Maya Angelou argued that poetry was «music for the human voice». Poetry, the oldest form of literature, is about sound and pleasure, emotion and self-expression. It is meant to be spoken and sung before it is committed to a page and read silently. Poetry gives voice to an individual speaker and invites readers to share that voice or to add their own. Since lyric poems are short, and since every word is packed with meaning and reference, poems are ideal teaching tools for high school teachers, even when their students are not yet accomplished speakers of English. Students look for ways to express themselves, and this workshop will allow teachers to approach poetry as a tool of language learning and self-discovery for their students.

Here, we don’t start with poetic forms or with metrical nomenclature. If participants want a refresher on poetic forms, it can be provided near the end of the day. Instead, we start with sound and music. American and English poems from the 19th century onwards all the way to present-day «instapoetry» will serve as our examples. The workshop will include:

• An interactive lecture on the many voices of anglophone poetry
• A detailed phonic and semantic study of three or four sample texts
• A basic writing workshop: the six-word poem
• An introduction to treasure troves of poetry on the internet
• A session for lesson planning in small groups

Ziele

The goals of this event are as follows:

• Participants will (re-)appreciate the sounds and phonic elements of poems that produce their meaning.
• Participants will engage in discussion with each other and the seminar leader as they investigate poems for their «teachability».
• Participants will receive a set of texts (a list of URLs of pertinent websites) that contain poems suitable for teaching at the Swiss secondary school level.
• If desired, the seminar leader will give a «refresher» on basic elements of prosody such as meter, rhythm and line.

Zielgruppe

Teachers of secondary level II

Kursverantwortliche und Referierende

Verantwortlich

• Austenfeld Thomas, Prof. em. Dr. Thomas Austenfeld, Fribourg

Daten und Orte

Datum	Ort
29.10.2025 von 09:15 bis 16:45