Jamie's Dream School | Andrew Motion on Poetry and Feeling

[mo1912]

Most pop music songs involve poetry perhaps he could have used that in his classes in some way they would be interested in song lyrics .

[ArghCake]

OMG I USE THE SAME PENS AS SOME OF THEM :OOOO My parents bought them from tescos lol :D

I like these videos. I feel Edutained.

[dottyteacher]

I was pleasantly surprised by how Motion got these kids to listen and contribute and then write. He valued their contributions, respected them, gently led them and they responded. A very successful teacher with no tricks, no patronisation and no need for shouting. Well done Mr Poet Laureate.

[supriya55]

wish i had him as a teacher. such compassion :)

[queentoasteater]

Although Andrew Motion does have a monotonous voice, he speaks with such calm authority, using no unnecessary words, at a steady pace...for a person like me who finds it hard to take in the spoken word, he is a joy to listen to.

[RelativeBadger]

Never introduce yourself by telling the students what you are going to do - just get on with it. Start a poem and dive in, don't tell them what it is you are going to do. This is an immediate failure of teachers today.

[maxpaxbaby]

What are you talking about? Of course you must share the lesson objectives with the students and give them an overview of what they will eventually be doing! If you don't, you are a bad teacher! He got the students engaged, he kept a calm voice which kept them calm. Because he didn't raise his voice, the students had to listen... How do you know if his voice changes or not when using poetry? I bet it does. Just wait and see before you judge...

[maxpaxbaby]

@adambull

I was replying to adambull's post

[maxpaxbaby]

@RelativeBadger

Not adam bull, RealitveBadger.

[Robston3]

Very good clip. The worst thing about speaking in a classroom is the fear of being laughed at by the other students. I suppose if the students are put at ease, for example by, as you say not worrying about low level rules, then the fear of failure is reduced.

[brotherofmine]

From this lesson in a traditional classroom setting Andrew gets so much from his s students who are supposedly 'under achievers' in a subject they are not interested in. Purely from interacting the students respond...amazing!!!!! What is also interesting is their is a lot of low level non conformity which would not be tolerated in a standard school....which is overlooked......namely: chewing gum, doodling, wearing a tie inappropriately, wearing baseball caps in class.

[adambull]

Andrew Motion is a very good teacher

[RelativeBadger]

@adambull He is supposed to be a poetry teacher, yet his voice is monotonous, lacking tone and expression and drags on. Appreciating poetry and understanding it is very different from teaching it. This man is not a good teacher.

[erinl400]

@RelativeBadger well they seem interested

[adambull]

@RelativeBadger Teaching poetry does not necessarily have to be theatrical. Andrew Motion is right not to 'sex' up the teaching of poetry, students of this age and calibre will lose track of the task at hand. If you've seen the Simon Callow clip of his first literature class, he barely got anything done with them because he tried to spice up Shakespeare with pop culture references. All of my literature lecturers at university speak in this "tone", and are better teachers because of it.