Colloquium on English - Research Institute for Waldorf Education

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POETRY EXERCISE
Mary uses this five-minute exercise with her students often, and
they love it. We loved it too. She asked us as individuals to choose one slip
of paper from each of two containers. One container had concrete nouns
and the other abstract nouns. We were instructed to write a poem inspired
by those words, but not necessarily containing them and given five minutes
to do so. Volunteers read their poems aloud. Here are two of our resulting
poems:
He sits behind the bars
where light does not fall
listens for the footsteps
echoing down a long corridor
and for the practice snap
of a trapdoor
(from the words “ shadows” and “condemnation”)
Hard and brittle and self-contained
My golden treasure waits
Unmoving
In walls of ivory
Embalmed and dead
My golden light is buried
Oh break my walls
Free my light
And I will blaze through the world like a meteor
(from the words “egg” and “ imagination”)
English Curriculum: Rudolf Steiner School
of Ann Arbor
MAIN LESSONS
Ninth grade
The Evolution of Consciousness Through Drama: The development of
drama from the Greek mystery centers through Aeschylus, Sophocles, and
Euripides; the comedies of Aristophanes, Menander, Plautus, and Terence;
Liturgical drama; Commedia Dell’arte; Elizabethan, Spanish, and French
theater; Restoration plays to modern.
The Novel: The exploration of plot, character, setting, and theme through
discussion, creative writing, and drawing inspired by Shane, Tom Sawyer,
and A Tale of Two Cities.