#weeklywritingworkshop

We didn't try teaching poetry until the 3rd semester of the Weekly Writing Workshop, mostly because I'm no poet. Lucky for me, Cortney, one of the chapter coordinators at Pomona College, stepped up to the challenge. 

I remember sitting next to one of our 6th graders, Vanessa, for our first poetry lesson. I always forget she's that young and think she's older than that - she's got the whole "I don't care" demeanor of a too-cool-for-school 9th grader, even though I know she likes 3W. 

So, of course, I tried to overcompensate by being excited enough for both of us, but she was having none of it. She told me she had never written a poem before. I wanted her to say it like she was about to take on an exciting challenge, but she mostly just sounded bored and a little nervous. As I looked around the classroom, I worried that this was how all of our students felt about poetry.

Like I said, I was lucky to have Cortney teaching, and not me. She broke poetry down in a way that made it completely non-intimidating. Some students were big fans of haikus. Others were into free verse. My favorite part of the lesson was when she pulled up this website and we crafted a diamante poem as a class. By then, the students were smiling, which is one of my primary goals for every lesson. 

A month later, Vanessa won the award for Best Poem at our literary magazine release party. At the end, we gave each of our students a book that we hand-picked specifically for them based on their interests and personalities. (Fingers crossed that they actually read them over the summer!) I gave Vanessa B by Sarah Kay, which is the written and illustrated version of the spoken word piece Sarah did for her TED talk, "If I Should Have a Daughter." I hope she loves it as much as I do. 

To be honest, the reason I didn't want to teach poetry was because I was a little bit afraid of it, like Vanessa was. It was outside of my comfort zone. But Cortney showed me how to make it accessible, and Vanessa showed me how to tackle something new with enthusiasm.