I was surprised by the So What? responses we were given to read. Five years removed from high school, I did not expect such detailed answers from students regarding "On the Subway" by Sharon Olds. I began to think of my own experiences with poetry in high school. What made these reactions so different than when I was in school? It suddenly hit me.
In my high school, I can't remember a single time in English class when we were given the opportunity to jot down our own ideas in this way and have them respected. Activities like So What? genuinely give students the space and freedom to critically think about a piece and honestly write their ideas. So What? is non-threatening and it invites students to share. The questions are so open-ended that students should feel that teachers are interested in what they have to say. There is no single right answer. If a student doesn't have to worry about being wrong, they will almost always provide some type of response.
I feel that "On the Subway" is a great poem to do for an activity like this. A controversial piece evokes students' emotions, backgrounds, values, prejudices, etc. So What? allows students to write their most personal thoughts without the judgement of their peers. Also, each student is given the opportunity to have their voice heard, even the quieter students who do not often participate in whole-class discussions. So What? lets students explore more deeply, as they have more time to organize their thoughts and write them all down. I also feel that it is harder for students to personally connect to poetry because it is often concise. When students are given more time for response, they have a greater chance of finding their own personal connection.
1 comment:
Keep in mind, too, Lauren, that students were completing this writing post-instruction on all the different literary lenses on the "cards" we looked at in class. They'd been equipped to have a different kind of talk around the texts - it just came through in their writing here.
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