Several weeks ago, for online professional development, I was required to create a Syllabus based on the Course Plan I developed around the 4 Cornerstones of Curriculum (methodology, outcomes, assessment, evaluation) and Bloom's Taxonomy. I decided to abandon my original, gleeful plan to develop a "Poetry for Professionals" course for a variety reasons. . .
First, I couldn't decide whether I wanted it to be an English course, a Creative Writing course, or some hybrid creature. My sense is that it would have been relatively easy to develop as an English course, but as a creative writing course (what I was leaning toward) I think I may have run into some difficulty with the 4 cornerstones. Particularly in the writing of *poetry*, the determination of outcomes, as well as the method of evaluation seem like thorny subjects.
I've been familiar with Bloom's Taxonomy since high school, when I completed my Senior Project on "The Perfect Public High School," but once I became, in college, a "Creative Writing Major," I stopped thinking about its ramifications. I wonder, if on close inspection, Bloom's Taxonomy collapses in on itself when used to discuss poetry.
In a good poem many different cognitive levels overlap, making outcomes difficult to determine. Additionally, Evaluation seems like a near impossible task, except on a personal and highly subjective level. Louise Gluck is a Pulitzer Prize winning poet, but I've never liked her work. I love Gertrude Stein's Tender Buttons, but by compositional standards the "essay" or "prose poem" (the jury is still out on which it is) "Roast Beef" would very likely fail (I can imagine a letter of analysis for any section of Tender Buttons could be its own Creative Nonfiction writing exercise).
What do you think? Can Bloom's Taxonomy be applied to fine art? What about a Jackson Pollack mural? Are the 4 Cornerstones of Curriculum applicable to a Creative Writing Course?
First, I couldn't decide whether I wanted it to be an English course, a Creative Writing course, or some hybrid creature. My sense is that it would have been relatively easy to develop as an English course, but as a creative writing course (what I was leaning toward) I think I may have run into some difficulty with the 4 cornerstones. Particularly in the writing of *poetry*, the determination of outcomes, as well as the method of evaluation seem like thorny subjects.
I've been familiar with Bloom's Taxonomy since high school, when I completed my Senior Project on "The Perfect Public High School," but once I became, in college, a "Creative Writing Major," I stopped thinking about its ramifications. I wonder, if on close inspection, Bloom's Taxonomy collapses in on itself when used to discuss poetry.
In a good poem many different cognitive levels overlap, making outcomes difficult to determine. Additionally, Evaluation seems like a near impossible task, except on a personal and highly subjective level. Louise Gluck is a Pulitzer Prize winning poet, but I've never liked her work. I love Gertrude Stein's Tender Buttons, but by compositional standards the "essay" or "prose poem" (the jury is still out on which it is) "Roast Beef" would very likely fail (I can imagine a letter of analysis for any section of Tender Buttons could be its own Creative Nonfiction writing exercise).
What do you think? Can Bloom's Taxonomy be applied to fine art? What about a Jackson Pollack mural? Are the 4 Cornerstones of Curriculum applicable to a Creative Writing Course?
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