Do you need to do a Poetry 180?
August 20, 2008
Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines — the new school year is upon us. The 180 school days ahead may hold nearly daily occurrences of less than enriching activities for you and your students… french fries for lunch? Gossip in the teachers lounge? As you think about the routines you will be setting in the days ahead, consider adding some poetry to the mix. You know, to balance out some of that other stuff.
Billy Collins, former Poet Laureate of the United States has even made it easy for you. Go to the website for Poetry 180: A Poem a Day for American High Schools, and you’ll find the poems pre-selected and accompanied by ideas for how to implement this program in your school. Collins imagines this as a school-wide endeavor, but there’s no reason you couldn’t put it into practice in your own classroom if you’re daunted by the idea of proposing it on a larger scale.
The idea here isn’t to study form or meaning or the life and times of the author. You needn’t even discuss the poems after they’ve been read if no one seems inclined to. Just get poetry out in the air! It’s good clean fun. -MARIELLE PRINCE
