CI5461: Poetry on Film

Oh, how I long for a laptop cart. Then, I could integrate all these new media and not be as scared of the technology gap, and my lessons could seemingly be more relevant to my students.

With that slightly snide opening out of the way, I want to spend a few moments lauding the poetry activity (and others) that Jeffrey Schwartz describes in "Poetry Fusion." I had considered the short story a great medium that could be presented in film, by students, but the poem may actually be just as effective. I love its possibilities to teach writing skills, as Schwartz describes in his final paragraph: "What could be clearer than cutting the extra seconds out of a good shot? Get to the point. Use all of your creative and analytical resources to express your meaning to your audience. Pay attention to the language." And so on, and so forth. It's a great closing paragraph, and I side with Schwartz. Students would better understand poetry by giving it the repeated readings that film creation demand.

I also like how he built up to the activity with poetry reading in podcasts. Again, this forces a second reading (or a second listening) and infuses the poem with life-giving voice. It is the natural bridge to film, and it is also a bit less daunting (I think) to record your voice and then share it than it is to read aloud in class. This aspect could more easily transfer to a less tech-savvy classroom, but perhaps that is what we've been doing all along.



That brings me to another point I appreciated. Literary interpretation is a constant concept that links all new technologies. All lend themselves to criticism and a focus on their limitations and affordances. All benefit from more thinking, repeated readings and visits. The skills are not new, and that is encouraging. (Also, as an aside, iMovie is not the only editing software out there. It's not even close to being the best one. Why do so many people use it as the name of the product, like Kleenex for tissue or Pepsi for pop? Darn Apple and its infiltration of our culture OK, vent complete.)

As a final point, I do feel badly for Schwartz and his assessment dilemma. The group that struggled through the filming process learned more, probably, than the groups for which the project progressed smoothly. But could he not, then, design the rubric around the process instead of the product? At least a bit? Come to think of it, his rubric already does reflect both the product and the process, and it actually looks quite fair. Especially with products like video, for which the audience is often much wider than, say, a class essay, the process really doesn't affect the viewers. All they can fairly judge - and indeed, all they are actually privy to - is the product, and I believe the project should be judged accordingly. If we as teachers are asking students to focus more on their audience, then we cannot brush aside a poor final product and pass it off as if it is the same as a well-made one. We just cannot let process overwhelm product, not when there's a wider audience involved.

External resource
http://www.favoritepoem.org/videos.html

A "favorite poem" assignment could jumpstart a poetry unit, and this could springboard into it by offering examples. We completed a similar class project last fall for Jim Hatten's class, where he set up a page for us and we simply recorded our voices reading the poem. This site could give students ideas for their own recitations regarding delivery, voice, and so on.