National Poetry Month! English Brings Poetry to Life
For National Poetry Month in April, the HS AL Creative Writing class partnered with the other HS English classes to host student-led poetry workshops. The Creative Writing students designed and delivered engaging presentations before guiding their peers through a creative poetry-writing experience.
In Ms. Stead’s Accelerated English 10 class, for example, Creative Writing student Jayven Chng introduced students to the abecedarian and contrapuntal forms of poetry. The Accelerated English students then had the opportunity to experiment with writing in these styles themselves. The workshop created a thoughtful and inspiring atmosphere, giving students a creative challenge, time for quiet reflection, and an opportunity to share at the end.
AL Creative Writing students have spent the fall “mentoring” under a contemporary poet. In addition to teaching poetry workshops in 9th and 10th grade English classes, the students created an interactive poetry carnival to share their poet’s work with the Concordia community. This poetic research and inquiry led them deeper into the poet’s craft, art, as well as informed their own generative practice. Held during lunch in the HS/MS Library, the students created interactive and informative installations which explored aspects of the poet’s life and craft. Students from the MS and HS had the opportunity to attend the lunchtime carnival, and then the interactive booths stayed up for the remainder of National Poetry Month for the community to enjoy.
On Tuesday, May 26th, the AL CW students will have a final reading of their work, reading from selections of their final chapbooks (collections of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction) in the Drama Lab at 4:30. All are welcome to attend this public event.
Writing and sharing poetry together has been a wonderful way for different courses within the HS English Department to collaborate and celebrate creativity. We look forward to next year’s National Poetry Month!
-HS English Department