Unit Page

Poetry

Prefatory Statement: This will be a three weeklong poetry unit. The first week the students will be reading poetry and also learning some of the key literary devices, such as similes, metaphors, and others. The second week the students will be going through and reading different kinds of poetry to find poems that they like. The last week will revolve around putting together what they have found, as well as writing one of their own poems. For their final product they will be putting together a collage of poetry that will have a central theme that they picked out. In this final product they will have a literary portfolio that has six - ten poems, and at least one of these poems needs to be their own. They are encouraged to use other forms of poetry such as songs.

There are many reasons for designing a poetry unit; one is because it helps to meet another standard that the students need to have learned. It is important for the students to at least have a general knowledge for such a universal genre as poetry because it is used in many places. The unit that I have designed was specified to cover the areas of some significant aspects of poetry, as well as to relate these aspects to the students' lives. I want them to make connections between themselves and the poems that they are reading through dense and shaded questions. I want them to see that a poem written four hundred years ago holds many of the same qualities as a song written last week. This broadens their knowledge and will hopefully make them more open to other concepts even though they may not always feel comfortable with it at first. The students will look below the surface of the poems for a deeper meaning.

Because the students will be able to connect these poems to themselves and write their own poetry, they will be able to express themselves to the class. This will be important for all of the students. They may chose whether or not to read their poems in front of the class in case they feel uncomfortable.

Class Specification: This is a three-week long unit that is an introduction to poetry. I believe that this would work well with eleventh and twelfth graders. It is a lot of work as well as a lot of work time that requires a mature audience to stay on task. Students also have loose instructions for their final product. This will also require a more mature audience because they will need to feel comfortable coming up with a final product. This unit applies to all classes and races; there should be no abundance of problems varying between different groups of classes. If I were to teach this to a younger age group I would change some of the content as well as give more guidelines for the final product.

Significant Assumptions: Students learn easiest when they can work with something that relates to them. It is important for students to have a general knowledge of poetry because it is used in many places. Poetry helps to broaden a person's knowledge, as well as helping a person to express him or herself. Expression is something that is very important for students.

Desired Outcomes/Standards/Objectives to be Met: I want the students to know what poetry is and the different concepts that come with it, such as alliteration, metaphors, and analogies. The students will use critical thinking to find a theme for their end product. The students will be able to productively research so that they may be able to find literature that will fit into their theme. The students will use the computer not only in their research, but to help with their final project at the end of the unit.

By the end of this unit the students' will have learned

" What poetry is

" How to do research

" Many different poems and what they mean

" The concept of simile

" The concept of metaphor

" The concept of symbolism

" The concept of imagery

" The concept of themes

" The concept of tones

" Different forms of poetry such as

¸ Sonnets

¸ Haiku

¸ Limerick

Below are the Minnesota standards that this unit completes.

Comprehension: 1 and 2

Literature: 1,2,3,5,15

Elements of Composition: 1,5,6,8

Research: 1 and 9

Possible Whole Class Activities: Together the class will be working to think of definitions of terms as well as comprehending poems. Together we will be going through some British, American, and contemporary poetry.

Possible Groups Activities: During the students working days, they will be allows to work together in peer groups to read what each other have written and give suggestions for improvement.

Possible Individual Activities: Students will individually be working on web quest, as well as working on their own research. Although students may ask others for suggestions on their groups project, they will also be working alone on that.

Ongoing Activities: The students will always be asked to be doing research, searching for poetry that they like and that they can use in their final project. To help them to do this I will be bringing in books on poetry from the library, as well as working with them on web quest. This will continue through out the whole unit and help the students to have a variety of poetry to look through.

Student Resources: The students will have a chance to look at a variety of different poems that will be brought into the classroom. On the students' workdays they will have the opportunity to look through a variety of poetry books as well as have access to the computer and web quest which will expand their knowledge on poetry.

Unit Launch/Anticipatory Set/Set Induction: See lesson plan one

Organization of the Unit: Look at table unit

Assessment Task: The students will be using Web Quest for a few of the assessments. The due dates are listed in the schedule above. Also students will need to participate in class. I will be putting check marks next to the names of people who have contributed to the class, this will account for five percent of their grade. The final assessment will use web quest as well as time in the classroom. A rubric is made for them to follow on the final product, which is a poetry book that they make themselves.

Grades: The students will be graded mostly on their final task. There is a rubric made up for it. The other fifteen percent of the grade will be on the other tasks that they need to complete through web quest. These will need to be typed and handed in on time. If a student's work is not typed he or she will need to type it. Every day that an assignment is late they will lose two points. Each assignment will be worth fifteen points. When we are having discussions in class the students will have a chance to raise their grade by contributing to the class discussion. I will keep track of this by putting a mark next to a student's name every time they contribute in class. This will be worth five percent of their grade.

Helpful links

http://www.poetry.com/

http://www.lyrics.astraweb.com/

http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/donne/donnebib.htm

http://www.magpo.com/

Unit Outline

  Poetry Unit: Week one, day one

Objective/Standard: This lesson is working towards the fulfillment of standard I.D.1, I.D.2, and I.D.3. By the end of this lesson the students will have learned

? Understand what poetry is

Rationale: It is important for the students to think rationally about why they believe something to be what it is. This will help them to make decisions in the future, as well as with the rest of the unit.

Method:

(5 min)I: When the students enter the classroom, explain to them that you will be working on a new unit and because of this you will need help to reorganize the classroom to form a more comfortable habitat for the new unit. Rearrange the desks into a semi circle. In the middle of the room place poetry books, magazines, tape recorders, scissors, glue, and construction paper.

(10 min)II: Once everything is in order explain to the students that you will be starting a poetry unit. At the end of the unit a final project will be due. Pass them a handout that explains the final project as well as an example of what that final project will look like. Also explain about how they will be going to use web quest and how they will be responsible for using their time wisely. Let them know that at the end of the unit there will also be a poetry reading held in that class. Lastly explain to them that at the end of each class period they will all need to help to clean up the room for the next class.

(10 min)III: Put students into groups of three, and pass out a poem to each group. Ask the group to read it and work together to discuss what it means, and why they think that that poem is or is not poetry.

(10 min)IV: Short discussion

? Why or why not do you believe this is poetry

? What makes a poem a poem?

? Who decides what poetry is?

(5 min)V: Ask the students to put their chairs back into the normal position and let them know that on Friday they will need to turn in a one page paper about what poetry is as well as three examples of poetry.

Homework: At the begining of the week the students will need to turn in a one page paper about what poetry is as well as three examples of poetry

Assessment: The assessment will be whether or not their paper gives rationale for their belief about poetry as well as three different examples of poetry. In their paper they will also need to explain why those three examples are poetry.

Week Two: Day four

Objective/Standard : This lesson will be working towards fulfilling the Minnesota standard of Research, 1, 6, and 9. Students will be learning how to

? Organize their ideas

? Produce evidence to support their ideas

? Organize material from a variety of places

Rationale: This will be important for the students because it will help them learn how to sort out information as well as make appropriate decisions for their topic.

Method:

(5 min)I: Begin by putting the class into the poetry section of the room.

(45 min) II: Once the students have situated themselves explain to them that they will have the next two days to do research specifically in the classroom. During this time they can use all of the resources in the classroom and are free to sit or work where ever they want as long as they are working. If a student is not working they will first be warned, and if it happens again they will lose their privileges for researching that day and will have to make it up on their own time. Explain to the students that at the end of each day I will come around to see what kind of progress they have made. Also tell them that by tomorrow they will need to have a theme for their poetry book.

(45 min) III: As the students are working, walk around and ask if any of them need help and give suggestions to those who are either confused about what they want to do, or appear to not be working. At this point students should just be reading poems, and not necessary making anything yet.

Homework :

The students will need to come in the next day with a theme, and some ideas of what poems or images to go with it. This needs to be on a typed piece of paper and their poems need to have the authors' names on it. If it is a picture from the Internet they will need to place the appropriate Internet address from where it came from.

Assessment:

I will know that students have done their work if they are able to come to class with a theme and a few poems that they may be able to use. The students will need to show whre they got their ideas, and then I will know how they were able to organize them.

Poetry Unit: Week three, day five

Objective/Standard: The final project will cover a wide variety of standards including research, writing, technology skills, and reading comprehension.

Method:

I: Before the students come in, place refreshments in the back of the room.

II: When the students come in have them arrange their desks into a semi-circle.

III: Ask students to grab some refreshments, but tell them that once people begin to read, they need to remain seated.

IV: Begin by asking for volunteers to go up and to show their finished product. Each student is required to read at least one poem; it does not need to be the one that they wrote.

V: After all of the students have read in front of the class; collect their books from them.

VI: Quick thought questions

• What do students know about poetry that they didn't know before
• What is poetry to them
• Was there a favorite kind of poetry
• What could have been done to make the unit more beneficial for them

Homework: The students will need to come to class with an example of a song that they find to be poetic.

Assessment:

Students will be assessed on their final product according to the rubric that was passed out earlier. This rubric will show organization, the research that they have covered, knowledge of different poems and terms, as well as their own writing.

Handout 1, Day 1

Hello! You will be entering a poetry unit. Lucky for you at the end of this unit you won't need to take a test, but you will need to demonstrate your grasp of the material through a final project. This final project should be something that you will be proud of as well as fun to do. Over the next three weeks we will be studying all different kinds of poetry. At the end of these three weeks we will be having a poetry reading in class. At this reading you will be presenting your final project as well as reading either your own poetry or somebody else's.

Your final project will be a poetry book that you will make. It should have a cover, that's nice to look at, at least ten poems, (one that you need to write yourself), and you should be able to identify some aspects of poetry that you have in poetry book. Your final project should have a central theme that you will get to pick. In this book you can put anything in it that you feel as poetry that includes art. Good Luck and have fun! Below is a rubric for your poetry book.

Remember that the actual product is worth eighty percent of your grade for this unit. Fifteen percent of your grade is based on the other assignments that you will be working on in the computer, and five percent of your grade will be based on class participation, including the final reading that we will be having in class. Good Luck!

Handout 2, Day 1

Discuss in your groups the following poem that you have been assigned. You will need to share your ideas with the class. Try to think of why you feel this poem is or is not poetry, what do you think makes a poem a poem? Who do you believe decides what is poetry and what is not.

William Shakespeare

[Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?]

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate.

Rough winds do shake the daling buds of May,

And summer's lease hath all too short a date.

Sometime toohot the eye of heaven shines,

And often is his gold complexion dimmed;

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

By chance or nature's changing course untrimmed.

But they eternal summer shall not fade,

Nor ose possession of that fair thou ow'st,

Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st.

              So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

              So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

E.E. Cummings

[l(a]

l(a

le

af

fa

ll

s)

one

l

iness

Eminem      

Look, if you had one shot or one opportunity

To seize everything you ever wanted in one moment

Would you capture it or just let it slip?

[Verse 1]

Yo, his palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy

There is vomit on his sweater already

Moms forgettin' he's nervous

But on the surface he looks calm and ready

To drops bombs, but he keeps on forgetting

What he wrote down, the whole crowd goes so loud

He opens his mouth but the words won't come out

He's choking, how? Everybody's jokin' now

The clock's run out, time's up, over BLOW!

Snap back to reality, oh there goes gravity

Oh, there goes Rabbit, he choked, he's so mad

But he won't give up that easy, no he won't have it

He knows his whole back's to these ropes

It don't matter, he's dope, he knows that

But he's broke, he's so sad that he knows

When he goes back to this mobile home

That's when it's back to the lab again, yo

This whole rhapsody, better go capture this moment

And hope it don't collapse on him

[Chorus]

You better lose yourself in the music

The moment you own it you better never let it go , oh

You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow

Cuz opportunity comes once in a lifetime, yo

You better lose yourself in the music

The moment you own it you better never let it go, oh

You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow

Cuz opportunity comes once in a lifetime, yo

….

You can do anything you set your mind to, man

Handout 1, Day 2

Ben Jonson

On My first son

Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy;

My sin was too much hope of thee, loved boy:

Seven years thou wert lent to me, and I thee pay,

Exacted by thy fate, on the just day.

O could I lose all father now! For why

Will man lament the state he should envy,

To have so soon ‘scaped world's and flesh's rage,

And, if no other misery, yet age?

Rest in soft peace, and asked, say, “Here doth lie

Ben Jonson his nest piece of poetry.”

For whose sake henceforth all his vows be such

As what he loves may never like too much.

Christopher Marlowe

The Passinate Shepherd to His Love

Come live with me and be my love,

And we will all the pleasures prove

That valleys, groves, hills, and fields,

Woods, or steepy mountain yields.

And we will sit upon the rocks,

Seeing the shepherd feel their flocks,

By shallow rivers to whose falls

Melodious birds sing madrigals.

And I will make thee beds of roses

And a thousand fragrant posies,

A cap of flowers, and a kirtle

Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle;

A gown made of the finest wool

Which from our pretty lambs we pull;

Fair lined slippers for the cold

With buckles of the purest gold;

A belt of straw and ivy buds,

With coral clasps and amber studs:

And if these pleasures may thee move,

Come live with me, and be my love.

The shepherd swains shall dance and sing

For thy delight each May morning:

If these delights they mind may move,

Then live with me and be my love.

William Shakespeare

[My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun]

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun

Coral is far more read than her lips' red;

If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;

If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.

I have seen roses damasked red and white,

But no such roses see I in her cheeks;

And in some perfumes is there more delight

Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.

I love to hear her speak, yet well I know

That music hath a far more pleasing sound;

I grant I never saw a goddess go;

My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground.

And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare

As any she belied with false compare.

Handout 1, Day 3

Emily Dickenson

[The Brian-is wider than the Sky]

The Brain- is wider than the sky-

For- put them side by side-

The one the other will contain

With ease- and You- beside-

The Brain is deeper than the sea-

For- hold them-blue to Blue

The one the other will absorb-

As Sponges – Buckets- do

The Brain is just the weight of God

For-Heft them-Pound for Pound-

And they will differ – if they do –

As Syllable from sound-

Robert Frost

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was brassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Linda Pastan

To a Daughter Leaving Home

When I taught you

at eight to ride

a bicycle, loping along

beside you

as you wobbled away

on two round wheels,

my own mouth rounding

in surprise when you pulled

ahead down the curved

path of the park,

i kept waiting

for the thud

of your crash as I

sprinted to catch up,

while you grew

smaller, more breakable

with distance,

pumping, pumping

for your life, screaming

with laughter,

the hair flapping

behind you like a

handkerchief waving

goodbye.