Lesson 6
Today’s Agenda
1. Debrief
2. “We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks
~Structure
Computer Lab Debriefing
 What did you learn in the lab?
 How are your test scores?
 Your GPA?
 Any requirements for college you didn’t know
beforehand?
 Should you change your life plan?
THE POOL PLAYERS.
SEVEN AT THE GOLDEN SHOVEL.
We real cool. We
Left school. We
Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We
Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We
Jazz June. We
Die soon.
~Gwendolyn Brooks, 1959
“We Real Cool”
In Her Own Words
THE POOL PLAYERS.
SEVEN AT THE GOLDEN SHOVEL.
We real cool. We
Left school. We
Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We
What do we learn from the subtitle?
Why bookend with “we”?
Diction - “lurk” and “strike”?
Infer because they “lurk late”? “strike straight”?
Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We
Why “sing”? How is “thin” used?
Jazz June. We
Die soon.
“jazz June”??
Gwendolyn Brooks, “We Real Cool” from Selected Poems. Copyright © 1963 by Gwendolyn Brooks. Reprinted with the permission of the
Estate of Gwendolyn Brooks.
Form and Structure
We real cool. We left school. We lurk late We strike straight.
We sing sin. We thin gin. We jazz June. We die soon.




How does the sound of the poem change?
How do the pace and rhythm of the poem change?
How does the tone of the poem change?
Are any elements of the poem lost when the lines are
presented in "natural" sounding sentences?
Form and Structure
THE POOL PLAYERS.
SEVEN AT THE GOLDEN SHOVEL.
We real cool.
We left school.
We lurk late.
We strike straight.
We sing sin.
We thin gin.
We jazz June.
We die soon.
 How does the sound of the poem
change?
 How do the pace and rhythm of
the poem change?
 How does the tone of the poem
change?
 Are any elements of the poem
lost when the lines are presented
in "natural" sounding sentences?
 Is the prose poem as powerful as
Brooks' version? Why or why
not?
Your Turn
 Write your own “We Real Cool” poem.
 Follow the structure of Brooks’s original.
 “We” at the end of the line.
 Rhyme scheme.
 Single syllables.
 Eight lines minimum.
 When people see you and your friends, what would
they say about your attitudes/mannerisms?