April is National Poetry Month. I´m always quite surprised at how little poetry is used in the second language classroom. It’s only when students arrive to the AP classes that they are encouraged to read and analyze poetry. Perhaps too late.
In my experience poetry and Comprehensible Input connect really well as they are both ways in which individuals can understand and communicate meaningful and relevant messages. Poetry is allows us to use the language in such creative ways that it can help students discover aspects of their own individuality that otherwise they would never learn about.
Poems are short but at the same time extensive, as in very few words they can touch on many topics and points of view. There is no better reading exercise than analyzing a poem, there’s no better writing exercise than writing poetry.
Here is a poem about our current COVID-19 situation we are all experiencing. Feel free to use in your classes as long as you give me the credit I deserve for writing it.
La Tierra enferma
Las calles están en silencio,
los hogares por fin hablan.
Los parques sin niños
pierden su encanto y color.
La mascarilla del virus protege
mientras los sentimientos ataca.
Detrás de ella se esconden
sonrisas que a nuestro día valor daban.
Las personas ya no ven
al gentil abuelo que cada mañana saludaba.
Entre desconfianza y mezquindad
se enconchan para sobrevivir
su triste vida en soledad.
La Tierra está enferma,
la Tierra está cansada.
Por años la hemos escuchado toser,
Por siglos hemos ignorado su padecer.
La Tierra tiene fiebre
y no existe agua suficiente para calmar su sed.
La Tierra no puede respirar
y entre sollozos nos pide
que no la contaminemos más.
Diego Ojeda
I wanted to invite you all to a free webinar about using poetry in the CI classroom. You can sign up HERE, space is limited so please ONLY sign up if you will be participating.
If you are ready to start using poetry in your CI Spanish classroom, I also invite you to check out my poetry book Corazón sin Borrador. This book includes poems for pretty much all proficiency levels and it comes with activities for each one of them. Corazón sin Borrador poems talk about friendship and relationships from the teenagers point of view.
You can order your Corazón sin Borrador book from HERE.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
DIEGO OJEDA 