American Poetry 2011

Today, we enjoyed one of my favorite lessons to teach: American Poetry!

We began as always with Welcome & Check-in time.  The question for today was "what did you do last weekend?"  Some sample answers:

• I watched the movie Saw
• I watched the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie
• I slept for 12 hours
• I got a haircut

After Welcome and Check-In, students read and listened to three American poems:

Billy Collins

"The Crocodile's Toothache" by Shel Silverstein (read that here, watch it here) 

"The Raven" by Edgar Allen Poe (read an e-book here, watch the Simpsons version there, read about Poe in Korean here)

"The Country" by Billy Collins (watch and listen to the animated poetry here)

Then, each student worked with a partner to write a couplet.  Examples will be posted on this blog!

Couplets 2011

Here are some couplets written by class 1-3 today:

    Seven Heaven
by Jane & Daniel
The boy was only seven,
Then he went to heaven.

     Free Sea
by 김현수 (Jason) & 권수연 (Alisa)
At the time I saw the sea
I felt to be free

     Small Ball
by 이녕우 (Alexander) & Chae Hyunsu
I popped the ball
It is now small

     Long Song
by Finn & Danielle
Keven sings a terrible song
That is terribly long

      Cat Fat
by Eric & Henry
If I eat a cat
Then I will be fat.

      Big Pig
by Bill "Tall Bill" Hwang & Kevin
If you are big
I call you pig

   Bed Head
by Bill "Just Bill" Oh & Diana
lying on the bed
Still complicated in my head.

   White Light
by 최재호 (Jason) & 이설의 (Mary)
Your hair is white
Your body is light

Music Monday: "Just Can't Get Enough" (Black Eyed Peas)

Our Music Monday song for this week is the Black Eyed Peas latest single, "Just Can't Get Enough."

the Black Eyed Peas

This is an electro-pop dance song.  Group member Taboo explained the meaning of the song to MTV News as: 

"The message is knowing that when you're gone from somebody, especially when you're on tour, you can't get enough of them or you're just thinking about them and you just want to let them know that you're always there for them."

One thing we learned from the lyrics is "LOL" (or "lol" or "L.O.L.") which is a short way to say "laughing out loud" if you are writing an email or text message!