An Exploration of Emotional Expression Through Poetry
The timeless tradition of assigning projects in the form of a presentation has long been adopted by teachers to allow students to explore the greater depths of a particular subject. However, the limitations of assigning projects does not end there; Señora Banks’ recent poetry project has garnered a great deal of attention among students in the school.
Two weeks ago, Señora Banks’ 4H Spanish classes were assigned a project to write a poem with an emotional connection and present the poem with an artistic representation of it. This project was interesting because it allowed the students to express themselves through poetry in a foreign language without any bounds on their imagination.
Sra. Banks stated, “The poetry project is one of my favorites. The kids had a great time creating their poems and artistic representations and I loved listening to them express their emotions through poetry in Spanish. This project allowed my students to truly understand the importance of emotion in writing and art. And of course, everyone was speaking in Spanish.”
One of the noteworthy performances was that of Junior Craig Charlton’s. When asked about his poem, Craig said, “My poem was called ‘Another Chance at Love,’ and it was about the true love my grandparents share. It shows me that love is possible at any age and even when one of them might pass away, they will always love each other. Their love will never stop growing and they showed me the definition of true love.” That raw emotional connection that Craig had to his poem was exactly what Mrs. Banks was searching for when she assigned the project.
Another student who caught Sra. Banks’ attention was Morgan Rampolla. Morgan says, “My poem is called “Frida y Diego,” and I wrote it because as a patron of the arts, the story of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera is very important to me. I also drew a painting which symbolized their love in a surrealist manner.”
The project was a great success for Mrs. Banks and all of her students. It served as a unique break in the typical rigor of class, where students experienced a more free environment of expression.
