How to teach and read poetry

(1)

Teaching Students to Write

and Read Poetry

Methods to Encourage Budding Poets to Blossom

A Sample Unit of Poetry Skill Lessons

and Strategies for High School Teachers

Jefferson County Public Schools

Version 2.0

(2)

Teaching Students to Write and Read Poetry

This unit includes a group of lessons to implement Kentucky Core Content and develop supporting skills for High School Poetry. These lessons should be adapted to fit the needs and interests of your students as well as your own teaching purposes, texts, and materials. The lesson plans, while designed primarily for students in grades 9-12, can also be adapted for use with younger writers.

The following skill lessons are not intended to fit a single class period or one block of instruction. The teaching time required will depend upon your individual purposes as well as the individual abilities of your students. This unit is not designed as a sequence of process steps that will culminate in the production of one proficient poem. The unit instead is intended to offer a variety of lessons, each focusing on development of a skill related to producing effective poetry. The outcome of each lesson will be to plant a “seed.” The unit of lesson plans will initiate a variety of drafts from which a writer may later pick the most promising start to develop and cultivate into a proficient poem. You may choose lessons that best address supporting skills most needed by your students, and you may supplement the models of student writing provided with additional samples of your own students’ poems. The student models included are not intended as new benchmarks or examples of proficient and distinguished poems. They merely provide samples of writing by Kentucky students that may help in your teaching of writing to other Kentucky students.

In order to raise students’ awareness of the power of poetic language, you might choose to begin the school year by focusing on several poetry skill lessons and then incorporate other poetry lessons from the unit later as assignments in response to appropriate class readings. Showing students how to see word pictures and hear figurative language in the world around them is not just a prerequisite for the successful teaching of poetry. Increasing students’ awareness of poetic language is the key to producing more effective writers in every genre. Therefore, training students daily and

intentionally to read and think and write like poets can improve their abilities to

produce precise language in any category of writing.

This unit of poetry lessons is developed around a Reader’s and Writer’s

Notebook (R/W Notebook), one of the most useful tools for building language skills. The R/W Notebook is not intended to be used like a diary but a instead language arts learning log—a journal where students can respond to their reading of poetry not only with prose but with pictures and poems. It is a scrapbook where students can collect new vocabulary and original ideas, create fresh figures of speech, and compose verses by practicing writing strategies taught in class mini-lessons. The R/W Notebook is a Safe Place to experiment with language and reflect on thoughts or topics that may later be transformed through the writing process into finished poems. A three-ring folder where notebook paper can be

(3)

easily removed or inserted usually functions best as a R/W Notebook at the secondary level.

Read Me First

Learning to read poetry is an on-going process, requiring regular and frequent use of strategies. (Writing poetry requires skills and is likely to result in a product.) This unit (and the Short Story Unit) integrates strategy and skills lessons to help teachers give all students access to the Core Content for literary reading and writing.

In this unit, lessons may refer to specific reading strategies which are detailed in earlier lessons. The strategies should be first taught, then reinforced and monitored (guided practice) as students become more proficient in applying the strategies to make meaning of their text. Variety is the spice of reading instruction, so offering students a menu of experiences and options for strategic reading practice will be more effective than drilling relentlessly on any one strategy! (Also, resist requiring students to “practice” skills on every piece of reading; this might result in mutiny since they will get frustrated at their

apparent slow reading rate.)

The strategies and activities suggested for this unit are appropriate for different stages of reading:

• Before Reading: activating prior knowledge • Think Aloud

• Preview • Predict • K-W -L

• During Reading: monitoring understanding and connecting • Click and Clunk

• Read Aloud

• Word and Concept Walls • Think Aloud

• Directed Reading-Thinking Activity (DRTA) • K-W-L

• Connect text-to-self, text-to-text, text-to-world • Paraphrase and Summarize

• After Reading: reflecting and responding • Rereading

• Written or artistic response (making connections of self, text-to-text, text-to-world)

• Discussion and sharing • K-W –L

• Connect text-to-self, text-to-text, text-to-world • Performance

(5)

Part of the instruction for students must include “vaccinating” them with the habits of before-reading, while-reading, and after-reading. Be deliberate. Point out specific places in the reading where students should use each strategy, and name the strategies. Eventually, students will instinctively use the strategies, but until then, require students to be

intentional while learning them.

The following instructional strategies for teachers are referenced throughout this unit.

Specific instructions for each are included in lessons that follow.

• Word Work: • establish and maintain “organic” (or growing) Word Walls for words and phrases from poems which students find intriguing, powerful, or even puzzling; and Concept Walls for the terms of poetry (figurative language, symbolism, metaphor, simile, rhyme, etc.), definitions, and examples.

• maintain a R/W Notebook that includes a section for personal vocabulary. Students record words that draw their attention, then share them on the Word Wall.

• Click and Clunk: model on the overhead or board the sense and non-sense that poems make to you and your students. Teach and use along with the INSERT strategy to note metacognitive responses. Encourage students (where possible) to make INSERT/Click and Clunk notes on their copies of poems, then share with the class to try to “fix” the clunks.

• K-W-L (Know –Want to Know-Learned): use the overhead or board to activate students’ prior knowledge about a poem or poet or poetry in general. If students appreciate that they DO know something about a new encounter, they will be more confident and have some “velcro” on which to hang new learnings. Be sure to return to the chart after reading to identify what students learned.

• Fluent Oral Reading: “perform” poems for students by reading aloud with

appropriate tone, inflection, gestures and movement. “Think aloud” with students about choices you made in the oral reading and replay the poem trying different interpretations. If your textbooks have videodisks available, use these for additional models of fluent oral reading.

Also, encourage students to also read aloud poems they choose and have practiced. Include discussion of their choices in these

“exhibitions.” Ultimately, students might produce a “coffee house” event to read poems they have written and/or discovered.

(6)

• Choral Reading: first model the reading of a poem for the class, then have students read aloud together (whole class or smaller groups). This gives weaker students a chance to practice without embarrassment.

Resources: Reading at the Middle and High School Levels (ERS) Section Four Good-bye Round Robin (Opitz and Rasinski) Sections Two and Four

Textbooks

If your school has available sets of literature anthologies, you have a gold mine of resources at your fingertips. The teacher guides, student texts, and support materials include detailed, embedded instruction and practice on reading strategies for all types of reading . Take time to familiarize yourself with the texts available. Possibly, explore a book room or talk to your department chair and find sample copies of other texts to use for models or reading information. Don’t, however, feel compelled to begin at the beginning and march through the text unless your school’s reading/writing plan happens to be reflected in the text. Shop around and find poetry in and out of the text that is relevant to your students and the skills you are teaching.

Sets of one of the following adopted texts should be available in most schools:

Elements of Literature series (Holt, Rinehart, and Winston) Glencoe Literature series (Glencoe-McGraw-Hill)

Literature: Timeless Voices, Timeless Themes (Prentice Hall)

Single examination copies of other titles are probably also available and will provide a lot of additional models and instructional ideas.

(7)

Marinate Students in Poetry and Poetic Language

1. Keep a file full of short poems that you can read to the class during spare transition minutes that otherwise might be empty or chaotic:

*to settle students down before a school program, field trip, testing, etc. *to begin class after lunch, assembly, pep rally, picture making, etc. *to close a challenging lesson on a positive, less stressful note, *to connect a specific topic or theme from the day’s reading, *to celebrate any “special” day in the school year,

*to fill minutes between announcements and beginning/end of class

*to establish transitions between different learning activities in a block schedule

*to re-introduce concentration or reflection to class routine after intercom interruption(s) 2. Require students to collect new words that they find especially intriguing or

picturesque and write them on colorful index cards. They can store these cards in a recipe box and use them as their own “poetry magnets” whenever they compose verses to add color to their language.

3. Maintain a “Poets’ Corner” bulletin board in your classroom, the library, or the school hallway where you can display poems written by students throughout the year.

4. Publish poems by writing them with colored chalk on school sidewalks.

5. Point out and post poetic passages discovered in class readings, magazines, books, newspapers, etc. Make students scavengers for figurative language in what they read. 6. Challenge students to sharpen their senses: to listen for sounds, to look

for nuances of colors and tiniest details in the scenes around them, to sniff out the smells in grocery stores, movie theaters, school buses, cafeterias, doctors’ offices. 7. Sharpen students’ ears for the significance of sounds in poetry by reading aloud or

playing a recording of a poem in a language other than English.

8. Get students to read poems aloud as often as possible and as many ways as possible: in pairs with a partner; divide a poem into logical halves and have one half of the room (or perhaps just the male voices) read every other stanza while the other half (or perhaps the female voices) read every other stanza; direct the class to alternate reading the lines of a poem with all voices joining together on lines that are repeated

throughout the poem. Like a maestro, conduct your students in choral readings of poems. Students need to hear and feel the rhythm of poetry as it is read out loud.

(8)

9. Use models of poetry such as those in the Kentucky Marker Papers to guide and inspire class work. Collect other models of student poems that are effective as well as those that seem ineffective. Build mini-lessons around analysis of student models. 10. Formulaic poems may function as good prewriting exercises for poetry: but they do

not produce effective, imaginative, or proficient poetry. Discourage students from

simplistic fill-in-the-blank poetry patterns. Poetry is hard work! Its development takes time and awareness of the intricacies of language. If you can turn your students on to poetic language and painting word pictures, you will see all their writing

improve dramatically.

11. Because poems are usually shorter than other categories of writing required in portfolios, publishing students’ poetry in a class anthology is easier and less

expensive than publishing any other genre. Students will cherish a class book of their poems and probably work harder to develop ideas and beautiful language if they think that their classmates will remember them by the poetic lines that they compose. 12. Culminate the end of a six weeks, the end of your unit, or the end of the year with a

poetry festival. Celebrate poetry by hosting a coffee house and scheduling volunteers to read their best poems to peers, teachers, parents, and the principals at a school “coffee house.” Read your own best poem to initiate the celebration.

(9)

UNIT: Poetry

TOPIC: Think Alouds, Lesson 1

LESSON OBJECTIVE: Students will understand and apply active reading strategies for

comprehension of poetry.

CORE CONTENT: RD-H 1.0.8 Interpret the meaning of a passage taken from texts

appropriate for high school

VOCABULARY: Think Aloud, passage, metacognitive

RESOURCE MATERIALS: overhead and/or student copies of poem

R/W Notebook

Additional poems or text for student practice (Glencoe, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, or Prentice Hall)

Poster board or construction paper and markers Overhead of Poetry Think Aloud

TEACHING STRATEGIES AND ACTIVITIES:

Proficient readers “think aloud” as they read, responding to the text in their minds as they read. This is their metacognitive thinking, or their “thinking about their thinking.” The following “think aloud” strategies are for students to use routinely and will be referenced throughout this unit.

(Think alouds do not have to be oral, but might be, especially when students are just learning what kinds of responses to text other readers have. “Aloud” actually refers to the “making public” of their thoughts, so they will also be asked to write down their

reactions.)

• First, model what happens in your head while reading a poem you particularly like. If you practice ahead of time, you might put your thoughts on an overhead. Introduce the terms below, then share with students the thoughts you have while reading.

• Ask students to think of and share situations when they have had to concentrate and

focus on a difficult or challenging task. “Experiencing” poetry by reading requires sharpened senses, too.

• Explain that using active reading strategies will help them “unpack” meaning from both familiar and new poems.

• Teach and model the following active reading strategies using a poem you find interesting or challenging:

LISTEN (Read the poem aloud. Breathe when there is punctuation. Note the rhythm and how it affects mood. Listen for special sounds within the words)

(10)

SENSE (Imagine the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and sense of touch within the poem.)

REACT (Note your reactions to the poem and the connections you make to others things you’ve read or done.)

QUESTION (Note the questions the poem raises. Ask yourself what it is about,

what words or phrases mean, and why the poet chose the language she did.)

CLARIFY (Summarize or paraphrase. Find the meaning of symbolic language.)

INTERPRET (Share the poem with others. Read it aloud and talk about the

meaning. Connect the title to the meaning. Identify a theme or “big idea.”)

• Have students write the above list in their R/W Notebook and check-off the types of comments they hear you make as you think-aloud during the poem. Discuss their observations.

• Either continue reading (if you chose a long piece) or begin a second poem. Students will listen and write or orally share their thinking.

• Then have students practice on another poem in their text or that you provide. • Have students make posters for wall of each word above, including an

explanation if appropriate.

• Extensions/Accommodations for ECE/Other Diverse Learners:

Provide students with a wall chart or bookmark of the key strategies, orask students to create posters of each strategy with appropriate questions or graphics to cue them when reading in the classroom.

• Technology Connections

Have students create a table in a word processing program, such as Claris Works, with each of the active reading strategies listed above. Ask them to fill in their think alouds as they go.

ASSESSING THE LEARNING:

(11)

Poetry Think Aloud

LISTEN (Read the poem aloud.

Breathe when there is

punctuation. Note the rhythm

and how it affects mood. Listen

for special sounds within the

words)

SENSE

(Imagine the sights, sounds,

smells, tastes, and sense of touch

within the poem.)

REACT

(Note your reactions to the

poem and the connections you

make to others things you’ve

read or done.)

QUESTION (Note the questions the

poem raises. Ask yourself what it

is about, what words or phrases

mean, and why the poet chose

the language she did.)

(12)

CLARIFY

(Summarize or

paraphrase. Find the meaning of

symbolic language.)

INTERPRET (Share the poem with

others. Read it aloud and talk

about the meaning. Connect the

title to the meaning. Identify a

theme or “big idea.”)

(13)

UNIT: Poetry

TOPIC: Word Work, Lesson 2

LESSON OBJECTIVE: Students will identify, post, and discuss words and phrases

that impress or puzzle them from poetry they read.

CORE CONTENT: RD-H x.0.2: Interpret the meaning of literal and non-literal words

RD-H x.0.3: Interpret the terms in meaningful context

RH-H 1.0.13 Interpret figurative, symbolic and idiomatic language

VOCABULARY: Word Wall, Concept Wall

RESOURCES AND MATERIALS: Wall space, chart or butcher paper, markers, wide

array of poetry books, magazines

Word (or Concept) Walls are great ways to use classroom surfaces for instruction and avoid Bulletin Board Panic! Create a space where vocabulary related to the current unit can be posted for students to see and refer to as they work on and discuss poetry. Use sentence strips, recycled cardboard and markers, or technology to display currently used terms and physically reference them on the wall when you or students use them.

Student-generated word lists can be compiled and honored on a second wall:

• If students keep a Poetry Log, ask them to jot down any words or phrases from poems they read which are appealing, puzzling, unique, or powerful.

• Invite students to record their favorites on the “Poetry Wall,” a reserved space in the classroom for sharing language.

• Ask students to explain to the class the appeal their word entries had. • Include definitions, if appropriate, for new words or new uses.

• Assign students to write a poem including a specified set of 10 words.

• Technology Connections

Create a class database of their words. Include fields for word, definition, and appeal.

• Require a minimum number of contributions from each student

• Ask students to underline in their own poetry words or phrases inspired by the Poetry Wall.

(14)

UNIT: Poetry

TOPIC: Previewing and Predicting, Lesson 3

LESSON OBJECTIVE: Student will learn and practice strategy of previewing,

predicting, confirming, and disconfirming before and during reading.

CORE CONTENT: RD-H x.0.5 Make, confirm, revise predictions VOCABULARY: preview, predict, disconfirm

RESOURCE MATERIALS:

several children’s picture books or appropriate poems overhead projector, board space or chart paper/markers

Good readers always “survey the land” before beginning to read. Ask students what they do before they start to read, and list strategies on the board. Add to the list things you do, such as read the title, check the author, look at tables of

contents and numbers of pages.

In addition, good readers make predictions based on what they read, confirm or

disconfirm, then predict again as they read on. (See Reading at the Middle and

High School Level, p. 43, “Directed Reading-Thinking Activity.”)

• Using a children’s book or appropriate poem, show students only the title or cover of the piece.

• Ask students to predict what the piece will be about based on what they see—and have them explain “why.” List the predictions on overhead, board, or chart paper.

• Read the first part of the piece aloud. Check whether the predictions were confirmed, disconfirmed, or unconfirmed. Cross off or check off on the list. Make further predictions. Continue reading, stopping at appropriate intervals to

confirm or disconfirm.

• Finally, summarize the text and discuss how the predictions helped readers understand and/or get involved with the text.

• Provide pairs of students with a new poem or book. Have them read together, stopping at specific points to write down and share their predictions, talk about them, and proceed through the entire text. Ask for written evidence of their predicting, confirmings or disconfirming process.

(15)

• WARNING: DO NOT ask students to use this strategy all the time! Because learning and intentionally practicing strategies like this slows down their reading speed, students get impatient and frustrated.

DO, though, use it to demonstrate the process they can use when they encounter a new or difficult text, and practice it together.

DO regularly model the necessity of previewing and predicting by asking “What do you think will happen next?” “Where will this go from here?” “What’s the next probable step?”

• Collect the written predictions and revised prediction.

• Ask students to reflect in their R/W Notebook about what happened when they slowed down their reading and intentionally checked their predictions.

(16)

UNIT: Poetry

TOPIC: Fluent Oral Reading/ Recitation Project, Lesson 4

LESSON OBJECTIVE: Provide models and opportunities for students to read poetry aloud fluently, using appropriate tone, pace, and intonation.

CORE CONTENT: RD-H 1.0.8: Interpret the meaning of passages appropriate for high

school

VOCABULARY: fluent- using an appropriate pace, tone, and intonation that reflects a

reader’s understanding of the meaning a text

audio- and/or videotapes of poetry being read soliloquy or other text teacher is familiar with collection of poetry for students to select from

Poetry is meant to be read aloud. If students use their mouths, ears, and bodies, as well as brains, to process the words of poetry, they can make more meaning. Teachers and students should model fluent oral reading of poetry and “think aloud” processes (see Lesson 1) frequently and energetically,

• Introduce the notion of reading a poem “with your body” by asking students to pantomime the story line of a nursery rhyme like “Humpty Dumpty,” “The Itsy Bitsy Spider,” etc.

•

• Follow with an appropriate available poem that encourages gestures or movement. Have students read the poem as a large group, providing less confident readers the protection of the group. Point out how much easier it is to memorize something if one has a body/mind connection to the text.

•

• Model the reading of a poem of your choice (provide students with the text) and “think aloud” with students why you chose to read it as you did. (Focus on issues of pace, tone, word meaning, punctuation, line breaks, etc.)

• Assign students to select a poem to practice reading orally to the class (or a smaller group, if appropriate). Require multiple at-home practices; provide opportunities to practice with feedback in class; demonstrate how to write out a poem to reflect reading cues; coach students to use appropriate gestures and movement; encourage students to memorize poem and recite it “off book.”

• Enrichment:

(17)

• Technology Connections: Students could coordinate recitation with Power

Point presentation of text of poetry. Videotape performances and show video to class. Teleconference performances to students beyond the school walls.

Establish scoring guide with class for the recitations; allow each student to ask 2 classmates as well as the teacher to score the recitation.

(18)

UNIT

:

Poetry

TOPIC: Establishing Prior Knowledge, Lesson 5

LESSON OBJECTIVE: Use graphic organizers to establish prior knowledge and show similarities and differences

CORE CONTENT: RD-H 1.0.9: Analyze critically a variety of genre. VOCABULARY: prose, poetry

RESOURCE MATERIALS: overhead transparency for K-W-L

two samples of appropriate poems and pieces of prose

Many students benefit from seeing information distilled and organized on paper in charts, columns, webs, or outlines. These graphic organizers can help the proficient reader as well as the struggling reader to organize and analyze information. Demonstrate and use them frequently with students, even if they don’t help you personally! The following lesson uses the common K-W-L and a variation of the Venn diagram to help students identify similarities and differences. You might want to take two periods to have time to process what students learn.

• Use K-W-L (Know-Want to Know-Learned) to identify what students understand about how to read poetry:

K W L

• Have students brainstorm what they know (or THINK they know) about how to read poetry; record on “K” column on overhead or board.

• Organize students in pairs and give each partner a different poem. Explain that they will need to listen carefully to what happens when they read poems. Ask them first to read their poems silently, then aloud to each other, then switch and repeat the process with the other poem. What did they observe?

• Have students identify questions or topics of mystery about how to read poetry and record in the “Want-to-Know” column.

(19)

• Revisit at intervals during the unit of study and record what “Learnings” student discover, as well as additional “Wants.”

Many CATS open response questions require students to find similarities and differences. Wherever appropriate, encourage students to analyze text or ideas by comparing and contrasting. Venn diagrams or similar organizers will help. See Billmeyer’s blackline masters in Teaching and Reading in the Content Areas for more template models.

Ask students to brainstorm the similarities and differences in reading poetry (silently or aloud) versus reading prose. Record ideas on a chart as below:

Differences Similarities Differences Reading Poetry Reading Prose

Refer to what the class discovers about similarities, differences, and how-tos during the unit.

Keep this chart (as well as K-W-L) available for revisiting and updating.

• Extensions/Accomodations for ECE/Other Diverse Learners:

Revisit definitions of poetry and prose.

• Technology Connections:

Use the table feature in a word processing program to create the KWL table.

• Students will contribute to creation of class K-W-L and similarities/differences charts.

(20)

UNIT: Poetry

TOPIC: Understanding Characteristics of Poetry, Lesson 6

LESSON OBJECTIVE: Students will construct a definition of poetry and understand

the differences between poetry and prose.

CORE CONTENT: RD-H 1.0.9 Analyze critically a variety of literary genre;

WR-H 1.3 Literary Writing

VOCABULARY: literary genre RESOURCES AND MATERIALS:

Handout with various definitions of poetry Overhead transparencies

R/W Notebook

• Distribute a handout with various definitions of poetry. (See page at the end of this lesson.) Ask students to copy in their R/W Notebook the definition(s) that they feel best communicate(s) to them the essence of poetry and explain the reasoning for their choice(s).

• Next, on this same page in their R/W Notebook, ask students to freewrite for five to ten minutes. Students will (1) describe their own prior experiences with poetry and (2) reflect on their favorite poet and/or their most special poem(s) from the past. (This writing will reveal not only the students’ knowledge but also their individual attitudes about poetry and help later with establishing cooperative poetry groups and determining the sophistication of writing assignments.)

• Ask for class volunteers to read aloud their notebook reflections on experiences with poetry. On the overhead, record the names of the poets and titles of poems that the class has read and loved in the past. Students should also copy this list in the R/W Notebook as a list of possible poets and poems for future reading.

• Ask students to brainstorm and compose their own definition of poetry in the R/W Notebook. Challenge them to create a definition that distinguishes how poetry differs from prose.

• Ask students to read their own definitions of poetry. Record each definition on the overhead or chalkboard in a T-Chart (such as the one below). Ask students to do the same on a new page in their R/W Notebook. As you record what class members say that poetry IS, ask students how this characteristic of poetry is different from prose. Some of their explanations will show the common bond between effective poetry and effective prose. Their chart should look like the T-Chart below and will be used to

(21)

contrast major differences between poetry and prose. In this way, all the class will be speaking the same language when students refer to “poetry.”

These reflections—and reflections throughout the R/W Notebook—will provide “fodder,” specific details that students can use later when they compose letters to the reviewer.

POETRY BUT PROSE

• TECHNOLOGY CONNECTIONS:

Set up a teleconference with a poet and discuss definitions of poetry from the students’ writer’s notebooks.

(22)

Definitions of Poetry

Which of these definitions captures for you the essence of poetry?

1. Poetry is language that has been condensed, compacted, tightened and trimmed. John Drury

2. Poetry is tied to memory. . . Poetry is ultimately mythology, the telling of the storis

of the soul. Stanley Kunitz

3. A poem records emotions and moods that lie beyond normal language. . . Diane Ackerman

4. Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings . . .recollected in tranquility. William Wordsworth

5. Poetry is the art of combining pleasure with truth. Samuel Johnson 6. A poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom. Robert Frost

7. Poetry says more and says it more intensely “than the language we use every day.” Laurence Perrine

8. Poetry is music in words. D. Fuller

9. If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only ways I know it. Is there any other way?

(23)

UNIT: Poetry

TOPIC: Understanding Conventions of Poetry, Lesson 7

LESSON OBJECTIVE: Students will demonstrate their understanding of the

conventions and supporting skills found in effective poetry.

CORE CONTENT: RD-H 1.0.9 Analyze critically a variety of literary genre.

VOCABULARY: conventions

RESOURCES AND MATERIALS:

Textbooks or poetry anthologies checked out from media center Copies of poems written by former students

Student handouts on the characteristics of a proficient poem (included after this lesson)

Markers and colored sheets of construction paper (at least 8 x ll ) R/W Notebook

• Review with class the six criteria by which all writing is assessed on the Kentucky Holistic Scoring Guide as listed on the student handout from the Kentucky Marker

Papers: audience/purpose, idea development/support, organization, sentences,

language, and correctness.

• Direct the class to read silently and reflect on the meanings of each of the specific skills listed under the criteria for poems. A copy of this handout, which is provided at the end of this lesson, needs to be placed at the beginning of the R/W Notebook. • On the next page in their R/W Notebook, ask every student to head a sheet entitled

“Characteristics of Effective Poetry.” Then they need to make a list of any words appearing on this handout that they need help to understand or identify in actual poems. Students should leave several blank lines between each term that is unclear to them because they will return later to record answers to their questions.

• Divide students into five cooperative groups. Roles include the presenter(s), the scribe(s), and the researcher(s). Assign each group to lead a class discussion designed to review with other class members the key skills listed under their assigned criterion: Audience/Purpose: convention, image, individual voice

Idea Development/Support: sensory detail, simile, metaphor, personification, imagery, mood

Organization: coherence, unity, white space, shape Sentences: effective line break, rhythm, melody, rhyme

(24)

(1) Students will explain a clear definition of poetry terms listed under the criterion assigned to their group. The scribe(s) will be responsible for writing each of the group’s required terms on a separate sheet of construction paper. The group

members will work together to create a clear definition of the criterion and the scribe will record the definition on the paper with each word. These sheets will be posted to create a colorful Concept Wall (see p. 6 for more information) made up of a collage of terms essential to effective poems. These visual reminders will make students more conscious of the characteristics of poetry.

(2) Groups will read through the provided anthologies or copies of students’ poems or their own texts. They are to go on a “Scavenger Hunt,” looking for an example that fits each of the terms that their group defined. The scribe(s) will copy a clear illustration of each skill that group members think best fits their definition of the poetic term. The examples will be posted under each definition on the Concept Wall. (3) Class will listen as each group presenter shares the assigned terms and, defintions

composed by the group and shows the class a specific example of each poetic

convention which the group has discovered through an examination of student poems, poetry anthologies, and/or poems in their textbook. These specific examples used to illustrate the terminology should also be copied and posted directly under their definition on the Concept Wall.

(4) As groups present and you clarify information about the skills listed under their assigned criterion, all class members will record both definitions and examples from poems of any terms that they did not understand on the page in their R/W Notebook headed “Characteristics of Effective Poetry.”

(5) Challenge students to listen for poetry in the world around them—radio, television, greeting cards, songs, children’s books, etc.

(6) Give the class the P. I. Q. (Poetry Intelligence Quotient) Test on the following page. All of the statements are false! These FALSE statements are intended to debunk commonly held student misperceptions about the writing of poetry BEFORE they appear in class conversations.

• EXTENSIONS/ACCOMODATIONS FOR ECE/OTHER DIVERSE LEARNERS:

(See Appendix for additional extensions/accommodations.)

Pair students to read aloud the skills needed in writing a proficient poem. In their notebooks, list “Characteristics of Effective Poetry,” then have students list unfamiliar words and phrases.

• TECHNOLOGY CONNECTIONS: Use the Internet to locate poems for analysis. *ASSESSING THE LEARNING: See activities above.

(25)

POEM

The writer of a proficient poem demonstrates most or all of the following skills:

AUDIENCE/PURPOSE

• Meets the reader’s needs and expectations by adhering to the conventions of poetry • Focuses on the purpose (e.g., paint a picture, re-create a feeling, tell a story, capture a

moment, evoke an image, show an extraordinary perception of the ordinary) • Narrows topic

• Uses an individual voice

• Creates a title which captures the essence of the piece and creates reader interest IDEA DEVELOPMENT/SUPPORT

• Uses sensory details

• Uses poetic devices (e.g., simile, metaphor, personification, imagery) • Creates a mood

• Does not sacrifice meaning for rhyme ORGANIZATION

• Maintains coherence and unity

• Arranges the poem using white space, line breaks, and shape to enhance meaning SENTENCES

• Uses line breaks effectively

• Employs rhythm, melody, and perhaps rhyme LANGUAGE

• Makes language choices based on economy, precision, richness, surprise, impact on the reader

• Uses descriptive language

• Uses strong verbs and precise nouns • Uses figurative language

CORRECTNESS • Spells correctly

• Uses correct end punctuation, commas, quotation marks, apostrophes • Capitalizes correctly

(26)

P. I. Q. TEST: Who Wants to Be a Poet?

Are these statements true or false?

1. Poetry is so personal that it does not have to make sense to another reader or have a meaning for anyone other than the person who wrote it.

2. Poems cannot be revised because they are inspired by intense feeling. 3. Poetry was meant to rhyme. That’s the very definition of poetry! 4. Poetry is easier to write than prose.

5. You cannot be taught how to write poetry; it is just a natural-born talent that some people have and others don’t.

6. Distinguished poetry is too “deep” to be understood by “normal” readers. 7. Poems can fit into any category of the Grade 12 Writing Portfolio.

(27)

UNIT: Poetry

TOPIC: During Reading Strategies: INSERT and Click and Clunk, Lesson 8

LESSON OBJECTIVE: Student will learn and use self-monitoring strategies to use

while reading.

CORE CONTENT: RD-H x.0.1 Locate, evaluate, and apply information for a realistic

purpose.

RD-H 1.0.8 Interpret the meaning of a passage taken from texts appropriate for high school.

VOCABULARY: INSERT, click and clunk, T-chart

Note cards, post-its for students Overhead of INSERT code

Overhead of T-Chart to record clicks and clunks

Overhead with model of poem you have read and your INSERT notes Sample poem for students to read together

R/W Notebook

The INSERT strategy requires readers sloooooow doooown and monitor their reading by noting the reactions they have to the text: understanding, confusion, surprise, amusement, or even WOW. Students would NOT necessarily use this at all times when reading because it is time consuming. They should, however, use it regularly and with partners to check understanding and to see how others construct meaning from text.

Students might want to develop their own personalized set of codes and reactions. Be sure their original codes allow them to reflect “metacognitive monitoring.”

• Explain to students that good readers make margin notes to keep track of what they are thinking about as they read. This makes reading “active!”

• Display the INSERT codes (overhead at end of this lesson) and discuss how and when each symbol would be used appropriately. Ask students to write the code on their index card and to use it as a book mark or in their R/W notebook.

• Using the sample poem on which you have made INSERT notes, model how students could mark their own poems.

• Ask students to read several poems independently, then share with a partner the responses.

What made sense in each poem? Why? What part(s) were “fresh” and original?

What connection can be made to other poems or texts, your experience, or the real world?

(28)

• Use the T-chart to record “clicks” and “clunks”—the places students made meaning of the text (clicks) and places where the text confused or frustrated students (clunks). Encourage students to “fix” the clunks through discussion and sharing their own thinking. (Note: This activity requires a degree of trust and respect for students to publicly declare what they do not know. Perhaps begin by modeling your own clunks.)

• Technology Connections

Allow students to use the Internet to locate both classic and contemporary poetry.

(29)

POETRY INSERT

A FRESH WAY TO

SAY SOMETHING

IMPORTANT

WORD OR LINE

I DON’T GET IT

MAKES ME

LAUGH

REMINDS ME

OF…

*

!

?

J

#

(30)

UNIT: Poetry

TOPIC: Recognizing Supporting Skills in a Proficient Poem, Lesson 9

LESSON OBJECTIVE: Students will identify and annotate the skills demonstrated in a

Proficient Grade 12 Poem.

CORE CONTENT: RD-H 1.0.9 Analyze critically a variety of literary genre.

RD-H x.0.7 Formulate opinions in response to reading passage. WR-H 1.3 Literary Writing

Student Handouts of Characteristics of Proficient Poem (see handout following lesson 7)

Overhead Transparency of “Fire” (Copy provided at end of lesson)

Individual Student Handouts of “Fire” (See annotated copy in Kentucky Marker

Papers, Draft for Grade 12, p. 19. This is available from your school’s writing

cluster leader.) R/W Notebook

• Divide class into two groups. Read “Fire” aloud by alternating the reading of lines between the two sections of the class.

• Subdivide class into five groups: Audience/Purpose, Idea Development/Support, Organization, Sentences, and Language. Assign each group of students to reread the poem “Fire.” As they silently examine this Grade 12 Proficient Marker Poem, they are to look for specific examples of the supporting skills listed under their assigned criterion.

• Have groups discuss the skills that they observe in “Fire” and then annotate the line(s) where that skill can be found.

• Return to whole class. Begin with Audience/Purpose, the first scoring priority on the Holistic Guide. Ask students who worked in this group to identify for the entire class all the skills that they noted in their small group discussion. They need to explain their annotations so that all students can identify the most effective literary

conventions of this poem. Repeat this process with each of the other scoring criteria, following the order of their importance on Kentucky’s Holistic Scoring Guide.

• All students will annotate their handout just as the teacher annotates this poem on the overhead. Encourage students to identify as many specific examples as possible. (See the annotated Kentucky Marker Paper for a model of this annotation.)

(31)

• Point out to the class that the poet chose NOT to rhyme this poem. Ask students to theorize how the effect of this poem might have changed—for the worse—if these lines had rhymed. (The rhyme would definitely diminish the serious tone and

inhibited the writer’s freedom to choose just the most precise, richest word for his or her purposes.)

• Go back to the list of supporting skills which students have in their R/W Notebooks. Have them highlight the skill under idea development/support which so many teenage writers have not developed: “does not sacrifice meaning for rhyme.

Post this admonition on a sentence strip; you may also need to have it tattooed across your forehead: DO NOT SACRIFICE MEANING FOR RHYME!

• Students will reflect in their R/W Notebook by drawing the most effective word picture that they saw in their mind’s eye as they read the poem.

• Students will then compose a reflection in their R/W Notebook on the single word in this poem that left the deepest impression in their mind. They will write this word on a separate page headed Word Bank. The Bank is a list of precise, poetic words that they plan to use in future writings—either prose or poetry.

• When student volunteers share their reflections (which may contribute later to their letters to the reviewer), you can write the rich words on a colored sheet of

construction paper and post in a prominent place so that the class will also begin a Word Bank. Share your own discoveries of new words from reading or crossword puzzles. It is vital that your students see you as a lifelong learner and lover of words.

(See Appendix for additional extensions/accommodations.)

Provide separate sheets for each group with their supporting skill listed and its definition. Have the group write down their specific examples found in the poem. After discussion, copy all sheets for all students to keep in their notebook for future reference.

Have students enter their rich words in a class database. Consider future searching/sorting needs before setting up fields.

(32)

FIRE

I drove my car indifferently On a Saturday of no particular color

When I saw the street that was on the six o’clock news (we take you to the scene live)

And I turned down that road Reluctant but still wanting to see.

A short distance down, it stood Amid pristine new structures that were Impeccably groomed with not a thing out of place

The charred timbers that were somebody’s home Reaching with spindly, sickly, blackened arms

Pleading toward the sky in frozen agony To be whole again.

And I thought of the flames

Creating their unholy halo against the night sky Greedily devouring all and belching heavy black smoke

This mass of contrasts that were these flames. Glowing yet so cruel

Never cold but still uncaring Of whose safe kitchen they invade

Or what child’s toys they break Or whose father they burn the life out of. And after a long moment I turned back the way I came

Having no more business there Already losing the edges of the memory

But knowing that, before I drifted off to sleep that night, I would send a silent, earnest little prayer—

(33)

UNIT: Poetry

TOPIC: Focusing on the Relationship between Purpose/Audience and Form of a Poem,

Lesson 10

LESSON OBJECTIVE: Students will explore possible topics, purposes, audiences, and

formats for narrative poems.

CORE CONTENT: RD-H 1.0.8 Interpret the meaning of a passage.

VOCABULARY: purpose, audience, form

RESOURCES AND MATERIALS Copy of “Out, out. . . “ by Robert Frost

Stacks of recycled daily newspapers or weekly news magazines R/W Notebook

Overhead transparency

TEACHING STRATEGIES AND ACTIVITIES

• Read aloud to class Robert Frost’s “Out, out. . .” a poem inspired by a news story. Use an appropriate reading strategy: predict, preview, K-W-L, think aloud.

• Distribute an old daily newspaper to each student and ask class members to peruse the pages until they find two intriguing articles that might inspire an effective “Fire” poem for a particular audience. The purpose of each potential narrative poem should be one of the following: paint a picture, re-create a feeling, tell a story, capture a moment, evoke an image, show an extraordinary perception of the ordinary.

• Direct students to reflect on their ideas for these two possible narrative poems in the R/W Notebook. They should use a separate page for each potential poem as they record the following:

Summary: Make a list of the most important specific details in the news story selected. Identify audience and purpose: Specify a possible purpose for this poem and a

specific audience you would attempt to reach through this poetry. Form: Write a clear rationale explaining whether your purposes in building a poem around this story could be more effectively achieved by using rhyme or by not using rhyme, just as in “Fire.”

• Get students into groups of four where they will each share one of their ideas for a narrative poem that has been inspired by a newspaper story.

• Have each group select and report to the whole class one idea presented in their group that seems Most Likely to Become a “Fire” (proficient) poem. Record all the

(34)

potential poetry ideas on the overhead and direct class members to write these ideas generated for poetry on a separate page in their R/W Notebook entitled “Possibilities for Poetry.”

• Students will select one of their poetry possibilities or one shared by a class member and create a first draft of a poem based on a news article.

• Attempt writing a similar poem along with your students. Because the idea as well as the details can come from a news story of your choosing, this writing exercise is not time consuming. By sharing your problems and your process with the studentsyou will help students to realize that creating poetry is not just an activity that students must do because they will receive a grade but a challenge that you as their English teacher also enjoy.

Use the Internet to peruse on-line newspapers.

(35)

STUDENT MODEL

The poem below was based on a daily news story about a robbery at Taco Bell. Because this Kentucky student wanted to achieve a humorous rather than a tragic effect, he chose to use rhyme when translating the crime story into a mock ballad.

MEXIMELT MASSACRE

Four young people worked that night The late shift at Taco Bell

They’d soon be part of a psychotic act That they wouldn’t live to tell

Two crazy psycho lunatics Were driving down the street

They pulled up to the fast food joint To get a bite to eat

The doors were locked but they got past And yes they brought their pistols When the workers saw the gunmen come Their bodies froze like crystals

A dedicated worker shouted “May I take your order?”

The gunmen laughed demonically “No you better run for the border” These guys were very mean And really kind of rude

They wanted green stuff, money, cash They didn’t want some food

After all the loot was handed over One gunman yelled out “Chico” “All this hard work makes me hungry Let’s get a bean burrito”

All four employees died that night The last shift at Taco Bell

And as for that bean burrito I hope it blew them both to hell

(36)

UNIT: Poetry

TOPIC: Sensory Images and Language, Lesson 11

LESSON OBJECTIVE: Student will use graphic organizer to identify sensory images

and language in poetry.

CORE CONTENT: RD-H 1.0.14 Critique the author’s word choice. VOCABULARY: sensory images and language

Overhead of “Sensory Images and Language Mind Map”

Overhead and student copies of blank mind map for sensory images Copies of appropriate poems using sensory language

Chart paper (optional)

• Ask students to recall the five senses and reinforce their responses with the overhead master.

• Remind students that poetry is intended to be “eaten” and savored like good food. (If

appropriate, provide samples of food to taste, smell, touch, listen to, look at, and DESCRIBE. Record responses on the overhead.)

• Using an appropriate poem, together identify examples of sensory language and record on blank overhead. (Poems included in this unit that are appropriate: “Tree,” “Who Me?” “Maximelt Massacre,” “Fire”)

• Using other appropriate poems, students work in pairs to read poems and identify use of sensory imagery. Record responses on blank mind maps. Share orally.

• (Optional) Record all responses on chart paper to post in room as a collection of possible sensory images students might want to use in their own poetry.

• Technology Connections

Use PowerPoint to create mind maps. Allow one frame for each sense. Add graphics, sound, and animation to enhance.

• Pairs’ presentation of appropriate sensory imagery • See activities above.

(37)

Sensory Images and Language Mind Map

HEARING TASTE SMELL SIGHT TOUCH

POEM

(38)

UNIT: Poetry

TOPIC: Communicating an Extraordinary Perception of the Ordinary, Lesson 12 LESSON OBJECTIVE: Students will exercise their imaginations and their powers of

observation as they describe a familiar object from a variety of new, unfamiliar perspectives.

CORE CONTENT: RD-H 1.0.13 Interpret symbolic and figurative language.

WR-H 1.3 Literary Writing

VOCABULARY: symbolic language, figurative language RESOURCES AND MATERIALS:

Copy of sample student poem “6 Ways to Look at a Corpse” Object to observe

Mirror for each student R/W Notebook

TEACHING STRATEGIES AND PROCEDURES:

• Tell all students to bring to class a familiar object or photograph of an everyday object, place, or person. Let them know in advance that they will be showing what they bring to other students.

• Divide the class into small choral groups to read aloud “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” by Wallace Stevens and/or “6 Ways to Look at a Corpse,” a student’s poem (on the following page) inspired by this idea of looking at something ordinary from different perspectives. Discuss the unique ways that the student has described a corpse. What is the author’s deeper purpose for writing this poem?

• Assign students to work with one partner. They are to brainstorm and list together in their R/W Notebook as many physical details as possible to describe their familiar items. The teacher can ask for volunteers to share their object or picture and read a list of all the concrete details that the pair of partners noticed.

• Assign all class members to work with a different response partner. Challenge them to brainstorm together five unique, extraordinary perspectives from which to describe both their objects or photos of objects. They should list their five views of the object in their R/W Notebook. Suggest that students use sensory details or even

personification to make the object seem to come alive. The five descriptions may communicate entirely different tones or moods, depending upon the associations that students link to their object. The goal is not only to look at something and see it as it is but to see it as a symbol of something even deeper. This task encourages students to think imaginatively from different perspectives and creatively re-examine details.

(39)

• Next direct students to work individually. They need to look carefully into a mirror and describe an individual image that they see from three different perspectives. They should restrict their focus to a feature such as a mouth or an eye, their hair or their hand rather than trying to look at “the big picture.” Students should make a list in their R/W Notebook of three different ways that they might see the personal image. Encourage them to use metaphors, descriptive language, and specific details that might communicate different facets of their identity.

• Ask students to choose from one of the lists that they have just composed in their R/W Notebook describing an object, photo, or a feature and then convert the unusual details or comparisons into a poem where each stanza develops a different

perspective. If neither of the two exercises generated an idea that they want to develop, they can choose to look at a place, an event, or an emotion from five different perspectives. The purpose of this poem is to show an extraordinary perception of the ordinary, so they need to set free their imaginations and challenge themselves to create some unique word pictures with precise language.

Co:Writer, Inspiration software, and/or tape recorders allow students to use richer language. Provide a Thesaurus for each student.

Ask students to display their five descriptions in a Power Point presentation.

(40)

Student Model

6 Ways to Look at a Corpse

1

On a slab of frozen concrete at the center of the room The corpse is draped in everyday clothing

as if it were not dead and white and rotting under its fine dress

2

Go into your church

Smell and feel the aura of the corpse in the stale air and grief and

in the prayers of the living 3

And then go deep

into the earth and rock

to the origin of the corpse and beyond Enter the realm of the non-living

and converse with the dead 4

Taste me in your morning coffee in bitterness not far from death; The corpse lives there still

5

Bedside, in the dark room we see the corpse knitting in her rocking chair

alone in her silence

Brooding the loss of her indifference to the Grand Illusion

6 Travel the world;

Race upon the decaying skin of the corpse and learn that every reality you penetrate harbors the same grotesque realization; Even in Heaven—

When you look into the mirror

(41)

The following poem, also written by a Kentucky twelfth grader, demonstrates extraordinary

perceptions of a tree that might guide students in their attempts to look deeper and think differently about some familiar objects.

TREE

It Crouches Wisely in a bed or rocks with limbs plunging beneath Grey stones.

one quick glance reveals no end—the tree stretches toward the hidden sun, reaches

for cotton clouds. Spongy green moss hugs its trunk and surreptitious vines kiss its craggy side. The Grey-brown bark

is cracked and full of scars; a wispy insect flutters by a gnarled knot. Where are the branches? I see only anemic twigs poking from the massive woody stem. And at the bottom . . .

I stare at a miracle. A cave carved from deep wood, two misshapen parabolic holes reveal a home

tiny twisting roots sprout from the bottom of striped wood walls, and stones cuddle on the floor’s lap. Green-leafed plants peep through an arch as though whispering a hello I stare at the tree and walk off! Ignorant of the community sheltered by its stiffly natural strength.

I glance back at its scaled back one last time And know. . .

(42)

UNIT: Poetry

TOPIC: Using an Individual Voice to Capture a Moment in Time, Lesson 13

LESSON OBJECTIVE: Students will examine poems that demonstrate the dramatic

impact of voice and point of view in poetry.

CORE CONTENT: RD-H 1.0.10 Evaluate the influence of literary elements

(point-of-view, voice) in a passage. WR-H 1.3 Literary Writing

VOCABULARY: point-of-view RESOURCES AND MATERIALS:

1. Example of a poem and a prose account of the same historical event such as • “Ballad of Birmingham” by Dudley Randall and a Newsweek account of the

Alabama church bombing;

• “Midnight Ride of Paul Revere” and the account of this historic event as related in a history textbook or encyclopedia

• Holocaust poem and an excerpt from the Diary of Anne Frank 2. Index cards

• Read a prose account to the class that reports on a famous event or time in history. Use an appropriate reading strategy: preview and predict; think alouds and read alouds; graphic organizers to map main ideas and supporting details.

• Discuss the mood (objective, encyclopedic) and tone (unemotional, journalistic). Revisit the chart from earlier in the unit comparing prose to poetry; discuss the specific examples of similarities and differences.

• Then read a poem, such as the professional examples listed above, the student poetry that follows this lesson, or your own favorite models. These poems should focus on an event or moment in time from an entirely different, more personal perspective and in a tone intended to evoke the reader’s feelings. (Collaboration with a history teacher may help you select historic events that the class will approach with greater depth of knowledge and understanding.)

• Contrast the purposes of these two genres—prose versus poetry—in their approach to the subject. Point out the specific details used by the poet to suit the tone/voice of the poem and achieve the intended purpose.

• Assign students either (1) to do research in history texts or read microfiche of old newspapers that report an event in history about which they really want to learn more, or (2) to interview a parent or another adult about an unforgettable moment in

(43)

of the Vietnam War, America’s bicentennial celebration, being bussed to a new school, the explosion of the Challenger Spacecraft, Operation Desert Storm, etc. Students will need to take notes in their R/W Notebook on the specific details of this event as described in the interview.

• Require students to write the following on an index card: Moment in Time/Historical Event:

Purpose of Poem: Form of Poem: Intended Audience: Intended Mood/Tone:

• Ask class members to share with the group what they have written on these cards. Collect cards and make brief comments on the back where necessary.

• Then ask all students to compose a draft of a poem using the specific, factual details that they have gathered, following the plan that they have proposed.

• Divide class into groups based on the similarity of the events that they have selected. Reading the verses of group members can spark an interesting discussion on the R/W selection of specific details that make the poem achieve (or not achieve) its purpose for the intended audience.

Tape recorders for the struggling writers should be available. Co:Writer, Inspiration software may also be useful.

Have the students use the Internet to locate a variety of texts with varying points of view.

(44)

STUDENT MODEL

The following poem, written by a Kentucky eleventh grader, was inspired by class readings and study of the Holocaust.

Abandoned?

The everlasting energy of the storm, The never ending nightmare. The frantic screaming streets,

Days later, crimson stained. Faces as pale as ghosts in the night, Marching legions of tainted soldiers. A six-pointed star to them represented the devil,

Branded upon us, as a gift of death. The train cried, thousands exited, Timid families parted like the Red Sea.

The darkness of the night,

Could not surpass the darkness of these hours. The screams, the pleading, a gunshot!

Silence, like a shooting star, falling from the heavens. Life beyond the realms of Hell,

Darkness never ceasing, though the middle of the day. Heaps of bodies in roaring volcanoes,

Never forgetting the smell of burning flesh. Have our lives been a lie?

(45)

UNIT: Poetry

TOPIC: Creating a Title to Capture the Essence of a Piece and Create Reader Interest,

Lesson 14

LESSON OBJECTIVE: Students will learn the significance of a poem’s title -- “what’s

in a name” -- and develop some tools for constructing more fitting and effective titles for their poetry.

CORE CONTENT: RD-H 1.0.11 Analyze the effect of theme, symbolism, figurative

language. WR-H 1.3 Literary Writing

VOCABULARY: essence

Model poems Sentence Strips R/W Notebook

• Read a poem to the class, one of your favorites, one from the textbook or one of the student models provided with this plan. Do NOT tell the students its title but ask them to listen carefully so that they can choose a fitting title for this poem after they have heard it all.

• In the R/W Notebook, ask every student to compose what they believe is a title that captures the essence of the poem without telling too much. They also need to write a paragraph explaining the reasons for selecting their title.

• Subdivide the class into groups of four to share their titles and defend their choices. Then direct each group to pick one title that best represents the group’s choices. They may even choose to create a new title. They can write the group’s title on a Sentence Strip and post it on the bulletin board.

• Write the questions below on the chalkboard or overhead and ask students to copy them in their R/W Notebook. As they judge group suggestions for titles that have been written on the Sentence Strips, ask them to consider each question and select the best title:

What’s in a Title?

1. Which title hints at just enough of the poem’s contents to intrigue readers? 2. Which title creates an image in the reader’s mind?

3. Which title demonstrates the most originality?

4. Which title is broad enough to encompass all the poet’s intended message? 5. Which title is the most precise and poetic?

(46)

• Have students vote on their favorite title with a show of hands. Then tell them what title was, in fact, chosen by the poet. (That does not mean students are incorrect in their own answers. Chances are that your class members will like their ideas

better—some may be more effective than the one that the author actually chose. It is the discussion of the criteria that will be most valuable, not matching the poet’s title.) Students may suggest additions to the list of questions that should be considered in naming the poem.

• Emphasize that titles are not random afterthoughts but intentional, artistic choices that a writer must carefully make to enhance the effectiveness of the work. Titles are not labels—whether in poetry or prose—but can, like names, make all the difference. For example, the anorexic young woman who wrote this student model explained that she chose her title because she wanted to emphasize the lack of trust that she

perceived from the nurses who weighed her every week after her hospitalization for anorexia. She also reveals, of course, that these nurses were wise to look beyond her cheery exterior and see a teenager who still wanted to lose weight—at any cost. • Ask students to return to a draft of a poem that they started in their R/W Notebook.

Have them re-examine their title, using the five criteria considered earlier.

• Direct students to create three other possible titles for one of their favorite drafts of a poem. Then ask them to get with a partner and “try on” each of the new titles to determine which title a writing partner finds most effective at capturing the essence of the poem and creating reader interest.

• Challenge your most capable language arts students to create titles by attempting the kind of word play in their R/W Notebook that they might discover in E. E.

Cummings, who sawed up words and tacked pieces on them just to enhance his purposes. For example, he constructed the word manunkind and used it in a bitter poem about the inhumanity of man to man. Of course, today Cummings would probably have to use humanunkind, in an attempt to be more politically correct. One of the characters in Barbara Kingsolver’s Poisonwood Bible who constantly plays with rhyming words and arranges combinations of words in reverse order might also inspire some intriguing possibilities for poetry titles too. To describe rains in the Congo where nature dumped buckets, Kingsolver writes the phrase backwards to create a new term that is almost onomatopoetic “Stekcub pmud.”

How to teach and read poetry

Teaching Students to Write

and Read Poetry

Methods to Encourage Budding Poets to Blossom

A Sample Unit of Poetry Skill Lessons

and Strategies for High School Teachers

Jefferson County Public Schools

Version 2.0

Teaching Students to Write and Read Poetry

Table of Contents

Read Me First

Textbooks

Poetry Think Aloud

LISTEN (Read the poem aloud.

Breathe when there is

punctuation. Note the rhythm

and how it affects mood. Listen

for special sounds within the

words)

SENSE

(Imagine the sights, sounds,

smells, tastes, and sense of touch

within the poem.)

REACT

(Note your reactions to the

poem and the connections you

make to others things you’ve

read or done.)

QUESTION (Note the questions the

poem raises. Ask yourself what it

is about, what words or phrases

mean, and why the poet chose

the language she did.)

CLARIFY

(Summarize or

paraphrase. Find the meaning of

symbolic language.)

INTERPRET (Share the poem with

others. Read it aloud and talk

about the meaning. Connect the

title to the meaning. Identify a

theme or “big idea.”)

:

POEM

POETRY INSERT

A FRESH WAY TO

SAY SOMETHING

IMPORTANT

WORD OR LINE

I DON’T GET IT

MAKES ME

LAUGH

REMINDS ME

OF…

*

!

?

J

#

Sensory Images and Language Mind Map

POEM

6 Ways to Look at a Corpse