An ode to audience response tools

Today, let’s go back to a literature class in high school and analyse a poem together.

There once was a man, Hunter, so sure of himself
He walked with a strut and thought he was wealth
He spoke with a voice that boomed and boomed
And thought that his ego could never be doomed

But then there was a woman, Shyla, unsure of herself
Never feeling quite good enough, never quite the top shelf
She second-guessed everything, never quite feeling right
Her lack of confidence, a constant plight

One day they both went to a class, to learn and to grow
The man thought he knew it all, but the woman was feeling low
The teacher saw their struggles, and decided to intervene
To help them both realize, their competence unseen

The man was given feedback, that he could do better
He needed to listen, and not just be a go-getter
The woman was encouraged, to speak up and be heard
To have faith in herself, and let go of self-doubt's burdened herd

Together they worked and made quite a team
Their skills complementing like a perfect dream
He learned to listen, and she learned to speak
And they both found success in what they seek

So now they are happy and full of pride
No longer hiding or feeling they need to hide
Thanks to some feedback, they both could see
That they were competent, and both could be free.

To analyse the poem, think about the following three prompts. You can find the answer key at the bottom of the page.

Prompts

Question 1: What is the inner transformation the two characters underwent?
Question 2: What was the trigger for their transformation journey?
Question 3: What is the takeaway from this poem?

Answer key

Note: The answers are a little far-fetched, but that’s always been the way with poem analyses.

Question 1

Question 2

Feedback from a teacher. Perhaps, after an initial lecture, the instructor used an audience response tool like Mentimeter to quiz students on the fly and discuss answers in plenum. Humans are famously bad at assessing their learning, and such interactive exercises can help them objectively evaluate much they learned.

Question 3

Audience response tools are useful for calibrating students’ perceptions of their own learning. It helps Hunters stop being douchebags, and Shylas stop feeling like imposters. We should all use audience response tools.

Poem written by ChatGPT.
Photo by Wan San Yip on Unsplash