Poem of the Month - The Rice Fields by Zilka Joseph I find that poetry is a wonderful way to explore perspectives and life experiences in a very personal way. It allows for a deeply intimate peek into a writer's identity.
I like to start with a cold reading. Just read the poem once through with no background information. For older students, they can read it to you. After that, read a biography of the poet. Talk a little about the poem, allow for questions, do some Google searching for any new words or unfamiliar concepts. Then, read the poem again. Now you will see flashes of recognition as your child personally identifies with that poet's life and inner voice. More layers of meaning will be uncovered. Once your student knows who the poet is, where they were born, what time period they lived in, they will start to identify with the poem in a new way. Now they can place themselves into the life of that poet and see through their eyes just a moment... just long enough to glimpse into their world. Try it with this Poem of the Month by Zilka Joseph! The Rice Fields By Zilka Joseph Miles of them grow in my carry-on and travel with me across continents but the customs officers are suspicious they eye my old suitcase and ask me to open it Pickles? they ask sniffing deeply prodding a packet or two say Sure ma’am you’ve got no jeera or chilies? (now they’ve learned the Hindi word for cumin so the new trick is to joke with us) And one time I saw three burly officers question an elderly couple disheveled as I was from 20-plus hours of travel from Kolkata and as disoriented (and yes as usual all the usual “foreign” suspects are sent along to “Agriculture”) and they poked around in their overstuffed bags (where some rice fields appeared but they couldn’t see them of course) and one officer said Duck? Bombay Duck? It’s a fish?? Dried fish your son wanted? Sorry no fish allowed or birds (The officers looked at each other again and again: expressions priceless) So another time I land at Detroit airport and I shake my head at the silver-haired officer say Sir, no, no pickles meat or cheese I buy them here at Bombay Grocers and Patel’s (give them a sweet Colgate smile) Yes, yes, sweets, only made of lentil No dairy, no dairy The red-gold cardboard boxes of sweets he can see but not the rice sprouting beneath the young green shoots No our rice fields he will never see we carry them wherever we go P.S. for more homeschooling ideas, go to Blossom Learning.
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