

I know teaching poetry in school is going to be one of my hardest things to do because I have to remind myself that poetry is not all that I have described above. It is responding to literature and it is away for students to express themselves. I know that poetry, just like journaling, helps students to express themselves, to deal and to be able to let go of things that are have been bothering them or state questions that they have. I just think that it is going to be hard trying to grade something like this. How do you grade a poem when it is just a expression of the person? Poetry is tricky because one teacher or book will say this is the way and only way to do it and then another will say there are no rules...just write. So this is my problem because where is the balance and what is true poetry?

I love the idea of the Interior Monologues... its gets students to pay attention and read more closely and the Remember Me poem because it seems like it will teach students to learn to say something nice about someone even if you do not know them. I see myself trying out both.