NFTN- "Collected Works"-A Poetry Inquiry- October 6th
Spotlight on Learning: Collected Works- A Poetry Inquiry
Presented by: Ashley Mennea
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Composition 11: Teacher Reflection/Description: As a summative assessment for their poetry unit, students inquired about how a poet (of their choice) utilizes language to shape ideas and influence others. The goal of the task was for students to look at multiple works and see the trends in structure, style, and topics that the poet is using. Students were encouraged to choose poets that inspired them or to whom they felt a connection and were given several options to demonstrate their understanding. One student for example wrote a poignant essay about the allegorical nature of Kendrick Lamar’s lyrics. Several created arts- |
based projects inspired by visual artist and poet Rupi Kaur. Others examined how Katherena Vermette’s collection North End Love Songs was inspired by her childhood growing up in Winnipeg and created their own poetry that reflected her style and structure. Students put significant effort and thought into their work, and I was proud and impressed by what they produced. In future, I plan to integrate more research skills earlier in the year to help support students in this form of inquiry.
Student Reflection:
For my project, to demonstrate my understanding, I created SimplyKarl, an online blog/website which analyzed the life and works of renowned Canadian poet Rupi Kaur. Throughout the blog, I analyzed many aspects of Rupi’s life from her upbringing into adulthood, in addition to her four major collections of poetry, to investigate how they influenced and shaped her unique style of writing for which she is renowned for.
Looking back at this project after its completion, I particularly found the process of research and interpretation to be its most challenging aspect; at the same time, being its most fulfilling. During the project, while researching about Rupi Kaur’s life, I took on the role of a journalist and drew from a variety of sources (journals, interviews, podcasts, and articles) to not simply acquire information, but more importantly to ensure that information was credible, relevant, and eloquently summarized using proper MLA referencing in my blog. It was through this journalistic process where I was not only able to improve my writing and research skills, but obtained a deeper understanding and appreciation for poetry, specifically, the innumerable intricacies embedded within a seemingly “simple” piece of writing.
Furthermore, this project emphasized to me the importance of diligence, time-management, and cultural awareness. In my experience, conducting a vast amount of research, reading, and analyses required for this project was, by far, not an easy task, more so creating and designing a website to display that information. However, the amount of learning and growth I underwent from this project is invaluable, while it did improve my journalistic skills, like poetry, it simultaneously fostered the inconspicuous, hard-to-notice skills of mine, such as hard work, discipline, and consistency.
Link to the Simply Karl Blog: https://sites.google.com/view/simplykarl/home