You'd think I would have learned

I've been "doing poetry" with my seniors for about four weeks now, give or take a few days for crazy schedules and Silent Reading Fridays. They are SO ready to be done. I, on the other hand, find I really enjoy reading poetry and talking to people about it - even if they are 17 and not terribly fond of it. We've read all sorts of things, and even incorporated a few songs into the mix. I'm especially proud of the pairing of "To an Athlete Dying Young" by Housman with "Candle in the Wind" by Elton John. I exposed those stinkers to a great poem (with some pretty tough vocab / syntax) AND a great song! They had good discussion in spite of themselves.

Ahh. The power I wield as a teacher is exhilarating! Whether they like Elton John or hate him, they had to listen to him because (are you ready for this??) I said so.

But I digress. Today we did a review for the test they will take tomorrow. Yesterday we spent the entire period discussing three of their terms: assonance, consonance, and alliteration. All three of these terms are very similar, so I thought we should spend some time identifying each of them in a poem so my kids could understand it better.

In case you aren't current with your poetry terminology, here are the definitions for you:

Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in the middle or at the end of words close to each other in a line or lines of poetry.

Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds in the middle or at the end of words close to each other in a line or lines of poetry.

Alliteration is the repetition of consonant or vowel sounds at the beginning of words close to each other in a line or lines of poetry.

Got it?

They didn't.

Well, to be fair, first and third hours did a pretty good job of it. For the review I created a PowerPoint presentation. One slide had the definition of the word, the next had the word itself on it. I would show them the definition, and they each wrote what word they thought it was on a mini-whiteboard and held it up so I could see. (This is a GREAT method for review, by the way! Kids LOVE to write on the whiteboards, everyone gets to participate rather than the same one or two kids yelling out all the answers, and I can see at a glance how many kids "get it" and how many kids are clueless.)

So even though first and third hours did pretty well, sixth hour really seemed to struggle. Ever the helpful one (that is what they pay me for after all), I thought I would give them an easy way to remember the difference between the words.

I said, "Assonance is the repetition of what kind of sounds?"

They said, "Vowels."

I said, "That's right. And where is the repetition again?"

They said, "In the middle or at the end of words."

I said, "You got it. Here's an easy way to remember it. Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds. What does assonance start with?"

I was hoping they'd say, "A." Because then I planned to say, "That's right and 'a' is a vowel."

After almost ten years of teaching, you'd think I would have anticipated what they did say. But I didn't.

When I said, "What does assonance start with?" three of my most helpful boys loudly replied in unison, "ASS!"

When will I learn?