Watch this video from the Adrian Brinkerhoff Foundation of Perdomo reading his poem.
The following activities and questions are designed to help your students use their noticing skills to move through the poem and develop their thinking skills so they understand its meaning with confidence, using what they’ve noticed as evidence for their interpretations. Read more about the framework upon which these activities are based.
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Warm-up: Create a gallery walk with images of different hearts. Join with a partner or small group to view an image. What do you notice? What stands out to you in the image? Why? Look again. What else do you see? What do these images together make you think about? Why?
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Before Reading the Poem: Listen to the song, “Heart to Heart” by Mac DeMarco. What words or phrases stand out to you in the song? Why? What emotions does the song evoke? How?
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Reading the Poem: Silently read the poem “That’s My Heart Right There” by Willie Perdomo. What do you notice about the poem? Note any words or phrases that stand out to you or any questions you might have.
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Listening to the Poem: Watch this filmed reading by Perdomo, produced by the Adrian Brinkerhoff Foundation, twice. Write down any additional words and phrases that stand out to you.
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Small Group Discussion: Share what you noticed about the poem with a small group of students. How might this be similar to or different from the resources from the beginning of class? Having watched the video twice, what do you like or notice about the video? How does it compare to the printed poem that you read? Why? How does seeing a poet read in context, in a city, impact your reading of the poem and its meaning?
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Whole Class Discussion: What imagery do you see in the poem? How does it impact the poem? (Teachers, divide your class into two sides. Ask one side of the room to read aloud the first lines of each stanza. Ask the second side of the room to read aloud the italicized second lines of each stanza.) After reading the poem again and in this new way, what else do you notice and what questions do you have? What might the title and second line “That’s my heart right there” mean? Why?
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Extension for Grades 7-8: In small groups, read another poem from the Adrian Brinkerhoff Foundation. With your group, discuss your poem and how it is similar to/different from the poem you read in class. Imagine what a video of this poem might look like, and create a storyboard of your ideas. If your school has the space, try shooting your video.
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Extension for Grades 9-12: Watch another video from the Adrian Brinkerhoff Foundation. What kind of poem works well when performed in public? What other poems would you read aloud in public? What kind of poem would you write with that particular context in mind? With a partner or small group, write that kind of poem then create a video of you performing it.
The Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation aims to expand access to poetry and educational poetry materials, gathering outstanding poems from across places, eras, and traditions for audiences worldwide to enjoy. Learn more.
A couplet is two successive lines of poetry, often rhymed.