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Lesson Plans


Re: Poetry & Art

From: Tom Johnsen (koordt)
Date: Sun Jan 30 2000 - 07:44:13 PST

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    BluesTruth wrote:
    >
    > Any of you ever try teaching Poetry and Art? Do you have the kids paint then
    > write the poetry on top of the paintings (watercolor)? I want to combine
    > these two subjects next week. Suggestions?
    > Thanks!!!!!
    > Blustruth (Jill)
    >
    This sounds interesting. You might consider looking at Nancy Mellon's
    Storytelling: Art and the Imagination. I'm using it now as a base for
    getting one child who persists in giving me work without thought. Some
    of the book's entries can be very visual as they are, others take more
    torque. I also found a Dover publication on Illuminated letters with a
    cd. I was able to put together several "story starters" (the child
    brightened suddenly when I asked her if she preferred to write stories.
    That's what got me looking into this book, which I'vd had for some
    time.) It's great for subs, and I can use it in lieu of the sound
    whipping or the full nelson.
    associate words with parts of speech that determine metaphor. Discard
    the weighty baggage of punctuation because they don't like the word.
    Point it out. Discuss in terms of discussing what art means, or rather
    how it means, and you have a big connection to poetry. After all,
    because poetry is also placement on the page, you can have them put
    their poetry on the bare branches of a tree, and so make a summer
    poem....You can do the same in fall as the leaves turn color. Write a
    poem so that every word is a different color. Don't worry about smudges
    made when you erase a word. That will simply be another leaf that isn't
    seen, but allowed to be there, adding its own color. (Obviously, there
    is the benefit that the students have the opportunity to use their mistakes)

    My feeling is that writing is simply another medium. And if we need it
    in order to assess what is known about vocabularies, methods, and
    histories, why not allow it in class as a parallel curriculum
    opportunity? Maybe some one will be spurred to illustrate for the book.

    Tom in Potter 

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