I’m a frequent teacher, sometimes poet and occasional gamer. Once in a while, these identities collide. One such collision produced what I’m sharing today: Explicate, The Poetry Analysis Card Game.
Before we get into the details, let me say, this is free to download and use here. But, if for some reason, you want to buy a class set, I’ve had some printed up for sale here.
The goal of this little game is to get students talking about poetry and the particularly aesthetic values they see expressed in a poem. I wanted to move them away from determining a specific meaning and more towards thinking about the way the poem is written. Does the poem care about clarity or embrace fragmentation? Is it trying to tell a good story or shine with lyrical beauty?
In order to get them talking about this, I introduce some of these aesthetic values–their definitions and some poems that demonstrate them. Then, I set students loose in a small group with a set of poems and a deck of cards. Each of these cards displays an aesthetic value and a definition. Some of the aesthetic values they’ve seen, some are new to them. The rules of the game can vary; I largely steal the rules from other games five card Poker or Cards Against Humanity. But, to play a card in any of these sets of rules, students must argue how the value on their card is expressed by the poem. They have to argue it well enough to convince their peers. If they are competitive, they care about winning by convincing their peers of their interpretation and being able to play a card/win a point. What I care about is that they are talking about the poems, thinking about the methods that the poem is using to achieve its message and becoming aware that poetry contains a variety of competing values.
If you’d like to try this out, there’s a unit plan, rules guide, poems to start with and a slidedeck at ExplicatetheGame.com.
Speaking of games in English class…If you are attending the National Council of English Teachers conference in Boston this month, please come see me. I’ll be presenting on Narrative Writing for Games in the English classroom at 2pm, Friday, November 22, 2024 in room 209.
How are you encouraging students to discuss poems? I’d love to connect with you at K. A. Keener, English Teacher, New Directions Secondary School.
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