Monday, November 16, 2009
Monday, November 2, 2009
Here is a link to a review I wrote of An Angle of Vision: Women Writers on their Poor and Working-Class Roots, edited by Lorraine Lopez.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Monday, October 12, 2009
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Busy lately. Still having fun, but that takes time too. I'm working on two reviews of anthologies. Today, I completed an ad for Puerto del Sol to appear in a forthcoming issue of the Writer's Chronicle--my first graphic design project, 1.5 years in the making.
You should go here and listen to Alice Notley read "Love Song."
You should go here and listen to Alice Notley read "Love Song."
Friday, September 25, 2009
Poetry Teaching Philosophy
The prerequisite for the course I am currently teaching is first-semester freshman composition. The poetry workshop I teach is a 300-level class. I run my class with this in mind. There are 200-level creative writing (and composition) courses, but students aren't required to take those before my class.
I could be more demanding of my students, but that isn't how I learned when I was at their level. They could be, through no fault of their own, 200-level students in a 300-level course. At the very beginning of the semester, I had to try to win them over to keep at least 10 students enrolled--that's what I thought I needed to keep the class open. At this point, though, it's time to turn the tables and be a little scary. But not TOO scary. Because beginner poets need to be nurtured. They need someone to encourage them in writing creatively and to nudge them along when they discover something new, to cultivate excitement about poetry.
And that's why I don't required typed endnotes. I'm going to swoop in and check up on everyone's effort in a midterm evaluation type way in a couple weeks, but for now I'm relying heavily on the discussions we have in workshop to teach everyone how to talk about poetry, which I believe leads to better thinking about poetry and finally better poetry.
Now let's do some grading/commenting. Yesss.
I could be more demanding of my students, but that isn't how I learned when I was at their level. They could be, through no fault of their own, 200-level students in a 300-level course. At the very beginning of the semester, I had to try to win them over to keep at least 10 students enrolled--that's what I thought I needed to keep the class open. At this point, though, it's time to turn the tables and be a little scary. But not TOO scary. Because beginner poets need to be nurtured. They need someone to encourage them in writing creatively and to nudge them along when they discover something new, to cultivate excitement about poetry.
And that's why I don't required typed endnotes. I'm going to swoop in and check up on everyone's effort in a midterm evaluation type way in a couple weeks, but for now I'm relying heavily on the discussions we have in workshop to teach everyone how to talk about poetry, which I believe leads to better thinking about poetry and finally better poetry.
Now let's do some grading/commenting. Yesss.
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