How not to teach poetry

**BeSeeLisa** · 03-15-2008, 05:26 PM

So, I wanted to do a poetry unit with my sevvies. They've done various forms in elementary school, I knew, so this was somewhat review, and also some new and more challenging forms.

We looked at 10 different poetry structures, and I provided examples of each, depending, either one from a published poet, or one that we wrote together. On this particular day we were studying the Clerihew. (A simple 4 line poem, aabb, about a particular person).

So, "Let's write one about Harry Potter, since we all know him". We brainstorm things about ol' Harry, and when the topic veers off to other characters, I remind them it has to be about Harry--and redirect--"What does he like to do?" Well, they suggest all sorts, including Quidditch, and I say: "OK, tell me more about Quidditch, maybe we can work that in" and one student, totally innocently and completely engaged in the topic calls out:

He gets chased around by enchanted balls!

I turn in to the chalkboard for a sec thinking, MAYBE, I'll be able to gloss this over. However, any hope of cementing a straight face is lost when I hear a giggle, then a chortle, then a snort. I turn to face them--half the class wondering what I'm going to say, the other half still clueless (they haven't quite caught the joke yet) and I say.....

I'm sorry, I just can't write a poem about Enchanted Balls

Hilarity ensued.

sheesh

I love middle school, I really do.

**Mark** · 03-17-2008, 12:48 AM

Throw a few organisms in there at it you get fired.

**kontan** · 03-17-2008, 01:48 AM

LOL! I so needed that as I sit down to do my plans for the week.

**Mary/SATX** · 03-18-2008, 02:15 PM

LOL!

Thanks for sharing this. It made my morning!!

**Kelley_the_Gardener** · 03-22-2008, 03:44 PM

I like that better than the discussion I had with my 7th graders this week.

They are reading a short passage in preparation for a discussion about "choice;" the theme they are working with. Everything's going okay, and one student calls me over and whispers "What's a bowel movement?"

The passage mentions a bowel movement.

He didn't whisper quietly enough. Half the room heard him, and I'm hearing snorts and chortles around us. I explained to him, he turned beet red, and immediately buried his face back in his book.

Within the next 10 minutes, 3 more people quietly asked me. I began to realize that, outside of the handful of kids still snorting and grinning, the rest of the kids DON'T KNOW WHAT A BOWEL MOVEMENT IS.

They just finished a health unit which included nutrition. I know, because while I don't teach that class, one of my students was suspended when she used a discussion of obesity to call another student's mother a "fat b****."

Resigned, I stopped, read the passage that mentioned bowel movements aloud, and defined the term for them.

They spent the next 15 minutes discussing how best to use the phrase in conversation. "Is it okay to call someone a bowel movement?" "Can we yell BM when we stub our toe?" etc.. :roll:

**kontan** · 03-22-2008, 03:48 PM

OMG Kelley that was great.

**BeSeeLisa** · 03-22-2008, 07:21 PM

Originally Posted by Kelley_the_Gardener

They spent the next 15 minutes discussing how best to use the phrase in conversation. "Is it okay to call someone a bowel movement?" "Can we yell BM when we stub our toe?" etc.. :roll:

Holy BM, BM

:lol: