a little bit of venting from me this time...
And Susan, I totally forgot to answer the question, but my video's already hella-long, so...
I choose "the mother" by Gwendolyn Brooks. I just think this is one of the most moving pieces of poetry I've ever read, and I recently rediscovered it. Probably won't take a look at it with my 8th graders.
Your question asked how would we try to help students see that poetry is important. And really, I'm not convinced that it always is. Like with "the mother," it's not necessarily important as it is complicated and moving and beautiful. But I guess that shows that I'm defining important as in some way functional, serves a purpose, which I really don't think has to be the case. A complicated question, Ms. Requa.
A second choice might be Mos Def's "Mr. Nigga."
My question: (Somewhat) out of the blue the other week, my students got into a really heated discussion about the word nigger versus the word nigga spoken by a Black person versus spoken by everyone else. They had smart, interesting, and varied opinions, and I think it's an important conversation to have. Coming up, we have a unit on drama and a unit on poetry, both two weeks. Suggestions for fitting this back in? (I mean like, specifics. Would you plan a lesson on the word, and if so how would you do it?)
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