Poetry Unit Objectives:
-To introduce students to multiple forms of poetry.
-To recognize commonly used literary elements at work in poems and songs and to have students learn to locate poetic devices at work.
-To introduce poetic terms to students and show them how to employ these terms in their own writing.
-To encourage students to analyze poetry using literary elements in order to come to a deeper understanding of poetry.
Resources:
“Poetry Unit.” Teaching literature. Web, 2004. 25 Nov. 2012
http://www.teachingliterature.org/teachingliterature/pdf/poetry/poetry_deshotels.pdf
Poems in Poetry Unit:
“Mending Wall”- Robert Frost
“Birches”-Robert Frost
“Bereft”- Robert Frost
“Ode to a Large Tuna in the Market”- Pablo Neruda
“Two Sunflowers Move in the Yellow Room”- William Blake
“I Heard a Fly Buzz”- Emily Dickinson
“The Railway Train”- Emily Dickinson
“On Turning Ten”- Billy Collins
“Happy as a Dog’s Tail”- Anna Swir
“De Camptown Races”- Stephen C. Foster
“Oh! Susana”- Stephen C. Foster
“The Negro Speaks of Rivers”- Langston Hughes
Learning Experience
Objective:
Students will access prior knowledge about literary elements and learn how these elements and poetic devices are at work in poetry.
Essential Question:
How does a poet use their own life experiences when writing a poem and why?
How can literary elements help the reader understand what the poet is trying to say?
How and why do poems differ in structure?
What does it mean that poems do differ?
Resources:
McGraw Hill Online Learning Center. Poetic Devices, 2002. Web. 22 Nov. 2012.
Skills and Knowledge:
Students will use their prior knowledge of literary elements to dissect a poem in class.
Students will make connections between literature read in class and time they have spent outside of school.
Common Core Standards:
RL8.4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts.
RL8.5: Compare and contrast the structure of two or more texts and analyze how the differing structure of each text contributes to its meaning and style.
Sequence of Learning:
1. Teacher will hand out poetry packet which will include all of the poems for the poetry unit.
2. Teacher will ask students to take out the Literary Element handout that was passed out at the beginning of the year and read over the terms which will be used in the poetry unit.
a. Literary elements that will be used in the poetry unit:
-Personification
-Rhyme Scheme
-Hyperbole
-Assonance
-Consonance
-Alliteration
-Figurative Language
-Meter
-Free Verse
-Narrative Poem
-Onomatopoeia
-Rhythm
-Sonnet
-Stanza
-Tone
-Theme
-Symbol
3. Teacher will ask the students what they know about poetry
-What makes good poetry? How do you know?
-Why does rhythm matter in poetry?
-What are some poets that you know of and like?
-Why do you like these poems and poets?
4. The teacher will then read the first two pages of Rules of the Dance by Mary Oliver aloud to the class ending with a reading of the poem “Bereft” by Robert Frost which is included in the book.
5. The teacher will then discuss the importance of rhythm and stressed and unstressed syllables within a work of poetry with the students.
6. The teacher will then read the poem “Happy as a Dog’s Tail” by Anna Swir and ask the students to compare it to “Bereft” by Frost. How do they differ? Why do they differ?
-For homework the teacher will ask each student to bring in one poem upon which they have marked the stressed and unstressed syllables.
Reflection:
This lesson reflects my philosophy of teaching because I believe that in analyzing literature and poetry students can also learn to analyze the thoughts and actions of those around them. I think that by giving students the tools to analyze poetry and to ask them questions that do not have any “right” and “wrong” answers such as “What makes good poetry,” students are given a place to be creative and to understand that literature, much like art, mimics life. This will be helpful for my students because I know that many of them are creative people. I want to give them a place in which they can be creative with their words as well as with their thoughts. I will know if my students are learning what I expect them to learn by the conversations we will have in class as well as from the poems they will bring in the next day for homework.
Learning Experience
Learning Objective:
Students will learn how rhythm and meter are at work in poetry through the use of music. Students will learn how rhythm affects the tone of the poem.
Essential Question:
How can we use music to better understand meter and rhythm in poetry?
Common Core Standards:
RL8.4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts.
Sequence of Learning:
Note: Rather than trying to force the complexities of iambic pentameter and the like upon the 8th grade students that I teach, I have instead decided to show students how to feel rhythm in their writing through music. I also hope that by teaching poetry with music, most types of learners will be able to engage in the lesson, even for those students who are ELL. Music is the universal language, and I hope that by teaching with rhythm and tone built into my lesson, the point will still be able to transfer to students of all diverse backgrounds.
1. The teacher will hand out the poems “De Camptown Races” and “Oh! Susana” by Stephen C. Foster to the students and ask them if they have ever heard them read before. Some students may raise their hands, but some will not. The teacher will proceed to read the poems aloud to the class. Afterward, the teacher will again ask who has heard the poems before, again some may and some may not raise hands. Finally, the teacher will sing the poems aloud and then again ask the students if they have heard the poems before, more students will raise their hands.
2. The teacher will then ask the students to make up lyrics that fit into the tune of “De Camptown Races” in small groups of 3 or 4 students. The students will share one of their verses with the class.
-For homework the teacher will ask students to write their own lyrics to the tune of one of their favorite songs.
Reflection:
The teacher will know that the students are learning about rhythm and meter through this lesson when the students are making up lyrics to the tune of “De Camptown Races” in small groups. The teacher will circulate and help each group with their lyrics. Also, since students are accessing their prior knowledge of song lyrics and tunes in the class, the teacher will just be adding information to what they already know of rhythm and lyrics. In this lesson students from all background will be able to participate. If ELL students are in the class, they will be welcomed to use words from their own language as well as in English into their group’s songs. The teacher will know if the students are learning what they want the students to learn by the group discussions that he or she will be participating in as well. While the students are in their groups the teacher will circulate to be sure that the students are on task and to field any questions that they may have. I think that the group work will help the students learn because they will in a sense be teaching one another the material. By working together they will be more interested in being in the classroom and with the teacher circulating the room, students will stay on task. Most students enjoy music and there are many students involved in the music program at Hampshire Regional, I know this because I talk to my students about their other classes. This lesson will allow students who enjoy music to become involved with their music as well as with English Language Arts in a new way.
Learning Experience
Objective:
Students will learn how personification is used in poetry by reading “Two Sunflowers Move in the Yellow Room” by William Blake and “The Railway Train” by Emily Dickinson.
Essential Question:
How does personification add to the deeper meaning of a poem and how can I use it in my own writing?
Common Core Standards:
RL8.4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts.
Sequence of Learning:
1. The teacher will read each poem aloud to the class and then ask the students how personification is at work in the poem and how it provides deeper meaning.
2. The teacher will employ the Think, Pair, Share model and have students take 5 minutes to write down what they think personification adds to the poem. Next they will be given 5 minutes to discuss their thoughts with a partner, and finally, the class will reconvene and discuss the positives and negatives of using personification in a poem.
3. The teacher will then ask the students to pick an inanimate object in the room and he or she will then ask the class to begin to write a poem using personification as a class.
Example:
The desk stood still with all its might
So that the student may use its back to write.
The desk was really a good friend
Allowing the student to write on it again and again.
4. The teacher will then ask each student to write their own poem using personification and draw a picture to illustrate their use of personification.
Reflection:
This lesson allows students to understand personification and put it into practice in their own writing. I feel as though this is an important skill for every writer to learn, because even if these students do not continue to use personification in their own writing, they will better understanding when they see it in the writing of others. I feel as though this is one of the more interesting and fun lessons of the unit because personification is widely used in writing and in conversation in the United States so it will be easy for students to employ it. Because it is easier to understand then some of the other lessons such as rhythm or tone which are such ethereal ideas, students who need more concrete lessons may better grasp personification since you can write it in one sentence rather than having to look at an entire poem to get the meaning. The teacher will know whether or not the students are understanding what personification is and how it is used in the formative assessment of having to write and illustrate their own personification example. The teacher can hold conferences to discuss personification, poetry as a whole, or any other concerns students may have about the unit during study halls and after school.
Learning Experience
Learning Objective:
Students will learn how narrative poems differ from other forms of poems and why they are important to understanding authorial intentions.
Common Core Standards:
RL8.4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts.
MA.3.A: Write short narratives, poems, scripts, or personal reflections that demonstrate understanding of the concepts of irony or parody.
Sequence of Learning:
1. Students will free-write about what they believe a narrative poem is for five minutes as an activator.
2. Students will then take 2 minutes to share their free-writing ideas with a partner.
3. Next, the teacher will give the definition of a narrative poem and as a class there will be a discussion about how a person can come to the conclusion of what a narrative poem is by using context clues and prior knowledge of the word “narrative.”
4. The teacher will then read two narrative poems aloud: On Turning Ten by Billy Collins and Birches by Robert Frost.
a. What is ironic about Frost’s poem? Is there any irony involved in Collins’s poem? How are they the same and how do they differ?
b. How can these two poems both be labeled “narrative poems” and be so different?
5. The teacher will then explain the use of irony in Frost’s poem and draw on prior knowledge that students have of irony from texts they have read in the past such as Daniel Keyes’ short story “Flowers for Algernon.”
6. Students will get into groups and discuss the use of irony in Frost’s poem and then will have to identify three things they find to be “ironic” in the world around them.
-For homework students will be asked to write a narrative poem of their own that incorporates the use of irony.
Formative assessment:
Students will be asked to write their own narrative poems
Reflection:
I feel as though students will really enjoy creating their own narrative poem because it allows them to share their own life experiences in poem form without having to use many poetic devices. This activity will also allow students of different cultures to participate because they will be able to write a poem based on their own life experiences and it will not be reliant upon material they will have had to learn in class. This activity relates to justice because it allows students to learn about themselves, for themselves, while writing poetry. Students are learning how to look at their own lives as an ongoing story and take the reins for themselves. In a society where videogames and text messaging run students’ lives, perhaps this poetry will serve as a way for them to see that they must have life experiences outside of a computer to truly be alive. Writing poetry is therapeutic; anyone can write poetry and narrative poems give an extensive amount of power to the author because they can write about themselves. Also, by incorporating the use of irony, students will be able to recognize the humor in life and the fact that not everything is perfect.
Learning Experience
Learning Objectives: Students will be able to connect American history to poetry and become better acquainted with Abraham Lincoln as a lover of poetry.
Essential Question: What can we learn from Abraham Lincoln’s favorite poems?
What can we understand about his love of humanity from the anecdote that Langston Hughes tells in the audio file?
Was Abraham Lincoln a poet?
Resources:
Poets.org. The Academy of American Poets, 2007. Web. 1 Dec.2012: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15722
Poets.org. The Academy of American Poets, 2007. Web. 1 Dec. 2012: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/23086
Sequence of Learning:
1. The teacher will read “The Gettysburg Address” aloud to the class. The class will then access their prior knowledge of the Civil War from our discussions of “The Drummer Boy of Shiloh” by Ray Bradbury. The teacher will ask the class what they know about the civil war and Lincoln’s role in the war. The teacher will prompt the students by asking whether or not Lincoln was a poet. Did he use poetic language in the Gettysburg Address?
2. The teacher will then hand out a second poetry packet which will contain what Poets.org claim to be Lincoln’s favorite poems.
3. The teacher will read through a few of the poems and then ask the students why they believe they were Lincoln’s favorites.
4. The teacher will then read the poem “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” by Langston Hughes and play the audio file of Hughes reading his poem and telling an anecdote alongside it. Why was Langston Hughes still thinking about Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War during the 1920’s?
5. The teacher will ask the students to discuss how history influences poets and poetry.
How does history repeat itself? Why is history important to literature and vice versa?
-For homework the students will write a free verse poem about a current event.
Poems utilized in lesson:
“Morality”- William Knox
Hamlet, Act III, Scene III [Oh my offence is rank- William Shakespeare
"Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”-Thomas Gray
"The Last Leaf"- Oliver Wendell Holmes
"A Man's A Man for A' That"- Robert Burns
"The Raven"- Edgar Allan Poe
"Thanatopsis"- William Cullen Bryant
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto III- Lord Byron
"My Childhood Home I See Again"- Abraham Lincoln
Common Core Standards:
RI8.3: Analyze how a text makes connections among and distinctions between individuals, ideas, or events (e.g., through comparisons, analogies, or categories).
RI8.4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts.
RL8.5: Compare and contrast the structure of two or more texts and analyze how the differing structure of each text contributes to its meaning and style.
Reflection:
I think that this lesson will allow students to connect ideas and facts that they have learned in other classes about Lincoln to English Language Arts. Also, because we have already read short stories about the civil war as well as “Thank You, M’am” by Langston Hughes, it will be interesting to teach the students about the same subjects, but in the context of a poem rather than prose. This lesson will be inclusive to students because, as I do in most other lessons listed here, I read the poems and stories aloud to the students so that all students can participate. This way even if they have not done their homework and are unable to read for themselves, I am including them in the conversation by reading the texts aloud in class. Also, this lesson may be more interesting to students because they are learning more about the authors themselves and hearing Langston Hughes reflect on his own writing as well as reflecting on Abraham Lincoln brings both people to life in a new way for the students.
Poetry Unit Summative Assessment:
At the end of the unit students will create a small anthology of classic poetry as well as one of their own poems and one analysis of a poem. Students will compile five of their favorite poems each of which exemplifies a certain literary element. Students will also take one of their own poems that they have written over the course of the unit and place it within the anthology as well as an analysis of one of the poems in their anthology. Students will also have to incorporate art into their anthology by either drawing pictures for their chosen poems or using creative ways to bind their anthologies and frame poems.
Class time will be dedicated to picking poems for their anthologies from those that they have brought in every day to class for homework as well as from poetry books available in the room. Class time will also be spent on writing analyses of chosen poems.
Common Core Standards:
W8.4-Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
W8.5-With some guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on how well purpose and audience have been addressed.
Reflection:
I feel as though this summative assessment connects to my teaching philosophy because it not only shows whether or not the students understand how to analyze a poem, but it also gives them a way to be creative. Students are able to draw pictures in the anthology as well as write poems of their own. In this way, students with different learning styles will have the chance to do well on the final project because it encompasses so much art.
-To introduce students to multiple forms of poetry.
-To recognize commonly used literary elements at work in poems and songs and to have students learn to locate poetic devices at work.
-To introduce poetic terms to students and show them how to employ these terms in their own writing.
-To encourage students to analyze poetry using literary elements in order to come to a deeper understanding of poetry.
Resources:
“Poetry Unit.” Teaching literature. Web, 2004. 25 Nov. 2012
http://www.teachingliterature.org/teachingliterature/pdf/poetry/poetry_deshotels.pdf
Poems in Poetry Unit:
“Mending Wall”- Robert Frost
“Birches”-Robert Frost
“Bereft”- Robert Frost
“Ode to a Large Tuna in the Market”- Pablo Neruda
“Two Sunflowers Move in the Yellow Room”- William Blake
“I Heard a Fly Buzz”- Emily Dickinson
“The Railway Train”- Emily Dickinson
“On Turning Ten”- Billy Collins
“Happy as a Dog’s Tail”- Anna Swir
“De Camptown Races”- Stephen C. Foster
“Oh! Susana”- Stephen C. Foster
“The Negro Speaks of Rivers”- Langston Hughes
Learning Experience
Objective:
Students will access prior knowledge about literary elements and learn how these elements and poetic devices are at work in poetry.
Essential Question:
How does a poet use their own life experiences when writing a poem and why?
How can literary elements help the reader understand what the poet is trying to say?
How and why do poems differ in structure?
What does it mean that poems do differ?
Resources:
McGraw Hill Online Learning Center. Poetic Devices, 2002. Web. 22 Nov. 2012.
Skills and Knowledge:
Students will use their prior knowledge of literary elements to dissect a poem in class.
Students will make connections between literature read in class and time they have spent outside of school.
Common Core Standards:
RL8.4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts.
RL8.5: Compare and contrast the structure of two or more texts and analyze how the differing structure of each text contributes to its meaning and style.
Sequence of Learning:
1. Teacher will hand out poetry packet which will include all of the poems for the poetry unit.
2. Teacher will ask students to take out the Literary Element handout that was passed out at the beginning of the year and read over the terms which will be used in the poetry unit.
a. Literary elements that will be used in the poetry unit:
-Personification
-Rhyme Scheme
-Hyperbole
-Assonance
-Consonance
-Alliteration
-Figurative Language
-Meter
-Free Verse
-Narrative Poem
-Onomatopoeia
-Rhythm
-Sonnet
-Stanza
-Tone
-Theme
-Symbol
3. Teacher will ask the students what they know about poetry
-What makes good poetry? How do you know?
-Why does rhythm matter in poetry?
-What are some poets that you know of and like?
-Why do you like these poems and poets?
4. The teacher will then read the first two pages of Rules of the Dance by Mary Oliver aloud to the class ending with a reading of the poem “Bereft” by Robert Frost which is included in the book.
5. The teacher will then discuss the importance of rhythm and stressed and unstressed syllables within a work of poetry with the students.
6. The teacher will then read the poem “Happy as a Dog’s Tail” by Anna Swir and ask the students to compare it to “Bereft” by Frost. How do they differ? Why do they differ?
-For homework the teacher will ask each student to bring in one poem upon which they have marked the stressed and unstressed syllables.
Reflection:
This lesson reflects my philosophy of teaching because I believe that in analyzing literature and poetry students can also learn to analyze the thoughts and actions of those around them. I think that by giving students the tools to analyze poetry and to ask them questions that do not have any “right” and “wrong” answers such as “What makes good poetry,” students are given a place to be creative and to understand that literature, much like art, mimics life. This will be helpful for my students because I know that many of them are creative people. I want to give them a place in which they can be creative with their words as well as with their thoughts. I will know if my students are learning what I expect them to learn by the conversations we will have in class as well as from the poems they will bring in the next day for homework.
Learning Experience
Learning Objective:
Students will learn how rhythm and meter are at work in poetry through the use of music. Students will learn how rhythm affects the tone of the poem.
Essential Question:
How can we use music to better understand meter and rhythm in poetry?
Common Core Standards:
RL8.4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts.
Sequence of Learning:
Note: Rather than trying to force the complexities of iambic pentameter and the like upon the 8th grade students that I teach, I have instead decided to show students how to feel rhythm in their writing through music. I also hope that by teaching poetry with music, most types of learners will be able to engage in the lesson, even for those students who are ELL. Music is the universal language, and I hope that by teaching with rhythm and tone built into my lesson, the point will still be able to transfer to students of all diverse backgrounds.
1. The teacher will hand out the poems “De Camptown Races” and “Oh! Susana” by Stephen C. Foster to the students and ask them if they have ever heard them read before. Some students may raise their hands, but some will not. The teacher will proceed to read the poems aloud to the class. Afterward, the teacher will again ask who has heard the poems before, again some may and some may not raise hands. Finally, the teacher will sing the poems aloud and then again ask the students if they have heard the poems before, more students will raise their hands.
2. The teacher will then ask the students to make up lyrics that fit into the tune of “De Camptown Races” in small groups of 3 or 4 students. The students will share one of their verses with the class.
-For homework the teacher will ask students to write their own lyrics to the tune of one of their favorite songs.
Reflection:
The teacher will know that the students are learning about rhythm and meter through this lesson when the students are making up lyrics to the tune of “De Camptown Races” in small groups. The teacher will circulate and help each group with their lyrics. Also, since students are accessing their prior knowledge of song lyrics and tunes in the class, the teacher will just be adding information to what they already know of rhythm and lyrics. In this lesson students from all background will be able to participate. If ELL students are in the class, they will be welcomed to use words from their own language as well as in English into their group’s songs. The teacher will know if the students are learning what they want the students to learn by the group discussions that he or she will be participating in as well. While the students are in their groups the teacher will circulate to be sure that the students are on task and to field any questions that they may have. I think that the group work will help the students learn because they will in a sense be teaching one another the material. By working together they will be more interested in being in the classroom and with the teacher circulating the room, students will stay on task. Most students enjoy music and there are many students involved in the music program at Hampshire Regional, I know this because I talk to my students about their other classes. This lesson will allow students who enjoy music to become involved with their music as well as with English Language Arts in a new way.
Learning Experience
Objective:
Students will learn how personification is used in poetry by reading “Two Sunflowers Move in the Yellow Room” by William Blake and “The Railway Train” by Emily Dickinson.
Essential Question:
How does personification add to the deeper meaning of a poem and how can I use it in my own writing?
Common Core Standards:
RL8.4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts.
Sequence of Learning:
1. The teacher will read each poem aloud to the class and then ask the students how personification is at work in the poem and how it provides deeper meaning.
2. The teacher will employ the Think, Pair, Share model and have students take 5 minutes to write down what they think personification adds to the poem. Next they will be given 5 minutes to discuss their thoughts with a partner, and finally, the class will reconvene and discuss the positives and negatives of using personification in a poem.
3. The teacher will then ask the students to pick an inanimate object in the room and he or she will then ask the class to begin to write a poem using personification as a class.
Example:
The desk stood still with all its might
So that the student may use its back to write.
The desk was really a good friend
Allowing the student to write on it again and again.
4. The teacher will then ask each student to write their own poem using personification and draw a picture to illustrate their use of personification.
Reflection:
This lesson allows students to understand personification and put it into practice in their own writing. I feel as though this is an important skill for every writer to learn, because even if these students do not continue to use personification in their own writing, they will better understanding when they see it in the writing of others. I feel as though this is one of the more interesting and fun lessons of the unit because personification is widely used in writing and in conversation in the United States so it will be easy for students to employ it. Because it is easier to understand then some of the other lessons such as rhythm or tone which are such ethereal ideas, students who need more concrete lessons may better grasp personification since you can write it in one sentence rather than having to look at an entire poem to get the meaning. The teacher will know whether or not the students are understanding what personification is and how it is used in the formative assessment of having to write and illustrate their own personification example. The teacher can hold conferences to discuss personification, poetry as a whole, or any other concerns students may have about the unit during study halls and after school.
Learning Experience
Learning Objective:
Students will learn how narrative poems differ from other forms of poems and why they are important to understanding authorial intentions.
Common Core Standards:
RL8.4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts.
MA.3.A: Write short narratives, poems, scripts, or personal reflections that demonstrate understanding of the concepts of irony or parody.
Sequence of Learning:
1. Students will free-write about what they believe a narrative poem is for five minutes as an activator.
2. Students will then take 2 minutes to share their free-writing ideas with a partner.
3. Next, the teacher will give the definition of a narrative poem and as a class there will be a discussion about how a person can come to the conclusion of what a narrative poem is by using context clues and prior knowledge of the word “narrative.”
4. The teacher will then read two narrative poems aloud: On Turning Ten by Billy Collins and Birches by Robert Frost.
a. What is ironic about Frost’s poem? Is there any irony involved in Collins’s poem? How are they the same and how do they differ?
b. How can these two poems both be labeled “narrative poems” and be so different?
5. The teacher will then explain the use of irony in Frost’s poem and draw on prior knowledge that students have of irony from texts they have read in the past such as Daniel Keyes’ short story “Flowers for Algernon.”
6. Students will get into groups and discuss the use of irony in Frost’s poem and then will have to identify three things they find to be “ironic” in the world around them.
-For homework students will be asked to write a narrative poem of their own that incorporates the use of irony.
Formative assessment:
Students will be asked to write their own narrative poems
Reflection:
I feel as though students will really enjoy creating their own narrative poem because it allows them to share their own life experiences in poem form without having to use many poetic devices. This activity will also allow students of different cultures to participate because they will be able to write a poem based on their own life experiences and it will not be reliant upon material they will have had to learn in class. This activity relates to justice because it allows students to learn about themselves, for themselves, while writing poetry. Students are learning how to look at their own lives as an ongoing story and take the reins for themselves. In a society where videogames and text messaging run students’ lives, perhaps this poetry will serve as a way for them to see that they must have life experiences outside of a computer to truly be alive. Writing poetry is therapeutic; anyone can write poetry and narrative poems give an extensive amount of power to the author because they can write about themselves. Also, by incorporating the use of irony, students will be able to recognize the humor in life and the fact that not everything is perfect.
Learning Experience
Learning Objectives: Students will be able to connect American history to poetry and become better acquainted with Abraham Lincoln as a lover of poetry.
Essential Question: What can we learn from Abraham Lincoln’s favorite poems?
What can we understand about his love of humanity from the anecdote that Langston Hughes tells in the audio file?
Was Abraham Lincoln a poet?
Resources:
Poets.org. The Academy of American Poets, 2007. Web. 1 Dec.2012: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15722
Poets.org. The Academy of American Poets, 2007. Web. 1 Dec. 2012: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/23086
Sequence of Learning:
1. The teacher will read “The Gettysburg Address” aloud to the class. The class will then access their prior knowledge of the Civil War from our discussions of “The Drummer Boy of Shiloh” by Ray Bradbury. The teacher will ask the class what they know about the civil war and Lincoln’s role in the war. The teacher will prompt the students by asking whether or not Lincoln was a poet. Did he use poetic language in the Gettysburg Address?
2. The teacher will then hand out a second poetry packet which will contain what Poets.org claim to be Lincoln’s favorite poems.
3. The teacher will read through a few of the poems and then ask the students why they believe they were Lincoln’s favorites.
4. The teacher will then read the poem “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” by Langston Hughes and play the audio file of Hughes reading his poem and telling an anecdote alongside it. Why was Langston Hughes still thinking about Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War during the 1920’s?
5. The teacher will ask the students to discuss how history influences poets and poetry.
How does history repeat itself? Why is history important to literature and vice versa?
-For homework the students will write a free verse poem about a current event.
Poems utilized in lesson:
“Morality”- William Knox
Hamlet, Act III, Scene III [Oh my offence is rank- William Shakespeare
"Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”-Thomas Gray
"The Last Leaf"- Oliver Wendell Holmes
"A Man's A Man for A' That"- Robert Burns
"The Raven"- Edgar Allan Poe
"Thanatopsis"- William Cullen Bryant
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto III- Lord Byron
"My Childhood Home I See Again"- Abraham Lincoln
Common Core Standards:
RI8.3: Analyze how a text makes connections among and distinctions between individuals, ideas, or events (e.g., through comparisons, analogies, or categories).
RI8.4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts.
RL8.5: Compare and contrast the structure of two or more texts and analyze how the differing structure of each text contributes to its meaning and style.
Reflection:
I think that this lesson will allow students to connect ideas and facts that they have learned in other classes about Lincoln to English Language Arts. Also, because we have already read short stories about the civil war as well as “Thank You, M’am” by Langston Hughes, it will be interesting to teach the students about the same subjects, but in the context of a poem rather than prose. This lesson will be inclusive to students because, as I do in most other lessons listed here, I read the poems and stories aloud to the students so that all students can participate. This way even if they have not done their homework and are unable to read for themselves, I am including them in the conversation by reading the texts aloud in class. Also, this lesson may be more interesting to students because they are learning more about the authors themselves and hearing Langston Hughes reflect on his own writing as well as reflecting on Abraham Lincoln brings both people to life in a new way for the students.
Poetry Unit Summative Assessment:
At the end of the unit students will create a small anthology of classic poetry as well as one of their own poems and one analysis of a poem. Students will compile five of their favorite poems each of which exemplifies a certain literary element. Students will also take one of their own poems that they have written over the course of the unit and place it within the anthology as well as an analysis of one of the poems in their anthology. Students will also have to incorporate art into their anthology by either drawing pictures for their chosen poems or using creative ways to bind their anthologies and frame poems.
Class time will be dedicated to picking poems for their anthologies from those that they have brought in every day to class for homework as well as from poetry books available in the room. Class time will also be spent on writing analyses of chosen poems.
Common Core Standards:
W8.4-Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
W8.5-With some guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on how well purpose and audience have been addressed.
Reflection:
I feel as though this summative assessment connects to my teaching philosophy because it not only shows whether or not the students understand how to analyze a poem, but it also gives them a way to be creative. Students are able to draw pictures in the anthology as well as write poems of their own. In this way, students with different learning styles will have the chance to do well on the final project because it encompasses so much art.