Some may argue that "Poetry will not lead you to a successful career." Isn't rapping a career and poetic? And for the small percentage that make it, they get paid a nice chunk of change. How else are you going to make it to the big leagues if you don't practice and get good? I'm not saying that learning about poetry is important because we can teach people how to become famous rappers but there is a future in it. Who knows, you could be the next Silverstein. I think that poetry is amazing and I especially love slam poetry. My favorite videos have to be by Carrie Rudizinski. My friend showed me some of her performances and I love them. Here's a link of one of her performances from a competition that is pretty cool.
http://youtu.be/L3kzw0YcAgc
I agree that poetry should be definitely be a more complete part of the K-12 curriculum, but I think the reasons for teaching it go beyond setting children up for rap careers or to be the next Silverstein. I think the importance of poetry lies in its ability to move, to strike passion in the hearts of children. Writing it could help children access their emotions; reading it aloud could help their confidence and their public speaking skills; learning about its conventions and how it functions could help their literacy and rhetorical skills. I also think exposing children to slam poetry (through videos or live performance) would help them see the power that poetry has and perhaps inspire them to see it as not "boring, confusing, or Shakespeare." So, poetry should be taught but not just for its own sake: it has so much to give to the children who devote some time to it, and real potential benefits in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteEmilee I really enjoyed your post. I also feel very passionate about poetry and I was very discouraged when so many people said that they disliked poetry. I believe poetry is a great way to express your feelings and get things off of your chest. This is something that should be in our society today because a lot of our youth have issues with expressing themselves and poetry could be the perfect outlet for this. I write a lot of poetry when I am stressed and need to clear my head and I know if exposed to it properly others will be more interested in it as well.
ReplyDeleteTo many times when someone thins of poetry they always assume it will be boring or think about Shakespeare. This negative image of poetry should be changed to a brighter image because poetry is very beneficial. I also really enjoyed the examples of slam poetry that we seen in class which were very informative and interesting. I also tried to see the video that you posted however I could not get it to come up but I am very sure that it was interesting and exciting. I really enjoyed your post because I can directly relate.
I agree with both of these posts, I love poetry and believe it is a great way to express yourself. Poetry can be written about anything and is a great way to portray your feelings. I believe it should be discussed in the classroom more often. Poetry comes in a variety of forms, it isn't just Old English or written by famous poets. It is still used today in the music industry. When song writers write, they are putting their emotion into words and sharing it with the world. When I read poetry, I really enjoy it because I can feel what the writer was feeling during that time in their life. I also think children would enjoy poetry because sometimes they have trouble expressing themselves at a young age. It is a great for everyone to open up and understand other peoples perspectives on life.
ReplyDeleteI think slam poetry is the "new poetry" of our generation. Its one of those things that in high school there was one creative writing teacher that seemed to put many people on it. I have friends who have competed in competitions for slam poetry and I think its one of the coolest things you can do with words. I feel like a lot of people when they think about slam poetry think of a dark lit room with people snapping,and meaningful thought provoking verses. Although there are some slam poets like this its a very broad category and I think if more people were exposed to it they would understand and enjoy its complexity and respect it.
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