Mount Saint Mary College student Bethany Mahoney of Glendale, N.Y. teaches seventh grade students during a poetry lesson at Bishop Dunn Memorial School on April 1.
Mount Saint Mary College teacher candidates taught a poetry workshop at Bishop Dunn Memorial School on April Fools’ Day, and the inspiring lesson was no joke.
To celebrate National Poetry Month, three students from the Mount’s chapter of Sigma Tau Delta, the English Honor Society, taught the students of Bridged Killelea’s seventh grade class to write blackout poetry. Using the technique, students created new works from existing poems by blacking out words with a marker.
For example, the opening of Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” – Two roads diverged in a yellow wood/And sorry I could not travel both – might become Two roads/I could travel both.
The lesson was spearheaded by Bethany Mahoney of Glendale, N.Y., Sigma Tau Delta vice president. Mahoney co-taught the lesson with Mount teacher candidates Amanda Wright of High Falls, N.Y. and Emily Murnane of Beacon, N.Y., who is president of the Mount’s Essence of Poetry Club.
Maggie Trotter of Westbury, N.Y., president of the Mount’s Sigma Tau Delta chapter, helped Mahoney, Wright, and Murnane develop the blackout poetry lesson.
For Mahoney, the lesson was a sort of homecoming: in the fall semester, she student taught in Killelea’s classroom. Mahoney had taught a poetry unit covering Langston Hughes and other famous poets and she decided to build it.
“I really wanted to expose the students to another form of poetry to kick off Poetry Month,” explained Mahoney. “I wanted them to have fun and see poetry and in a new light. Poetry is obtainable and they can create it.”
Murnane echoed the sentiment.
A Mount Saint Mary College students (left to right) Bethany Mahoney of Glendale, N.Y., Amanda Wright of High Falls, N.Y., and Emily Murnane of Beacon, N.Y. taught a poetry lesson at Bishop Dunn Memorial School on April 1.
“A lot of kids wholeheartedly believe they can’t write poetry. They look at the stuff they read in school and think there’s no way they could ever write something similar,” Murnane said. “Activities like this give students an opportunity to give it a try on an obtainable level.”
Wright noted that the experience helped to prepare her for student teaching next semester.
“The more experience you get, the more comfortable you are in front of the class,” she said. “This has been great for me.”