Poetry - outside reading

I have recently returned from a classical, Christian education retreat/conference. I am feeling incredibly rejuvenated in my love of education, and the event has had me rethinking nearly every aspect of my life. For part of the day at this retreat/conference, we engaged in a few workshops. One of those workshops was put on by Christine Perrin, a professor and leader within classical, Christian education. Her expertise is in poetry, and she led a workshop in which she shared how she approaches reading poetry and engaging with it in her classrooms - whether they be middle school classes or graduate classes. Her approach felt very reminiscent of some elements of narrative-driven oral culture that we have discussed. 

She designated one person to read each of the poems out loud for the group. After that one person read them, everyone sat in silence for about 15 seconds. After 15 seconds, everyone was required to close their eyes and repeat one key phrase from the poem that stuck out to them. Their chosen phrase(s) could be any phrase that was interesting, beautiful, or meaningful to them. No one raised their hands or anything. Each person spoke up popcorn style. At the end of this exercise, I was blown away by how much understanding I gained about the poem by simply hearing others repeat single phrases from it. No one offered up their interpretations. They only repeated phrases that were already in the poem. Closing my eyes and simply hearing the words of the poem repeated seemed to seal them on my heart in a deeper way than if I had simply read the poem myself. 


March 22, 2022

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