Myths

I believe that in order to be able to create your own myth, you first have to learn the elements that go into writing a myth. Hence, you must study other myths before you can create your own. I feel this is true with anything anyone does, but we are discussing myths here. I enjoyed listening to the different types of myths the myth groups presented on in class because it gave me more insight as to what each myth was about and what elements have to be present in order for a myth to be classified under a certain type of myth (be it trickster myth, creation myth, the woman diving, etc).
The myth my group chose to present on was the trickster myth. I know the title, “trickster myth,” gives some type of hint as to what to expect from the myth, but I was not completely sure until I read about it. After studying trickster myths and presenting it to the class, I felt as though I was able to write my own trickster myth, which is what I ended up writing. While writing my myth, I thought about the elements that must be present in a trickster myth, the type of character the trickster is, and I used that information and applied it to the trickster myth I created. I feel that writing my own myth is a little different from studying a myth because I have to use my imagination to create my unique myth, while when studying a myth you just need to take the myth being read and analyze it by using the elements that help create that myth. Although the experiences are a little different, writing your own myth actually helps you better understand how myths work because you need to remember what you studied and apply it to your own myth. For instance, I had to remember what elements are present in a trickster myth in order to create my own trickster myth.
From this experience, I learned that providing my students with the groundwork or the fundamentals of myths before having them create their own myths is better than doing it the other way around because students will be well informed about myths before they are left alone to create their own.

Blog #2: Writing About Poetry vs. Creating Poetry

Like most people say, “Poetry is meant to be heard” and I agree with that saying. However, that’s where it usually stops for me. I like listening to people recite their poetry, but I am not a big fan as far as analyzing poetry or writing my own poetry. However, after those fun exercises we did in class, I like “creating” my own poetry. Poetry is very complicated and powerful, which is why there are only a select group of people that can do it well. Through the poetry assignments that we have done in class, I found that there are similarities between writing about poetry and writing poetry. Both exercises focus on poetry and both require a revising process. They both require you to use poetic devices, but in different ways. On one hand, when we are writing about poetry, we have to read someone else’s poetry and interpret the ideas behind it. On the other hand, when we are writing our own poetry, we have to portray our ideas through clever ways. It is a little like a hide and seek game. When we are writing about poetry, we are seeking for the meaning of the poem and building that meaning line by line. When we are writing our own poetry, we are conveying the meaning in a more discrete way using poetic devices to “hide” the meaning.
Writing about poetry informed my own poetry because after being able to interpret the meaning of other poetry by analyzing the type of poetic devices a poet used, I was able to learn how the poet used the poetic devices and I made attempts to use the devices in my poetry. Writing my own poetry informed the way I wrote about poetry because now I am able to understand the thought process a poet undergoes when trying to convey some type of meaning through poetic devices in the poet’s poetry.
I really enjoyed the poetic experience we had in class. From this experience I learned that poetry does not have to be a terrifying, uncomfortable experience for students. Poetry can actually be a fun and humbling experience. I felt that the poetry writing exercises we did in class (“wrecking the first person” and the “found poem”) are good exercises to introduce students, especially middle school and high school students, to poetry. These exercises can help ease in students into poetry and, hopefully, show them that poetry is fun. I will definitely use these exercises in my classroom.