Joy Passanante: Poetry for the Common Core: Word-Play, Form, Technique, and Analysis

ENGL 501-06
1-credit seminar
June 24-June 28

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Joy Passanante
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This course will be divided between analytical skill-building and writing. Students will read several books of poems, practice and hone their poetry analysis skills, write their own poems using diverse forms, workshop their poems, critique the work of others, and prepare a portfolio of poems to use in teaching specific skills. Although the primary focus of this course will be on contemporary poetry, it will also draw on various traditional (“classic”) forms and include traditional (“classic”) poems. We will focus on ways to develop and apply skills and abilities mandated by the Common Core Standards: using research not only in analyzing poems but in conceptualizing and writing them; teaching secondary students the impact of nuance and etymology on language use; enhancing vocabulary; working with classic myths in poetry; and stimulating students to consider carefully every language choice they make in all syntactical elements so that writing poems helps them express themselves thoughtfully and lucidly in a wide variety of discourses.