Teaching PopPoetry

Stymied by your fall lesson planning? Dr. Jenny Molberg offers up her full course syllabus based on PopPoetry and discusses why her students love the course.

Today’s post is a guest post by poet, educator, and Frasier fanatic Dr. Jenny Molberg.

Jenny Molberg is the author of three poetry collections: Marvels of the Invisible (winner of the Berkshire Prize, Tupelo Press, 2017), Refusal (LSU Press, 2020), and The Court of No Record (Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, LSU Press, 2023). Originally from Dallas, TX, she earned her BA at Louisiana State University, her MFA at American University, and her PhD at the University of North Texas. She has received fellowships and scholarships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Sewanee Writers Conference, Vermont Studio Center, and the Longleaf Writers Conference. She is Associate Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Central Missouri, where she directs Pleiades Press and edits Pleiades: Literature in Context. 

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Caitlin Cowan and I have collaborated for many years—we’re often the first readers of each other’s creative work, and ten years ago (!) we served side-by-side as the doctoral student Managing and Production editors of American Literary Review. After thirteen years of friendship, I’m still fangirling over her brilliant writing, and was thrilled when she started this Substack. For a couple years now, I’ve been using her essays on poetry and pop culture as a teaching tool, and I’ve recently developed a gen-ed lit course (at my university, it’s Intro to Poetry and Drama) that uses PopPoetry as a scaffolding. For accessibility, all the course material is available for free online, with the exception of some films that students will rent (or can stream with a paid subscription to Prime or Hulu). My university has a high population of first-generation and nontraditional students, many of whom are working full-time and/or parenting as they earn their degrees. Caitlin has generously gifted my students a subscription to PopPoetry, and they have loved reading and engaging with her reflections on the ways poetry *pops* up in contemporary culture, from Taylor Swift to Parks and Rec to our elder-Millennial favorites, like My So-Called Life.

This course was designed as an online course, but with the reading list, discussion questions, and reading response prompts I’ve provided here, it can easily be tailored to an in-person classroom setting or for a shorter quarter system or summer class. I’ve incorporated drama and film into the classroom, but the course could also be tailored toward a more poetry-centric syllabus. 

Here’s what some of my students have said about the class:

“My appreciation for poetry has grown after taking this course. Initially, I did not realize how poetry could not just be used for entertainment purposes, but to express complex emotions, societal issues, and personal identity. Overall, this course has profoundly impacted my view of literature. This has shown me how poetry can express human experiences and address societal issues in a meaningful way. I now see how literature can entertain, challenge, inspire, and provoke thought, leading to a deeper understanding of the world and our place in it.”

“In the beginning, I was nervous to talk about poetry I would not be able to understand or relate with. Now, I am able to discuss with others our opinions and analysis of the poems. When it came to the written quiz, I thought it would take me days to figure out how to explain my thoughts. Then once I started, I could not stop. It was just pouring out of me. I am genuinely surprised how much I enjoyed this class. It definitely opened my eyes to writing and poetry.”

“I found it very interesting to read Cowan’s blog about pop culture and its intersections with poetry. As a Digital Media Production major, I found her essays insightful and made me think about the ways I could integrate poetry into the films I want to make someday. I think it is important that the media we are consuming has actual substance, and I think incorporating poetry is a good way to help get there. I absolutely found this course to be very interesting and insightful. I’ve even shared a couple poems with my partner, a notorious “poetry hater”, and even he enjoyed being able to learn more about things he is a bit uncomfortable with. I certainly feel I have grown as a thinker, as I myself was pretty uncomfortable with poetry going into this course. I am now very excited to read more and find ways to incorporate it into my work as a film creator.”

I hope you find the scaffolding and content of this course useful to your own pedagogical practice. I am thrilled for the opportunity to sing Caitlin Cowan’s praises and to have PopPoetry as a resource in the classroom, as it has awakened my students to the power, profundity, and (more importantly) the fun of poetry. 

ENGL 2010: POETRY AND DRAMA IN POP CULTURE
Course Syllabus