As the end of the school year approaches, English 1 students are diving into their last unit about British literature and poetry.
“This is kind of a reflective unit and there’s lots of sessions involved. You’re supposed to learn about British literature, so we’re reading Romeo and Juliet,” English teacher Shelby Neary said. “We’re just working on a dialectical journal which is kind of just jotting down your thoughts and feelings about it and preparing questions for the seminar. You’re taking all the skills you learned throughout the entire year and applying them in this discussion and then the reflection part.”
Although some students may dislike this unit, English 1 student Charita Degulapet thinks differently.
For Degulapet, this unit is a way for her to express her feelings.
“I feel that you can’t always express your thoughts in journals and paragraphs so poetry is a more artistic approach.”
Freshman Tanishi Sagar thinks the same.
“I really like this unit since I’m able to interpret texts in my own way,” Sagar said.
Neary also believes that this unit will benefit students for the future.
“I think it’s hard to see relevance in poetry, and I know I definitely struggled with that when I was in school. But, poetry involves a lot of analyzing and looking deeper into things. In life, you might not necessarily not need to break down stanzas or understand what the line of a poem means but you’ll definitely need to understand a deeper meaning or like the message of something.”
Neary hopes that by the end of this unit, students will be able to apply the skills learned.
“I hope that they will learn how to develop strong questions, see other people’s point of view, and opinions,” Neary said. “Also, have healthy discussions about topics they might disagree on”
