诗歌中的新视角

诗歌可以是谜题。 由于文字和思想的密集排列，它们甚至对最勇敢的批判性思想家也提出了挑战。 But there are significant rewards that come with being able to “unpack” a poem, among them the opportunity to consider the world from a new, and perhaps unexpected, perspective.

 

贝博体彩app’s schoolwide theme, “Gaining Perspective,” has infused new energy into the 上学校’s focus on poetry. 今年秋天和冬天，学生们正在探索来自不同时代和文化背景的诗人的作品。 而且，根据英语系主任保罗·阿贝尔恩的说法，学生们当然会从接触到丰富的新观点和新思想中受益，他们也在磨练基本的批判性思维和写作技能，这些技能可以应用于每一个学科。

Seventh and eighth graders are reading selections from 《发光之物之书：国际诗选》, while ninth graders are reading from 回归诗歌, an anthology edited by the poet Billy Collins. Paul Abeln explains that the department selected both books for the diversity of authors represented in each—a breadth that reflects 贝博体育app’s own student population, which this year includes students from 21 countries. “It’s important to hear voices from multiple backgrounds,” Paul notes, “because it helps our students understand who we are as a school culture.”

 

Paul explains that the poetry unit also affords the opportunity to develop key skills essential to good expository writing—developing a compelling thesis and supporting it with concrete evidence—on a smaller scale. “The challenge is intense,” he says, “but the quantity is manageable. With poetry, we can show students how to put a microscope to a single line of text, take apart the language, and look for patterns of meaning.” Then, Paul explains, by the time students read more complex works that are also rooted in poetic language, like 《奥德赛》 or 麦克白, they have a toolbox of skills that they can use to understand the material on a deeper level.

 

Choosing more obscure poems for close reading offers another unique benefit in the Google age: it’s harder to crowd- source the answer. Paul explains: “With lesser-known works, there are no short cuts. Students can’t check their own interpretations against what they can find on the Internet. 相反，他们必须努力阅读那些在他们的语言中有时具有挑战性和复杂性的文本。 They have to come to their own understanding, trust their judgment, and figure out how to support their opinions with textual evidence.”

 

那么，学生如何打开一首诗呢？ 保罗说，有很多策略，目标是让学生有足够广泛的选择，让每个学生都能找到最适合自己的方法。

 

In Paul’s class, for example, ninth graders this fall examined a poem a day, writing “puzzle papers” where they struggled through ideas independently and then shared their interpretations during class time.

 

In Deb Smith’s class, students used themes as a way to build their under- standing. 他们探索具有共同线索的诗歌，如自然、旅行或某个时刻，并将这些诗歌作为学习诗歌技巧的一种方式。 然后，学生们根据这些主题创作自己的诗歌。

 

可视化练习是帮助学生理解诗歌的另一种方法。 When the eighth graders in Dan Roy’s class examined "The Kingfisher" by Mary Oliver, they created their own visual interpretations of the poem, using colors, shapes, and other representative drawings to emphasize key elements of the piece.

 

Meanwhile, in Kathryn Maslak’s class, students dove into spoken word poetry, focusing on the work of poets like Sarah Kay and Donovan Livingston, and using their work as a vehicle for discussions on identity and social justice.

 

最后，保罗说，我们的目标是支持学生成为独立、细心、有能力的读者，他们相信自己有能力与新思想斗争。 “We want them to have the strength of their convictions,” he says, “but also the confidence to express those ideas effectively.”