Quote:
Originally Posted by Maryann Corbett
In a required introductory survey course at a high school or community college, I think there's a lot more room for the sort of bad experience that adults have occasionally told me about: a required recitation that left an enduring bad taste in the reluctant student's mouth. Perhaps it's rare, but the stories have stuck with me.
I guess I'm less worried about teaching new poets than I am about creating and developing an audience for poetry, and I guess that's why I'm affected by stories of the ways people have been alienated from poetry. It's good to hear that recitation-from-memory has positive results for the most part.
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I hear you, Maryann. I teach high school students--many of them currently not native speakers. In the past, when I taught mainly white, affluent, well-educated students, I tried several times to have them memorize a poem, but it was never very successful. Maybe that was my fault! I think you do have learn poems on a regular basis and enjoy them for it to work.
I barely remember the poems I had to recite at school--except for "Adlestrop," which I still love. But the one thing that stays with me from my days in high school (grammar school in England) is performing in Shakespeare plays. I could roll out huge chunks of blank verse, no problem--and I found it enormously pleasurable. But then I was doing it every day for a couple of months at least.
I just started teaching
Othello to 9th graders and had them reading aloud immediately--taking turns in front of the class. They didn’t really understand the text very well, but they really enjoyed performing. And some of them had an ear for the lines instantly--even when they didn’t understand them! Also I once had a 12th grade class who wanted to read the WHOLE of
Hamlet aloud, they enjoyed it so much. It had to do with the themes of the play, of course, but also the sound of the words in their own mouths. It's all been very instructive.
Charlotte
PS: Gregory, we cross-posted. How wonderful! Wish I could do that, but my memory seems to be shot....
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