BACKGROUND
“This lesson set the bar high right from the start and made a great connection between what the students were reading about others and their own experience and expression.”
A tutor at the Evergreen Valley College in San Jose, California approached Kate to ask for permission to share her poetry and neurodiversity poetry writing prompts with students taking an online English as a Second Langauge (ESL) reading and writing course. She explained that the textbook she had chosen began with a reading about an autistic savant. Including Kate’s poetry in a lesson would be the perfect way to introduce the term neurodiversity and the world of poetry.
THE LESSON
With Kate’s agreement, the tutor created the online lesson, which begins with some of Kate’s poems from her book, ‘30 Neurodiversity Poetry Writing Prompts’. These introduce the students to how the brain works in different ways for different people.
The lesson is divided into two parts: freewriting and poem writing or reflection. Students read the lesson and then submit their work. The class had not discussed or attempted to write poetry before.
THE OUTCOME
With Kate’s agreement, the tutor created the online lesson, which begins with some of Kate’s poems from her book, ‘30 Neurodiversity Poetry Writing Prompts’. These introduce the students to how the brain works in different ways for different people.
The lesson is divided into two parts: freewriting and poem writing or reflection. Students read the lesson and then submit their work. The class had not discussed or attempted to write poetry before.
The students submitted their poetry and several shared thanks and positive feedback for Kate, her work, and the ways in which her prompts had inspired them. The tutor shared one student submission with Kate, which you can read below.
Fun is necessary for life.
Why are you so sad?
No one gives you an ice cream?
Smile and you look five years younger.
Frowning all the time,
you’re only twenty-four
but you look forty-two
Buy a chocolate bar, take a bite,
and life is naturally fun.
Dance around,
it’s okay to fall,
At least the floor is mopped for free.
It’s tiring to be sad all the time,
think differently!
Living without joy
like there’s no music at the party,
what’s there to worry about!
Never mind, have fun today,
Let’s think about tomorrow
who knows,
maybe we’ll win the lottery?!
My thought: I want to express an optimistic, humorous and comfortable view of life. I don’t deny the difficulties in life, but I want to face them gently and happily.
by Ngoc Thuy Le
WHAT THE CLIENT SAYS…
On behalf of myself and my class, I would like to express our appreciation for you sharing your poetry with us! This turned out to be a wonderful project that I think was very freeing and empowering for my students.
Being interested in autism and neurodivergence, I found it both interesting and challenging. I have a family connection to the neurodivergent world, and not being neurodiverse myself, I was a bit worried about the article promoting a stereotype. I needn’t have been concerned. The students showed an understanding of this and the larger topic of differing abilities/thinking.
I was not sure how the students would react to the lesson, but most did write poems and for many of them, this was their first time writing one, especially in English. I think it was great exercise in trust, and they were amazing.
The lesson set the bar high right from the start and made a great connection between what the students were reading about others and their own experience and expression. Thank you for sharing your poetry and process with us!
