December musings

"The Wasteland" came and enveloped my students this week. My goal was not to critically analyze this poem. That is really beyond them at this point. However, I wanted them to attach to it, to see that poetry can invade you and settle into the deep recesses of your person. Sometimes, in A.P. Lit, we are so focused on what the test asks us to do, we entirely miss the love of the language. Anyway, one of my bright colleagues came across an app for The Wasteland. It was $20 but so worth it. It isn't really for students, although it could be, but it is for teachers to share. We looked at what notable people had to say about the poem, Seamus Heaney told us how to experience Elliot the first time, how he felt like a deer in the headlights when he first read it.-Anyway lots of good comments from poets, actors, musicians- then we looked at some of the annotations. I wanted them to see what it was like to truely break this poem down, the allusions especially. But the best in this app is Fiona Shaw acting the poem. The kids were glued. It was the moment we as teachers wait for; success, something reached them. They realized that poetry has to be heard and felt. We then applied this to a creative activity which also helped me to assess what they had learned. I used Padlet again. This time with less problems. The kids picked a line from the poem that struck them, then attached a photo to express that feeling and then a comment. Take a look at the results. I think if you read them all you will realize as I did that teaching is sometimes a miracle. Also for fans of flipping, as I am, check out flipgrid, I will post the results of the questions I posed to our group soon, kids would love this for discussion-almost as good as in person-