Poetry Declamation

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8 thoughts on “Poetry Declamation”

  1. I use Spanish or French proverbs for declamations. There tends to be rhythm and often rhyme. I usually have three lines.

    First is the proverb e.g., Es pan comido.

    Next is a meaning. This can be literal “Este refrán quiere decir, ‘It is eaten bread” (This proverb means…) or equivalent, “En inglés se dice, ‘It’s a piece of cake.”

    Finally, is an L2 explanation: “Este refrán quiere decir Es muy fácil.” (This proverb means It is very easy.)

    As a department we are supposed to be incorporating these into the year. I do about 5-6 per year. I introduce it by dictating it. I then ask them target language questions as we put in on the board: How many words are in the first line? What is the first word? What is the first letter? How many letters are in the first word? How is the word spelled? What is the second word? What does “pan” mean? etc. Afterwards we enter it in the Proverbs section of their binders. Then we take time with it in a learning/review game which students convinced me to use in class about 10 years ago. We call it “chispa.” It helps out with pronunciation, which is a problem for students who have had a few years of forced output.

    I have wondered whether I should continue this if CI is becoming more my direction, but 1) it is a department expectation, 2) it is culture, 3) it gives me something to use for our school-wide culture rubric, 4) it is a change of pace for them and me, 5) you just put poetry declamations out there for us to consider.

    1. …I have wondered whether I should continue this if CI is becoming more my direction….

      I say yes. We need the break from CI, the kids feels as if they are learning, the school expects it, and all the other reasons you gave above. In schools we are in hostile territory for true gains. There is all that other “stuff” leaning it’s heavy elbow on us, and there are those kids who need to feel as if they are “doing” something.

    2. I say just keep doing it. If it meets all of those 5 requirements so well, why bother yourself with reinventing the wheel? Just take the time off from CI (what? 2 weeks total? big deal…) and check the boxes. Stuff like this works real well around April for the reasons Ben mentions.

  2. I’ve started sharing L2 cartoon jokes to start every class. I have collected almost 50 of these jokes from google images. The kids have enough of the high-frequency structures to figure out most of the language in the jokes and I think the language is set in such an emotional (humorous) setting, that the new language may even be remembered. Every class I review the jokes of the previous class and show a few more. I’m thinking of doing the same thing with tongue-twisters. Jokes, tongue-twisters, poetry, and proverbs are all CI, even if during these activities there is less CI being delivered.

    I don’t think this is a question of CI or no CI, but rather light CI and heavy CI (light and heavy referring to the quantity of CI). Any time the students hear or read language they can understand, even if not contextualized, not compelling, and not targeted, it is still Comprehensible Input. It will still further acquisition, just may be less efficient/effective.

  3. Not to mention that reciting poetry is HUGE in many Latin American schools! (is it as huge in French schools?) I think a memorized chunk HERE and THERE is great!

  4. Alisa Shapiro-Rosenberg

    Jokes, short poems and songs, puns, comics etc would be a great class starter, novel ‘activity’ or bail out move. I’ve seen tons of Pinterest boards with funny French or Spanish collections of these….Dunno abt the other languages

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