I recently thought of a way to help students more readily "clue in" to the subjects and emotions described in poems. As I am reading through the dozen or so magazines to which I subscribe, I often cut out pictures of interesting, dramatic, or unusual people, scenes, or landscapes as inspiration for my own writing and painting. I realized that the same pictures and photographs that evoked strong feelings in me would probably evoke strong feelings in my students, and thus help them understand the inspiration for and development of a poem. In addition, the cutout pictures provide a handy reference in the discussion and use of figurative language and figures of speech.
I begin by passing a picture around the class, asking students to describe both the picture and the feelings it evokes. To develop thinking skills, I follow up questions with additional questions along the same lines, rather than supplying students with answers.
Sometimes I use a photograph clipped from a news magazine, showing the anguished face of an elderly Greek woman. I ask students:
-
What is this woman's state of mind?
-
Why do you think she is upset?
-
How do you feel about her while looking at the picture?
-
What words and phrases best describe her?
-
If you were trying to describe this picture to someone who had not seen it, to what would you compare her actions and expression?
I list students' short answers on the chalkboard. Whenever possible, I use gentle probing to encourage students to use metaphors and similes in their answers. For instance, I might refer to an aerial view of a town and ask students, "Do the tiny human figures in this picture remind you of anything?" Holding up a picture of an elephant, I might ask, "What other huge objects does this elephant make you think of?" Following our discussion, each student receives a picture cut out of a magazine and responds to it in the same way we did as a group. Students examine the pictures carefully and either write out their responses or present them orally to the rest of the class.
Next, I introduce a poem that has a theme similar to that of the picture we discussed together in class. For instance, to accompany the photograph of the anguished woman, I might choose a poem about war, the death of a loved one, or divorce. I prompt students to compare the poem and the picture by asking such questions as:
-
What similarities are there between the picture and the poem?
-
How are the moods of the picture and poem different?
-
Could the woman in the picture be feeling the same feelings as are described or suggested in the poem?
-
Does hearing the poem give you more ideas on what this woman could be thinking?
-
Does seeing this woman's face make it easier for you to relate to the theme of the poem?
As the final stage of this activity, I ask students to write poems, stories, or one-act plays using their pictures as inspiration. Most students seem to have ideas already, due to the talking and writing they have done about their pictures.
Grace Cooper, Hyattsville, Maryland
This teaching idea was originally published in Ideas Plus Book 5 (NCTE, 1987).
|
