Poetry: An Insight Into A Student’s Soul
There’s a big push in our society to “talk to someone” to solve every difficult situation that you are experiencing. While this has great merit and has produced so much positivity, there’s something to say about a child’s ability to portray themselves in ways we don’t expect at their age. Even at such a young age, students have experienced situations that we as adults may have never encountered.
I am currently student teaching at an urban school in Ottawa, Ontario. The students come from all different backgrounds and experiences, which makes for a dynamic learning environment. At the conclusion of our poetry unit, students were instructed to write a poem demonstrating their best literary ability. Students had the freedom to choose the topic and structure of their poems, allowing their full creativity to flow! The only restriction was that their poetry must be respectful to everyone.
There were a few pieces of student work that I just had to share.
True works of art. Was all the spelling correct? No. Did the students use proper punctuation? Not always. Did the students demonstrate an ability to portray a feeling in a descriptive way? Absolutely. While I used to think of poetry as boring and redundant, I now view poetry as an insight into a student’s soul.