Writing+Poetry+for+Reflection

Writing Poetry for Reflection

In this writing exercise we will compose a poem about a student, classmate, favorite teacher, mentor or any other person who has changed our perspective on learning or teaching. Many researchers (Cranton (1994); Dirkx (2000); Taylor (2000b); and Boyd (in Dirkx, 2000)) suggest we use affective, imaginal, and extra-rational ways of knowing in combination with our cognitive style in order to learn. This exercise can be powerful, challenging, revealing and beautiful. We hope you find it as rewarding as we have. **// Please do not use real names in your poems. //**

This way of developing a poem has several phases: reflection, exploration, jam writing and construction.

· __Reflection__ – take 3 to 5 minutes to settle yourself. Allow your breath to soften and any concerns to slip away. Close your eyes and sift through images of those who have influenced you as an educator, pay particular attention to the ones who opened up whole new ways of interpreting the world, who challenged you and asked you to dig deeper or try again. You will know the right one by the tingle or hum, or strong feeling inside your torso.

· __Exploration__ – review the memories of this person and their impact on how you know what you know, your point of view, your assumptions, your basic frames of reference regarding learning and teaching. Jot down images, feelings, thoughts or phrases that come to mind. If you have notes or papers they’ve written, glance through them.

· __Jam Writing__ (McGee, 1997) -- is a technique that puts **//content before form//**. It is a way to talk to ourselves and to discover what Robert Frost found when he said “for me the initial delight is in the surprise of remembering something I didn’t know I knew”.  o Set a timer for 10 minutes and write without picking up your pen. Do NOT try to write the poem, or be grammatically correct. No structure yet. Write down any/everything concerning the person you’ve chosen. Take first thoughts as best thoughts. Allow yourself to note feelings, thoughts, impressions, colors, senses, images—all unfiltered and unedited. Keep pushing for 10 minutes or longer as you may be surprised what surfaces given enough time. The magic starts after 7 minutes—really!

·  __Construction__ – Read through your notes and jam session looking for images or ideas you can use to create a poem. The poem need not be very long, however—longer than the Japanese three lined haiku, please. Caution: this is not scholarly, prize winning type of poetry we are after—we are looking for essential, subjective, innate knowing that appears during your reflection. //The intention here is to reveal an alternate way you “invest or withdraw meaning from the social world.” (Dirkx, 2000)// **__Posting__**: Please post your poem and a short reflection about forming knowledge in this manner on the discussion board by Tuesday at midnight.