Friday (or) Busting Out the Blue Jeans, Baby!

In the interests of Friday, I wore jeans instead of slacks today. I wore a button-up shirt and jacket, so I still looked professional.

I also presented a few tentative bellwork ideas involving poems. The plan is to hand out a poem and have the students read and respond to them with journal entries, first giving their opinions of the work, and then working out how the work relates to the Modern concepts listed below.

I'm open to any poetry suggestions deemed appropriate for High School Juniors. Right now, I'm leaning towards Nightcrawler Buys a Woman a Drink and Reading Comic Books in the Rain by Gary Jackson, A Topeka Poet; Cardinal Ideograms by May Swenson, Facing It by Yusef Komunyakaa, and one that might possibly get me into trouble, called Hot Ass Poem by Jennifer L. Knox. I'm not sure if you can find any of these online. If not, I might post them to get some feedback.

Eventually, the idea is to get them ready to read Of Mice and Men, a Modern Novella, and discuss elements of the story that run parallel to these poems.

Elements of Modernism

• Emphasis on bold experimentation in style and form, reflecting the fragmentation of society.
• Rejection of traditional themes, subjects, and forms.
• Sense of disillusionment and loss of faith in the American Dream.
• Rejection of sentimentality and artificiality.
• Rejection of the hero as infallible in favor of a hero who is flawed and disillusioned but shows “grace under pressure”.
• Interest in the inner working s of the mind, sometimes expressed through new narrative techniques, such as stream of consciousness.
• Revolt against the spiritual debasement of the modern world.