Class 5- Poetry and Prose

During this week's class, we had the privilege of listening to guest lecturer named Deanna Young discuss the benefits and struggles of writing and poetry. Deanna is a published Canadian poet who has written three books of poetry. She led us through a workshop that analyzed a variety of poems and instructed us to write our own poem about one of two topics: the Beauty of Math or the Trouble with Math. 

I already felt the anxiety building up... not only was I uncomfortable with math in general, but now I had to write a poem about it? Another reason why I felt anxious was because this poetry task came first thing Monday morning. I hadn't had my morning tea yet and the thought of writing something― let alone something creative― seemed like an impossibility. The rules Deanna gave us for our poem are below:

1. Cannot say the word "math"
2. Cannot include numbers
3. Must include one emotion
4. Must include one colour
5. Must be 9 lines long

The added difficulty I found was something Deanna said immediately before giving us this task:she can never write anything out of the blue without a writing warm-up. So why was she making us do exactly that? We had 7 minutes to write a piece of poetry that followed all the rules and explored our feelings, whether they were positive or negative, about mathematics. I sat at my desk completely blank. I was excited to write poetry, yet I wasn't expecting so many restrictions. How is one to write a poem that explores their emotions and feelings when an outside source places so many limitations on that piece of writing? The following picture shows my "success" with this activity.

What I got out of this workshop is that I cannot force students to write. Instructions and restrictions work for some, but for others it will feel too constraining. However, other students will be overwhelmed when given little to no instruction, while other students will embrace the challenge and show their creative writing skills. Every student is different, and it is up to me to make my students feel safe to explore beyond their comfort zone and to help foster a trusting relationship that allows them to be vulnerable when trying a new task.