I'm teaching a wonderful poetry unit to the 7th and 8th grade now. I am discovering that junior high is not exactly the time when one's literary analysis skills are at their peak. This is good news for college professors, but it makes for some interesting moments for me. I love teaching middle school - I'm just discovering that I have to teach on a very basic level. There are some moments where light dawns. Those are wonderful and exciting moments in my teaching world. They usually happen with the 7th grade girls. The 8th grade boys are much more literal. Note the juxtaposition of these two classes last Friday.
7th Grade Girls
Me: So, girls, what do you think of this Raven in Poe's poem? What do you think it could represent?
Girl #1: Maybe death?
Me: Okay, good! We know that someone has died, and the narrator is thinking about that a lot. What else? Why do you think he asks the Raven questions that have such sad answers, when he knows the raven will answer that way?
Girl #2: OH! Maybe he WANTS to keep on feeling sad! He doesn't want to be happy!
Me: Exactly! He is so sad about the person who has died that he thinks the grief will last forever! Good! So now what do you think the Raven stands for?
Girl #1: sadness!
Me: Very good!
8th Grade Boys
Me: So, guys, what do you think of this raven in Poe's poem?
Boy #1: I don't get why he's stuck with it forever.
Boy #2: Ya, why doesn't he just shoo it out the window?
Boy #3: Or hit it with a broom or something?
Boy #1: He could move to a different house!
Boy #3 (with an evil glint in his eye and a sly grin which I instantly and accurately interpreted as the look associated with guns) OR, he could SHOOT it!
Me: Umm, well that's true... But maybe Poe didn't really want to write about a literal talking bird. Maybe he was using the bird as a symbol... (My voice fades as I look nervously at the clock).
I love teaching!!!
6 comments:
Totally hilarious!!! There's just so much in this post to think about, analyze, laugh at, and cringe away from in dread at the mere thought of what my own "teaching career" may hold...
*chuckling!
Ol' 'Lanche just knew there was a reason he never did cotton none to Ravens... ...the Cowpoke wonders what all the raven's aboot anyway... ...ya' s'pose ya' could get them guys to make cut outs of Ravens and have a little target practice with spitwads??? 8~D
So do you think you'll teach The Raven again next year?
( Quoth the teacher, " Nevermore!")
I have a vague memory of Aaron jumping up and down on a bed reciting The Raven with great glee. Somehow his seventh-gradish mind didn't get the point either.
I am reading this during my planning period at school. I teach 7th grade Language Arts and am actually doing a lesson on the Raven today. Your comments couldn't have come at a better time, as I sit discouraged at being the only one in the room captivated by the metaphorical bird. Those FEW students who make the connection are who keep me going, but otherwise all I too have heard today is "why not just shoot it...?"
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