HUM 8 Unit Plan Unit Title: Name: Poetry Unit Nicole Duy, for Jennifer Braun Number of Lessons: Subject: 14 x 70 min. each English 8, Blocks A & E Number of Weeks 3 Stage 1 – Desired Results Unit Title: A study of poetry PLOs: Oral Language: A1, A2, A3, A4, A5, A7, A8, A10 Reading and Viewing: B1, B2, B3, B4, B5, B6, B7, B10, B11 Writing and Representing: C1, C3, C4, C5, C7 Essential Questions: What is poetry? What is a poem? What strategies can we use to understand poetry? What are some poetic forms and structures and how do they affect meaning(s)? How does performance affect the meaning(s) of the written word in a poem? How do poets express themes through their work? How can students express themselves through poetry? Student objectives (outcomes): Students will be able to: Appreciate, discuss, and interpret a variety of poems Identify theme, poetic structures, and devices (including figurative language) and how they contribute to a poem’s meaning(s) Create original poems using various forms, devices, and constraints Big Ideas: Poetry can be interpreted in many different ways Poets make deliberate choices about style, tone, structure, and word choice Poets use words (figurative language, voice, tone), structure (line breaks, punctuation, poetic form), and ideas (theme, speakers, narrative) to create meaning Poetry can take many forms Evaluation: Poetic Terms Quiz 5% Poem Presentation 15% Original Poetry 25% Paragraph Responses (2) 15% Unit Test 30% ROARS Mark 10% Stage 2 – Assessment Evidence Other Evidence: Entrance/Exit slips, Reader Response Groups, Poet’s Café (optional) Stage 3: Unit Overview Lesson Number 1 Monday February 2nd Topic Introduction: Poetry is Pervasive Objectives & Strategies Icebreaker? Unit introduction What is a poem? Get students thinking about experiences/beliefs/ expectations about poetry Introduce strategies for Poems “Eating Poetry” by Mark Strand “Introduction to Poetry” by Billy Collins Quotations by Eliot and cummings Lesson Activity Prior knowledge: one word that comes to mind about poetry; share with group then with class Poetry anticipation exercise Choose a poem from among anthologies; copy poem for classroom display Introduce symbols for reading: * this word or line is cool ! this is something important reading poetry: read the poem three times; annotation 2 Tuesday February 3rd Ideas Poems Have Meaning(s): Theme How do we make meaning(s) from a poem?/How do we read poetry Equip students with strategies to help them derive meaning(s) from a text To read, re-read, question and think about poems for analysis To challenge students to think critically about the poems Introduce structure, language, rhyme/free verse How do we write “Hanging Fire” by Audre Lorde? Richard Cory? Poe’s “Eldorado” for different interpretations? “Theory,” Dorothy Parker ? I don’t get it/I don’t understand Sign-up for poetry/song presentation Exit slip: answer “What is poetry”; I will hold on to these exit slips and return to them throughout the unit Grammar Ish Snowball activity (from Peter Hill): students write a free verse poem for portfolio Model Reader Response approach with Lorde’s poem (from Anthony Pare) Model my Selected Poem/Song, provide students with rubric Grammar 3 Wednesd ay February 4th Ideas Poems Tell A Story: Ballads & Narratives 4 February 5th Structure Poems Have A Look: Text, Spacing, and Concrete Poems poetry? Create a poem based on the “Ish” activity Examine the role of ballads, performance, and oral tradition in poetry Identify and understand the elements of historic and literary ballads Understand how a dramatic reading can impact tone and meaning(s) Create a poem based on an interpretation of a contemporary event Introduce “Poet’s Café” Consider the use of line breaks and white space in the creation of a poem’s meaning(s) Identify and understand the features of form poems: concrete poem, epigram, epitaph Adapt a published “Barbara Allan” OR “Jesse James” OR “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” Annabel Lee? Slam Poetry—B Yung and Sonya Li ? Highwayman ? Robert Service ? Dylan/Seeger/ “Disembarking at Quebec?”—too much Peggy already? Bowie Space Oddity ? something more modern From anthology; still to be sourced Wayne Keon for concrete poems “Ice Cream” (L)eaf by ee cummings “Untitled (2)” by Fred Wah Two students present their songs/poems Students divided into groups and responsible for presenting a dramatic reading of stanzas/Reader’s Theatre Newspaper headline poem. From Peter Hill (homework?)—this assignment probably needs more constraints to be effective this early on; poem can be included in portfolio Three students present their songs/ poems Brainstorm: things they’ve noticed about poems they have been reading—draw attention to line space/breaks Reader Response Groups with Wah poem Rewrite the poem they chose from the 1st class, changing line breaks and spacing, adding single word for impact Include this rewritten poem in poetry portfolio poem by changing spaces and line breaks 5 Friday February 6th 6 Tuesday February 10th Structure Poems Have A Look: Form Poetry Words Poets Play With Words Identify and understand features of form poems: Haiku, Cinquain, Limericks Create a form poem To understand and appreciate how poets manipulate words and language To understand how word choice helps create meaning(s) Create a poem focusing on sensory description 7 Wednesd ay February 11th Words Poets Choose Words Carefully: Figurative Language-Images Identify features of figurative language: simile, metaphor, allusion, extended metaphor, personification Understand how poets use figurative language to convey meaning(s) From anthology & additional sources Layton, “Wit” Something that accomplishes the same thing as “We Real Cool” “Red Wheel Barrow” “This is Just to Say” and Williams’s wife’s response Pound, “In a Station of the Metro” “Fourteenth Birthday”, by Phyllis McGinley (extended metaphor) “Cyclops” by Atwood (allusion/metaphor/ personification) assortment of poems for groups to Three students present their songs/ poems Model writing form poems Students write two least one form poems from the following forms: limerick, haiku, cinquain, epigram, epitaph, concrete poem. Poems included in portfolio Review and add to “What is Poetry” exit slip Three students present their songs/poems Popcorn Poetry? Reader response groups for imagist poems? Two students present their songs/poems Jigsaw for examples of terms? Reader Response for 14th? And/or Cyclops? Free write in response to diary object for “Fourteenth Birthday”; poem can be included in portfolio 8 Thursday February 12th Words Poets Choose Words Carefully: Figurative Language II-Sounds 9 Friday February 13th Words Poets Chose Words Carefully: Tone/ Mood Ideas Voice 10 Monday February 16th Identify features of figurative language: onomatopoeia, consonance, assonance, alliteration Understand how poets use sound to convey meaning(s) Create a poem using elements of figurative language Examine how tone, mood and meaning are conveyed through poet’s word choice Diction, rhyme scheme, images Provide students with tools for editing poetry Understand and appreciate the role of voice in creating meaning(s) Understand and appreciate the role of voice in evoking emotional reaction in readers Students change the use to locate literary devices Anne Sexton, “Young” Frost “Acquainted with the night”? cummings “in Justspring” Roethke “Root Cellar” “Fog,” by Carl Sandburg Other material “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee,” by Buffy Saint Marie Langston Hughes or Claude McKay Other material Two students present their songs/poems Paint-chip poetry using figurative language ‘Gallery walk’ to view paint chip poetry Poetry can be edited to be included in portfolio Two students present their songs/poems Brainstorm list of words that create strong feelings Workshop on editing poems already created Quiz Three students present their songs/poems Register shift exercise, from Kedrick James Deadline to submit material for chapbook 11 February 17th Form Sonnet (or more general lyric poetry ie poetry soup?) 12 February 18th Found Poems 13 February 19th Poetry and Community register and voice in a piece of writing or poetry Recognise how form and structure affect meaning Introduce the sonnet and understand its form and structure Students create a poem with word constraints Recognise that the way a poem is written will affect how it is read Students create a found poem How to edit poetry Recognise that the creation and dissemination of poetry can be a communal & transformative act Collaboratively create a poem and then independently edit the result (for Renga) OR Use poetry to materially transform the school (Guerilla poetry) Shakespeare, Sonnet 130 Wyatt, Whoso List to Hunt OR Sidney 1 or 31 Millay, Sonnet 29 OR What My Lips Have Kissed Warren Commission Report Source other material Two students present their songs/poems Reader Response groups? Seven letter poem, from Carl Leggo Three students present their songs/poems Quick Write/Brainstorm how poets create meaning Create a found poem Return “What is Poetry” slip from first class and ask students to add anything else they deem relevant Extra-time to catch-up, How to edit poetry Two students present their songs/poems Review/over-view for test Guerilla Poetry: students select lines from a poem (their own or another’s) and copy and hide these lines in the classroom; students then artistically copy these lines on the sidewalk around the school this class is weather dependent, so may be moved earlier by a day or so OR Classwide Renga—poem is created collaboratively and then edited by original author for inclusion into portfolio (from Kedrick James) 14 February 20th Unit Test Unit Test Poet’s Café during lunch Musings Grammar lessons on alternate days I am not sure whether to do the paragraph responses (3 at 5% each) as responses to individual poems we look at in class or to integrate them into the poetry portfolio—ie have them choose three new poems and write responses to them. I have the found poem class towards the end and I am not that keen on the placement. If I put this topic earlier, however, the literary devices section runs late, placing the quiz too close to the test. I am not sure whether or not to do a lesson on the sonnet or just have a class dedicated to an assortment of poems. My thinking is that with the sonnet class I can anticipate some of the chivalric ideals they will encounter in the feudalism and renaissance units, so that would be a nice tie in. Additional Poets/Poems to Consider Caedmon’s Hymn for connection to Anglo Saxon/feudalism unit Instead of Millay, Browning How Do I Love Thee?” (sonnet) Dickinson—I’m Nobody (288) Scott, “Night Hymns on Lake Nipigon” Robert Frost ? Wallace Stevens EJ Pratt “The Shark” (sound) Early Birney “Vancouver Lights” or “Anglo Saxon Street” for sound and textual space (but hard!)—possibly another Birney? Leonard Cohen?