Overall: Thumbs up! Largish (10-11), enthusiastic class. Varied attendance: poets who wanted to learn a new form, poets who wanted to learn about performance, musicians interested in broadening horizons, and the casually curious. Students were involved and asked questions, and participated gladly in the practicum parts. Indeed, the actual writing and performing was singled out as being the best part of the class.
For next time: More examples. Or any examples at all, really. Somehow, the poems I'd printed out did not actually get packed, and there were not any examples in the class notes. For an intermediate poetry class, I could probably rattle off meters and terms like alliteration and not give extensive examples, but this was for beginners, too. And it became clear later that some of the concepts did not get across at all; my fault as teacher. And I think examples would have gone a really long way to clearing that confusion up.
Minor bonus: One student was interested in hearing Wulf and Eadwacer. I gave them my performance from Twelfth Night, minus the lyre, and nailed it pretty well.
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