Roses are red

I decided to liven up some classes this week by doing a unit on Valentine's poetry. Valentine's day isn't really celebrated here in Deutschland. This is because Germans are admittedly very unromantic and non-sentimental. It is also because, as wikipedia just told me, the Brits really started this holiday which became greeting card-ified by us Amis in the 1840s. Did you know 1 billion Valentine's Day cards are sent out each year? And that's not including e-cards!

So I made cookies for my students, bought some red paper and glue sticks and wrote the following on the board:

"Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
any words you guys want,
any words you guys want, you."

You would have thought I asked them to write a sonnet or a dactyl or a ballad. They looked at me with a mixture of distrust and defeat. I pleaded, "No, really guys, it's fun and easy, you don't even have to make them sweet or romantic, they can be goofy and funny!" After 10 awkward minutes of scribbling and sighing, this is what I got, verbatim:

Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
My coffee is hot,
When I think about you.

Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
I hate when Stephanie makes us write or do homework,
don't you?

Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
Someone killed my dog,
I hope it wasn't you.

Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
When you say someone is 'blue' in German it means they are drunk.
___________ you.


This type of exercise was clearly rejected by my students. Why? Because it is inefficient and doesn't teach them anything that's immediate. But it teaches me a lot. Like the fact that my students are freaks.