Reflection on the poetry assignment

Just a quick reflection on the poetry exercise of today, as I felt our final conversation left the question of whether the exercise was useful or a toy (I do not remember the exact dichotomy that Dr. Bogad presented us) was largely unresolved.  I think we landed on "it depends."

I felt that what we created from these works were derivative artistic works, whereas I do not think of an expositive analysis in the same way.  We did not have time to explore or discuss our poem in sufficient depth to write such an analysis.  What we created was a lens with which one might view the poem, but not a thorough argument.

One of the common critiques of PowerPoint is that it encourages its users to ignore good rhetorical practices and it forces the user to structure information in a particular way.  This way is not conducive to complex relationships among the concepts being discussed.  Prezi, while it allows for a visual structuring of information that is quasi three-dimensional, still encourages the presentation of information that has a visual representation.  Movies and graphics are similarly good for showing graphical or dynamic information, and not necessarily an argument.

So the "it depends" for me comes down to whether you are asking your students to create an artistic derivation or whether you are asking them to analyze a text.  Arguably both assignments require some deep thought and creativity, but the former I think requires more of what Ken Robinson refers to as "divergent thinking," and the latter requires more deep thought and the construction of a complex argument.