Inspired by our English Department's Poem In Your Pocket Day, which was a school-wide initiative to foster a love and appreciation of poetry across all subject areas, Mrs. Pechersky's 9th graders took this opportunity one step further to increase our students' "international studies."
Mrs. Pechersky writes:
Thank you for bringing Poem in Your Pocket Day initiative to East-West! Our 9th graders celebrated it by having a special Global History class dedicated to Poems from around the World. In preparation to this event, each student was supposed to prepare a poem from a country (culture) of their choice. I encouraged them to ask their families for their favorite poems in their home language and to recite them in class in their original language.
The kids loved the idea! As the result, today’s presentations included poems, songs, and videos in Urdu, Japanese, Spanish, Bangla, Tagalog, Chinese, Yiddish, and English. We spoke about their common themes of love and friendship, men and women, parents and children, nature and seasons. We discussed how poetry transcends the borders by listening to the popular song version of the Russian translation of a poem by the Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore, who wrote it in the Bangla language. We noticed the challenges of creating singable (or equimetrical) translations that sacrifice the original words for the sake of rhyme and rhythm. Everyone received a copy of every poem recited in class. The homework assignment was to bring these poems home and to read them with someone outside of East-West. This was a real lesson in international studies and global citizenship!
Asher presents a poem translated from Urdu into English
Syed shares a poem he wrote
Christian shares a poem from the Philippines in Tagalog and English
Tayvon reads a Japanese haiku poem in English translation
Mrs. Pechersky shares a Yiddish song animation film with the English and Hebrew translation of the lyrics.
Ms. Ahmed also shares a poem, video, and song in Bangla, translated into English
Ms. Pechersky also read a Russian poem translated into English.
Ms. Connor reads A Poem of Friendship in English
Lastly, Joesin read Love the Mexican Way, a Mexican poem in Spanish and English
Stay tuned for more poetry in English to come by Ms. Lee and Ms. Blitman.