Sijo Ahead! (Week 9)
Nadia w -
And we’re back!
This past week was fun, I didn’t have to lecture so there was a lot less stress on my part. The kids worked on worksheets and a lot of them were starting to get the hang of sijo, so that was exciting. Yesterday, I went in, and it was day 1 of beginning to write their own sijo. Mrs. K had the brilliant idea to have them all spend the first half of the class brainstorming and writing with no help from either of us, and then the second half of the class was for anyone who wanted to check their works or if anyone had questions. The syllable part, which had been the hardest in those first few days of the unit, was the smoothest part of this activity. What they struggled with was coming up with a story and a twist at the end. I had a few students straight up ask me what they should do, or to write it for them. It was interesting, to say the least. There were several students from each class, though, who got it in one go! I was really impressed with them.
The other thing I was working on was my powerpoint presentation for the practice sessions next week. I’m a bit nervous about them, just because I want to be able to explain everything about these time periods and the women in them accurately and with due justice. I’m notorious for my dislike of powerpoints, so this part has probably been one of the hardest parts of this whole project. I got it down eventually (last night…) and now I’m just trying to figure out what the heck I’m doing with the animations and pictures. Wish me luck.
Something I haven’t brought up in a hot minute: my poetry collection. It’s coming along nicely, and I now have 3 poems for each time period. The whole point of making my own poetry was to capture the many strifes these Korean women were going through as well as replicate the styles and literary devices used most commonly at these times. Well, I definitely achieved the dark topics aspect… Interestingly enough, the only era with upbeat or playful verses is the Joseon Dynasty; for that time, I did sijos and they’re just cute little things I churned out. Alternatively, though, the Japanese Colonization era and the Korean War are free verse, so I got to play around with formatting and didn’t have to worry about syllables or anything.
Thanks for reading! See you all next week.
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