Lesson notes for August 11

After putting up all the poems written by the students so far and making everyone read everything as far as possible - some of which had two versions and some only one - the students were asked to decide which was the edited version, was it "better" and explain why they said what they said. The students understood the importance spacing made to the reading out of a poem aloud. the grades were exhibited and discussed.
We then read and discussed two poems by Madelstam and one long poem by Akhmatova. Mandelstam's second poem was difficult for the students to follow and through this they gathered the importance of understanding the contexts, frames,layers and themes to fully appreciate poetry.
Akhmatova's poem astounded them with its quality.
In the afternoon they read out their choices of poetry and also watched Total Eclipse - a film on Verlaine and primarily Rimbaud.
The students were happy about the rising standard of the course.
They have also begun to understand what poetry, the short poem and the brief lyric especially is about.
This can be seen in the increasing confidence they show in the poems they have written this tme around; some of which are gems.
Learning in depth is taking place as shown in the performance of understanding.