Engaging Young Folks
By Arianne True
I love teaching experimental poetry to youth, and they do incredible work with it, often having some of the best poetry conversations I get to be part of. I’ve found out how much sixth graders can love and have fun with Gertrude Stein, known for her untraditional (and to many, impenetrable) use of language. I’ve helped middle schoolers read the same experimental poem six different ways and watched them ask amazing questions about it. I’ve taught selections from Zong!, a long and difficult poetry collection that took me four months to read, to ninth graders who cracked open the text and were cracked open by it in turn.
I think a few things can get in the way of folks teaching experimental poetry to youth, so I’m going to share strategies for teachers or other adults who want to talk about poetry with youth in their lives. Here are three ideas you can try:
1.) Encourage play. Here are two tips. It’s important for me as a teacher to be curious and excited about what I bring my students; exploring together and sharing genuine curiosity makes a huge difference. My students are also very used to hearing, “I love guesses, even if you think you might be wrong.” Encouraging them to share their thoughts when they’re not confident, and rewarding them when they do, brings more play and higher quality discussion to the room.
2.) Release attachment to learning outcomes. Sometimes we go into teaching with a singular idea of what students should learn or of what something means. When I do that with experimental poetry, the lesson is much flatter, I enjoy it less, and students get less out of class. It helps to ask for and reward multiple interpretations, though I think it only works if you mean it. This idea also means being okay with students having different learning outcomes. Not everyone needs to learn the same lesson, and when you open up that space, classroom discussion and the work they create become much richer.
3.) Trust (and value) your heart and body more than your head. Encourage students to trust their feelings as relevant information; don’t let experimental work become an intellectual exercise. Start with how they (and you) responded to the piece. How did they feel? Then we get curious about craft: how did the poet give you that experience? Find where in the poem those feelings/moments happened and get curious about what’s going on technique-wise.
If you engage young folks around poetry, try these out! If you can really commit to and believe these, I have seen them transform spaces. It can take a lot of unlearning from adults, but that work is worth it for what it makes possible for our students, and for ourselves. These guiding ideas work for our own reading, too, so practice there first: have fun and feel the feelings that come up when you read something, get curious, and you’ll do great.