Maureen Barclay Rogue 511

Name- Maureen Barclay Content Area- ELA Location- LA   USA Current School- Captain Shreve Grade Level- High School Teaching Since- 2005 Twitter- @ Website-

Recently, my senior English students studied poetry and wrote sonnets based on Episode VII: The Force Awakens. I teach poetry analysis every year and I help students develop poetry of their own - usually triolets and villanelles. After purchasing copies of all of your William Shakespeare Star Wars books, I decided to use the opening crawl from each film and the prologue from each of your books to help students write sonnets of their own. They were astounded to see the sonnet form - which they usually consider so stuffy and removed from their own lives - in a context that is relatable, popular, and directly connected to their interests. After analyzing the opening crawls and prologues side-by-side, students worked in pairs to re-write the opening crawl for Episode VII and write sonnets to serve as epilogues for Episode VII. Although they initially thought the sonnet form too complex for their own writing, they eagerly tackled the project. During those class meetings, I wished my principal would walk through and see my students tapping out the meter for their poems, using wordhippo.com to find rhyming words, laughing, problem solving, and revising their writing together. Naturally, I too looked forward to some writing time and wrote an epilogue alongside my students.

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