{"id":469,"date":"2016-11-16T12:40:37","date_gmt":"2016-11-16T19:40:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/?p=469"},"modified":"2016-11-16T17:28:11","modified_gmt":"2016-11-17T00:28:11","slug":"experiences-in-verse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/2016\/11\/experiences-in-verse\/","title":{"rendered":"Experiences in Verse"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"englishwhiteboard\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Contributed by 6th & 7th Grade\u00a0English teacher\u00a0Andrea Holck and 5th & 6th Grade English teacher Matt Callahan<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat? Wow! Why are all my classes blowing my mind today?\u201d a student asked recently, at the close of a particularly arduous class discussion. You might be wondering: what compelling, relevant, topic might we be exploring? <\/span><\/p>\n

Would it blow your mind to discover that we were studying a well-worn subject of nearly every English class beyond sixth grade? The topic: Shakespeare. Shakespearean sonnets, to be precise. <\/span><\/p>\n

This particular exclamation arose after we spent a good portion of class paraphrasing one of the more famous of Shakespeare\u2019s 154 sonnets: Sonnet 19. In this poem, the poet discusses time and its effects on beauty, specifically the beauty of his beloved. Students struggled to \u201ctranslate,\u201d but in the short space of an hour came to the consensus that Shakespeare was getting \u201csassy\u201d with time (their word). \u201cDo thy worst, Old Time,\u201d Shakespeare dares. \u201cDespite thy wrong \/ My love shall in my verse ever live young.\u201d \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Shortly after this revelation that Shakespeare could cop an attitude with Time: \u201cWhy are all of my classes blowing my mind?!\u201d I\u2019m not sure what happened in other classes that day, but as for English, I had to agree; my mind was blown, too. But perhaps in a different way.<\/span><\/p>\n

Reading Shakespeare, even as an adult educated in literary theory, is hard. Teaching Shakespeare to sixth graders? Well, it is a challenge, to say the least. Let\u2019s look at why.<\/span><\/p>\n

To fully understand the depth of a single Shakespearean line, one must consider the poet\u2019s use of words that <\/span>seem <\/span><\/i>familiar to us, but which were used in dramatically different ways at the time the poem was written. We also see words that we have never seen before\u2014 <\/span>thou<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>thee<\/span><\/i> and their kin\u2014and words we know all too well, but which have been twisted to fit the meter (<\/span>dimm\u2019d, ow\u2019st, grow\u2019st<\/span><\/i>). So, words are tough.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s syntax\u2014the words twisted into patterns unfamiliar to a 21st century reader,\u2014<\/span>blunt thou the lion\u2019s paws<\/span><\/i> was a tough one\u2014and the \u00a0complicated matter of iambic pentameter\u2014the rhythmic unstressed\/stressed syllabic pattern for which Shakespeare is famous. <\/span><\/p>\n

And we can\u2019t forget rhyme scheme of course! Shakespeare\u2019s chosen pattern of rhymes was invented in rebellion of Petrarch\u2019s tried and true abbabba pattern. Rhyme scheme can be rebellion? Yes!<\/span><\/p>\n

If that– <\/span>all<\/span><\/i> of that–is not enough, we can add a healthy dose of that old Shakespearean anxiety which strikes in the hearts of any student faced with the task understanding the basic meaning of a line of Shakespeare. And once understood, we must \u00a0\u201cgo beyond the obvious,\u201d and probe its depths for \u201cdeeper meaning.\u201d And then: write about it. <\/span><\/p>\n

Whew. <\/span><\/p>\n

But guess what? <\/span><\/p>\n

We did it. <\/span>They <\/span><\/i>did it. <\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m not entirely sure if every student left this unit an ardent fan of The Bard; but that was never the goal. In the spectrum of human beings, not all are destined to find themselves in love with poetry, in this case, a particularly opaque brand of poetry. But within these weeks, every student in sixth grade was a part of the unlocking of something that started out fairly <\/span>concealed. <\/span><\/i>When we presented the first sonnet, one brave voice spoke up: \u201cI honestly don\u2019t have the slightest idea what he\u2019s talking about.\u201d The comment was met with agreement by many. <\/span><\/p>\n

But slowly, line by line, word by word, we untangled the syntax, unlocked each word, and in the process freed up some beautiful images, grappled with the many possible meanings of a word, debated the nature of relationships, the ethics of lying, and the magical ability that a poet has to \u201cimmortalize his love in a poem,\u201d to quote one of our sixth grade scholars. <\/span><\/p>\n

In the end, if I\u2019m being honest, one very basic goal for this unit was to give students a first experience with Shakespeare that was not defeating. We hoped that each one would walk away having an appreciation, if not a love of, the work we hold in the highest esteem amongst English literature. And I think that happened. <\/span><\/p>\n

Some days were harder than others, there was frustration, a desire to give up, a serious question about whether all this work was really worth it to get to the kernels of truth we found inside each poem. But education is struggle; without it, we do not grow. To struggle with Shakespeare at such an early stage in one\u2019s education will inevitably be difficult. But if a student stares down what seemed <\/span>unknowable<\/span><\/i> to start, goes slowly, with patience, persists, grapples, fails, tries again, and ultimately comes out understanding a little more than they did to start? That struggle itself is the very key that can unlock so much of what is mysterious and intimidating about literature (and many other matters of life, for that matter). <\/span><\/p>\n

In the end, when the clouds part and \u201cthe eye of heaven shines\u201d on some new insight, it is rapturous–or, in the words of our students–your mind is blown. Perhaps not simply because of what is seen in the poem; perhaps the real mind-blowing realization is in seeing what your mind is actually capable of with a bit of persistence, discussion, and hard work. <\/span><\/p>\n

And that is a lesson that never gets old. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Contributed by 6th & 7th Grade\u00a0English teacher\u00a0Andrea Holck and 5th & 6th Grade English teacher Matt Callahan \u201cWhat? Wow! Why are all my classes blowing …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","content-type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[58,134,92,142],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-co-teaching","category-english","category-middle-school","category-resident-teacher-program"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":472,"href":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469\/revisions\/472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}