Curriculum

Day One

The students were introduced to the instructors and given an overview of the program. Each student was given a composition book provided by V. I. P. in which to work and write. A brief description of poetry was given, along with some examples and samples of classic poets and poetry, including the poet laureates of the U.S. and Illinois, William Butler Yeats, T.S. Eliot, Allen Ginsberg, Sir Walter Raleigh, and others. The students were then exposed to some more modern and current examples of poetry, including song lyrics by favorite musical artists, TV commercials, poetry being read by favorite actors, Dr. Seuss, Shel Silverstein, the nursery rhymes of Mother Goose, and more. A combination of hand-outs, videos, and slides were used to demonstrate these examples.

Following the examples, time was spent going over some of the basic tools used in writing poetry. So as not to overwhelm the students, the focus was kept on the most widely used tools, including metaphor, simile, personification, alliteration, and rhyming.

The session was concluded with an exercise in which the students all provided random words which were then used to compose a collaborative work of poetry. The students were then encouraged to begin working on composition before the next session, and asked to bring in at least eight lines of poetry for the next session.

Day Two

A brief lesson was given on the power of words and poetry. It was impressed upon the students that everyone has something to say and sometimes the most powerful messages can be said in the simplest of terms. Often those terms can also be poetical. A video was shown with examples of this from current and popular films, including LOTR: Return of the King, Mockingjay Part 1, and Gladiator.

The point of the lesson was to show the students that as teenagers, they have a lot of things going on in their lives and poetry gives them an outlet to talk about some of their more difficult issues. They were encouraged to look at some of the issues facing them today--bullying, self-image, peer pressure, current events such as the riots in Ferguson and Baltimore, etc.--figure out how they felt about those issues, and then put those emotions down on paper.

After the lesson, the students were given time to write and to ask questions.

Day Three

The final workshop allowed the students a chance to present their work in front of their peers, teachers, and instructors. At Liberty Middle School, the students read their poetry aloud during their respective class periods. At Quincy Junior High School, an after school poetry slam was arranged so that parents and friends could attend the presentation and listen to students present their work.

After the presentations, the students' poetry was collected by the instructors to be included in the published collaborative collection, The Book. Students were allowed a final chance to ask questions, given the details about when they could expect their copies of The Book, and thanked for their time, hard work, and enthusiasm.