Week 5

Many concepts I have learned in college are being applied in the classroom in which I intern. One such concept is poetry analysis. The students have learned how to analyze a poem’s rhythm, meter, and rhyme, as well as a number of literary devices including metaphor,
synecdoche, and metonymy. This was most recently applied to the Romantic poets including Percy Shelley and John Keats. Students worked in groups to analyze a specific poem and present their work to the rest of the class.

Another concept that we use in the classroom is formal analysis of art. We study the technique used by artists to understand what is compositionally important. Concepts such as foreground, background, lighting techniques, atmospheric perspective, and scaling are all examined. The formal analysis is important because it strengthens the contextual analysis of the work.

This is another theory that we apply to studied works of art within the classroom. Contextual analysis examines the meaning of the work, what the artist is saying, and how it is being said. This includes the symbolisms, metaphors, and other techniques that indicate the purpose of the painting. We are now in Baroque art, working to understand artists such as Caravaggio, and how his compositions utilize these techniques to add greater richness to something that is more than just a beautiful picture.

Hermeneutics is also a concept that is lightly used within the classroom. Hermeneutics is an interpretive theory that analyzes written texts, most commonly religious texts. During the world religion chapters of the humanities class, the teacher attempted to present this idea, though it is difficult at the high school level if attempting to avoid ideological arguments and angry parents claiming heresy. However, she did encourage students to examine the world religions as metaphorical stories we often call myths. By doing this, the students can approach the religions of the world with an open mind, learn something new, and see that they are no more different from each other than mere word substitutions and semantics. Again, this is difficult at the high school level because ideologically firm parents find it difficult to cope with the mere presentation of other religions to their children.

Week 5 has been great. I’m starting to see the individual personalities of the students, and to understand how they will sway discussion. Have a good week.