POETRY GUIDELINES FOR WORKSHOP
FEEDBACK:
Comments that are less than
insightful and courteous are not acceptable during workshops, so use the art of
being tactful when addressing areas that may need strengthening in a peers’
work. Our workshops should be a positive learning experience, so everyone feels
safe in sharing their work. Therefore, do not just flatter and praise peers
with empty words of “I loved your poem” but actually identify the WHY and
specific examples of what worked well. It helps no one to understand their
strengths or weaknesses if you do not answer WHY it doesn’t work or WHY/HOW it
does work well. Moreover, if you want to receive feedback on your work, you
must also provide feedback on your peers’ work by using some of the points
below as a guide to help you discuss a poem.
Note, during the workshop session
of your work, you should be listening carefully and taking notes on the
feedback others provide on your work. Remember you should not interrupt others
when they are giving feedback and do not become defensive, but listen, take
notes, and at the end of the feedback, ask members questions if you require
clarification on something that they identified. Again, anyone who is less than
courteous in giving or receiving feedback will be asked to leave and come back
when they have more constructive and helpful feedback to offer. A good rule of
thumb is the “sandwich approach” by layering your feedback in the following
way: identify a specific strength in the work, follow with an area that needs
improvement, and end your feedback by offering another key strength in the
work.
1.
What’s working well in the poem and why?*
2.
Does the student leave the reader with any
unanswered questions? If so, what are your questions that would help clarify
your understanding of the poem?
3.
Does the reader understand the meaning of the
poem and can identify a central idea or theme? If so, summarize the meaning of
the poem, or are the student’s references too vague and contrived that it is
too abstract to identify the meaning.
4.
Does the student use specific, concrete details
and imagery to “show” rather than simply “tell” the reader? Is the language
vivid, not flowery, archaic, or cliché? Does it sound original, use colorful
images, and elicit an emotional response?
5.
Do they use a consistent and appropriate point
of view? If not, what helpful suggestions can you make?
6.
What sort of tone do they use in the poem? Is
the tone appropriate? If not, would a more sarcastic, didactic, or melancholy
tone work?
7.
Does the student use forced rhyme or does the
rhyme enhance the poem? If so, what lines need work and why? What appropriate
suggestions can you make?
8.
Does the student use figurative language, such
as personification, simile, metaphor, or hyperbole, and does it enhance the
meaning of the poem or is it used inappropriately? If not, what suggestions can
you make?
9.
Does the student use an appropriate structure
with stanzas and/or an appropriate meter for each line to create harmony and
consistent beat/rhythm or simply smoother transitions and continuity between
lines or does it create more confusion because the lines are too lengthy or wordy
and maybe the line breaks make it difficult to understand?
10.
Does the student have major mechanical and/or
minor mechanical errors? Which grammar and punctuation issues need to be
corrected, such as spelling, missing punctuation (i.e. apostrophes, commas,
etc.) for minor mechanical errors? Then, consider some major mechanical errors
that they need to address; in other words, do they have subject-verb agreement
errors, inconsistencies in verb tense (jumping back and forth between past and
present), etc.?
