Poetry Lesson Week 1

The Old West vs. the Westside
L's and E's lessons went well, I enjoyed both avenues they ventured down. I particularly enjoyed L's lesson because of her humility (admitting of her past experiences with poetry, as well as her unfamiliarity with the genre), it served as a humble reminder. Sometimes I think the knowledge we think we should walk out of school with can be overwhelming - we're expected to know every little component of the subject of English. Her use of pre-constructed dittos, something we've been avoiding like the plague, helped me to realize that we can utilize resources. It seems like an obvious idea, but one that I think we've sometimes forget in our quest for creative lessons and assignments. E's exploration into a Native poem was an interesting choice of narrative, that she covered well, one I've never been exposed to in school. I think that it's important to study other cultures in our classes, but I think it's something that can't be done half-hazardly. Too often I think multicultural literature gets thrown in for "flavor" in overwhelmingly white curriculum (as has been my experience)- how do we approach such literature? To clarify, how do we select which cultures to incorporate into the curriculum? How do we deal with the possibility of our multicultural students being viewed as the token representative of their culture? These may be easy to answers questions, but are still areas of gray to me.