This unit will allow you to both read and write poetry. You must collect 20 works of poetry to hand in at the end of the unit. Half of the poetry has to be written by you and the other half has to come from poetry books (print). Every poem must have illustrations to accompany it (done by you). The due date will be announced later this week. However, we will also have a unit test on the last day of the unit, so I recommend that you start the assignment SOON. Each poem will be marked out of 5, for a total of 100 points. Please see the marking rubric that is attached to this handout.
April 4, Thurs. - Lesson 1- SWBAT gain an understanding of how broad a topic that poetry is and will realize it can be found in many places. The students will learn what a ballad and found poem are.
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The class writes down what poetry is and where they can find it. A student will then come up and write down some of their answers on the board. I will explain that poetry can be many things and can be found in many placed.
Introduce the unit. Review the overview handout.
Ask the class what makes a good song. Discuss the aspects of a good song with them and show how songs are actually a form of poetry. Explain what a couplet is, tercet, and quatrain is. Explain what a ballad is and its history. Read an old ballad together.
Explain what a found poems is.
The class will use a newspaper article and magazine article to create their own found poems. When they are done , they can read to the class.
Homework - hand in your found poem. Write down some song lyrics (school appropriate) and bring them to the next class.
April 5, Fri. -Lesson 2- SWBAT understand how to read a poem (don’t stop at the end of each line) and understand the concept of a theme.
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Read an excerpt from an easy textbook and explain what I just read. Read an excerpt from a difficult textbook and have them explain what I just said.
Explain what theme is and the types of topics that good poetry often uses as a basis for its theme.
read the lyrics of the songs that they brought for class. Discuss what the theme of the song is.
Read “Death be not Proud” p. 13-4. Discuss the theme and provide evidence.
Discuss the poetry assignment.
April 8, Monday - Lesson 3 - SWBAT learn a few of the frameworks for poetry (Rotten poem, biopoem, and concrete). While they learn these frameworks, they will also learn that structure can be useful for writing poems, but it does not necessarily make a good poem.
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Define rotten poem - write their own rotten poem on a separate sheet of paper. They will need to hand it in. Then they will read it to their partner. Each pair will pick the best one and read it out loud to the class.
Put outline for a bio-poem up on the overhead. Ask the students to write a bio poem. (10 min) Ask whether or not the students liked the bio-poem. Is it good poetry?
Explain what concrete poetry is. The shape is the poem’s framework. Ask the students to write their own concrete poem and hand it in for homework next day.
Read them an example of free verse and create your own for homework. Their homework will be marked out of 5 for originality, whether or not there is a theme, and how well the image matches the poem.
April 10, Wednesday (BLOCK) - Lesson 4&5 -
April 22, Mon. - SWBAT understand what similes, metaphors, and personifications are and why they are used; and do this in a mix of lecture, discussion, and analysis of a poem will be used. The students will then be able to pick out and explain the use of metaphors in a poem.
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Warm up: I will hold up a yellow piece of paper and have the students describe the color. They must describe the color without comparing it to something else. (2 min) We will discuss why this is difficult.
Class discussion about: similes, metaphors, and personification are. (5-10 min)
Hand out and read “Anthem for a Doomed Youth”. Students will write down the similes, metaphors, and personification and write down why each of them is used. Due at the end of the class. (20-30 min)
Exit Slip: I will show a color picture and the class must write a simile, a metaphor, and a personification to describe anything in the picture. (5-10 min)
HW: Poetry Portfolio Due 5/6
April 24, Wed (block) - SWBAT The students will learn what assonance, consonance, and are as well as learning why these poetic devices are used.
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Warm up: some volunteer to say some tongue twisters. Ask the students who did them, to suggest reasons why tongue twisters are hard to say. (5 min) I will explain that poets often find ways to make the reader speed up or slow down the reading of their poems. Some of the techniques are similar to tongue twisters, but aren’t as hard to say. (2 min)
Take notes on: definitions and examples of assonance and consonance. We will read some poetry with assonance and consonance and show how it slows the pace down, and why the poet wants this. (10 min)
Read and analyze allusion in the poem “Dover Beach.” We will read and discussion after the class finds the allusion in it. (Who was Sophocles? Do they know why Arnold chose the allusion?) (20 min)
The class will write a poem that alludes to someone they know. It will also need to have either assonance or consonance in it. The allusion cannot be mean-spirited or else thy fail. (20 min)
*BREAK* when done with poem
Exit Slip: define what allusion, consonance, and assonance are without looking at your notes.
In the second hour of class, each student will read one of the poems they have written for their poetry portfolio:
Welcome the class to the Poets’ Café. One person going up at a time, in order of desks. Explain that we will snap our fingers instead of clap. (5 min)
The students each come up and read a poem to the class. Then, they have to quickly explain it and one person from the class can respond to it. I will pick who responds to it.
April 25, Thurs. - SWBAT practice reading a poem out loud. The poem “Jabberwocky” will also show them that the way a word sounds and its place in the sentence can give that word a certain meaning.
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Class will do an active reading of “Jabberwocky”. (5 min) We will go through the various non-words with the students and with a partner, ask them to come up with the meanings for the words. Ask the students how they came up with those meanings. (15-20 min)
Class discussion: how we know if a word is a noun, verb, etc. by where it is placed. Also explain how the sound of a word can express meaning. eg. a guttural word is a harsh word. List some of the soft and hard sounding phonemes. (5 min)
Read the class a couple of Ogden Nash poems. This is to show that poetry can be written about humorous themes, too. (5 min)
Class discussion of examples with some poetic riddles on it. Give the students a couple of minutes to read them and write down what they think the answers are. (5 min)
The class will have the remainder of class to write an original riddle, a funny poem, and a short poem that has non-words in it. They will be able to hand this in next class. Finish it for HW to be put in their portfolio.
April 26, Fri. - SWBAT understand what symbolism is and how it is used in poetry.
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Warm up: I will post various symbols (eg. I [heart] you) and corporate logos. Class discussion: explain what each of them is, and try to figure out why that symbol is used. (5 min)
Read and analyze Robert Frost’s, “The Road Not Taken”. Have the class work in pairs to find the symbolism in the poem and discuss what it symbolizes. What is the poem about? Then, bring the class together and hear some of the responses. Can they think of other symbols that can also be used? (20-25 min)
Exit Slip: Draw a symbol for Sacramento, CA, and your school. Write a poem that uses one of these symbols and include both the drawings and poem in your portfolio (20 – 25 min). Finish poem for portfolio.
April 29, Monday - SWBAT identify hyperbole, oxymoron, and paradox in poetry.
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Warm up: Begin with hyperbole example. “I had to mark piles of paper that were this high. My goodness, they were so high up, I had to take a chairlift to get to the top of the pile.” Ask a couple of students to continue this outrageous story. (5 min) After I will explain what a hyperbole is.
Read and analyze Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 130”. Have a student read out this sonnet while everyone else listens to the description of the woman. Ask them if they think the woman is good looking. Get the class to mention some of the hyperbole in it that shows how she is not good looking. Does she really look like this? What does the speaker think about all of this? What is the theme? Why would hyperbole be used in poetry? (10 min)
Explain what an oxymoron and a paradox are. After describing the first portion of the poem, read an excerpt from Tennyson’s Lancelot and Elaine. Where is the oxymoron in this? Where is the paradox in it? Why does Tennyson use an oxymoron and a paradox in this poem? (5-10 min)
Re-read Johne Donne’s “Death be not Proud” p. 13-4. Where is the paradox in this poem? Why does Donne choose to add this paradox into the poem? (10 min)
Exit Slip: The class will write, on a separate sheet of paper, a poem that is a hyperbole of their own looks. It can be good, bad, or neutral. Write a short poem that has a paradox in it and another short poem that has an oxymoron in it. Then some volunteers can read their poems out loud. Finish for Hw and put the poem in your poetry portfolio (20-25 min)
April 30, Tuesday - SWBAT solidify their understanding of the unit and practice analyzing and responding to poetry.
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Warm up: Put the students into pairs. Give each pair a poetic term that we have gone through and that they are responsible for knowing. Then, the pairs will each have 1 minute to present that term. They have to say what it means and give a very short example of it. The class can respond to what they say. (eg. whether or not the pair missed anything or got it wrong or got it right). (20 min)
Ask the class if there is anything they want me to go over again. I will also go over anything that I think they did not understand too well. (10 min)
I will read “The Unnamed Lake” by Frederick George Scott p. 142-4. Then, in groups of three, the students must respond to the poetry, by figuring out the theme and what the poet wants the readers to feel. Also, the students will find specific quotes to show how certain poetic devices are used to enrich the theme. If there is time, we will have a class discussion about what they came up with. (25 min)
April 31, Wed - SWBAT prepare for their poetry test by creating test questions and answering them.
Review for the test today.
5/1, Thursday - LITERARY DEVICE AND POETRY TEST TODAY POETRY PORTFOLIO DUE THE FOLLOWING MONDAY, 5/6