Another Example of Writing in Current Media

As most of my friends know, I'm a faithful fan of the television show "How I Met Your Mother." This past weekend, I was watching an episode from the 5th season in which Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) read a poem that he had written. In the scene that was showed to illustrate the story within the poem, Barney was sitting in an old-fashioned pub with old clothes and a colonial-style wig. This was contradictory to the time of the poem, the year 2008. When Barney was asked why everything was old fashioned if the time of the poem was modern day. In response, Barney said, "Duh, it's a poem!"

Although this is an absurd statement, it's not far from the mark in regard to the attitude of today's youth toward poetry. For many students, poetry seems old-fashioned and dry. The language is outdated, and it follows an overly-repetitive rhyme scheme. With this in mind, I will need to find ways to get students to enjoy poetry. The best way to do so would be to apply poetry to their everyday lives, specifically through pop culture. I will accomplish this by teaching supplementary readings of song lyrics and current poets. One poet/musician that many teens enjoy reading today is Tupac Shakur. As a reader of this artist, I could provide some of his work to students to help peak their interest in the value of poetry.