Classroom Activities
Lesson #1 – Introducing and Reinforcing the Sonnet Structure in its Most Basic Form
Two activities will be used to introduce the sonnet to students. They are designed to help students determine the basic formulaic "rules" and to reinforce their learning of these rules. The first lesson can be done individually or in small groups. It asks students use inductive reasoning to determine the standard rules for sonnet writing. Six poems are suggested earlier in the section Sonnet Group #1. The teacher or students may want to prepare a chart or some other graphic organizer to help students record their findings. Students should notice the following characteristics in each sonnet: number of lines, number of stanzas, number of lines per stanza, rhyme scheme, meter, and other observations. As they attempt to make generalizations based on their observations, they should be warned that the examples provided fall into two types of sonnets. The entire class needs to list the generalizations on the blackboard or on chart paper and compare them with generally accepted rules of the sonnet form.
After this initial activity, the basics can be reinforced in a second activity. The teacher should gather more standard sonnets in both the Petrarchan and Shakespearean forms. Some possible sonnets to use are: "Care" by Charlotte Smith, "Africa" by Claude McKay, "The World is too Much with Us" by William Wordsworth, "Lucifer in Starlight" by George Meredith, "Thou Art Not Lovelier Than Lilacs" by Edna St. Vincent Millay, "To Science" by Edgar Allan Poe, "#73, That time of year though mayst in me behold" by William Shakespeare, or any other sonnet that doesn't deviate from the basic prescription. These sonnets can be blown up to a larger size, and then the teacher should cut the lines apart. Give the lines from a sonnet to a small group and challenge the students to put them in the right order, based on the rhyme and form rules from the previous lesson. This should be fun, and there can even be contests among groups. The teacher can give the same six poems to each group and see who can put them together quickly and correctly. Another twist on this activity would be to let teams challenge each other. Each team would have to find five or more poems, cut them up, then challenge another team to put them back together.
Lesson #2 – Questions Designed to Help Students Discover How the Sonnet's Form Enhances the Overall Effect of the Poem
This activity gets to the heart of the unit. Students have already ingested the most basic level of understanding the sonnet – learning the mechanics. Now they must attempt to make sense of the deeper importance of the sonnet form. The questions provided can be used in large group discussion, small group work, or individually and hopefully the teacher will have time to do all three. If the teacher follows the suggestions in the Strategies section of the unit for large group, small group, and individual close reading, then each student will be afforded plenty of practice in understanding sonnets. The poems suggested above in Sonnet Group #2 – Encouraging Further Explication and Analysis of the Form's Significance will work well in this lesson.
Before addressing any of the following questions, students should be encouraged to mark up their sonnets, identifying the rhyme scheme, drawing lines between the quatrains, noting the turn between the octave and the sestet.
1. Questions for Shakespearean sonnets:
- What is happening in each of the three quatrains? Do the poet's thoughts shift or grow? Do the three quatrains build on each other?
- What purpose does the ending couplet serve? Is it a conclusion? Does it restate something in the sonnet in stronger terms? Does it refute or contradict a point made in the first 12 lines?
- Is the ending couplet strong and does it provide finality?
2. Questions for Petrarchan sonnets:
- What is happening in the octave? Is a proposal or situation presented? Is a question asked?
- Can you point to the turn or "volta"? What is the poet doing at the turn?
- What has the poet done in the sestet?
- In the sestet does the poet resolve, restate, or reflect on the concerns of the octave? Does the sestet release any tension created in the octave?
3. What is the topic of this sonnet? Why is the topic of this sonnet especially suited to such a concise form?
4. Does the sonnet begin with a scene or image drawn from the external world? Does the poet then compare the image with some state of mind or emotion?
5. Is there a tight thematic structure? What is it?
6. Can you identify two related thoughts in the sonnet, either contrasting or parallel?
7. Do the ideas or thoughts expressed in the sonnet seem to move forward in a logical way? Explain.
8. Does the sonnet remind you of the way the human mind works? Does it reflect or mirror an intellectual or emotional process?
9. Has the poet achieved a wholeness within the sonnet? How would you explain that wholeness?
10. How does this poem fit the definition of the sonnet as a coherent, packed, and charged form?
Lesson #3 – Writing Original Sonnets: Two Required Poems
As a part of this unit, students will write at least two sonnets. The first will demonstrate the students' knowledge of the architectural form of the sonnet as well as an understanding of what that structure can do for the poem. This sonnet should be written after the first two groups of sonnets have been presented to students. The second poem assignment will challenge students to write an original sonnet and make some structural change to it. This structural change must be related to the meaning and purpose of the poem. Students will write this sonnet after examining the third group of sonnets, those that illustrate a departure from strict structure.
After spending four or five days reading and discussing sonnets, students should be itching to try their hands at writing some. Many of them will have already done so. The teacher should begin by reviewing not just the meter, rhyme, and line requirements, but also what the form can do for the subject of the poem. The teacher should remind students of the responses and discussions of sonnets that resulted from the questions listed in Activity #2. The class should spend time brainstorming possible subjects that could fit well with the sonnet form. This list should be recorded on a chart and displayed.
To review and reinforce the form, some group poems can be written. Two popular approaches to the writing of group poems were suggested by my seminar colleagues at the Yale New Haven Summer Intensive. The first is a simple method, involving writing on a piece of paper. Depending on the size of the class, several sonnets can be started at one time. Students can be required to add one or two lines, then pass the paper on to the next student. The writer of the third line will be the student who decides if the sonnet should be Shakespearean or Petrarchan. This same "write around" can be accomplished in the computer lab. If there are enough computers for each student, then each student may begin a sonnet. When a bell is rung, all students move to the next computer and add a second line. After these active group writing sessions, students should be somewhat comfortable with the form requirements and can be challenged to attempt writing a sonnet on their own.
The second sonnet assignment may be more challenging, but at the same time students may have more fun with it. Again the teacher will review the deviations made by the poets studied in the third category of sonnets. Again the teacher should lead a brainstorming session on changes that could be made to the strict form and what those changes could do for the poem.
Revision of Original Sonnets
Because revision is such an important skill for middle school writers, I vary my approach to this process. Often I set up scenarios for formal written peer reviews, providing students with written questions pertaining to the specific genre or assignment. The questions are formed to direct their examination of a peer's work. However, for revision of the sonnet writing, I think small response groups of three or four students would work well, with oral commenting. Although it involves work on the teacher's part, I do make copies of student work for this type of response session, so that each member of the group has a poem to look at and write on. Each member of the group must write on his or her copy and speak directly to the poet. Students should be directed to comment on specific aspects of the sonnets. What form is the sonnet? Have any diversions from the form been made? What does the sonnet form do enhance the subject and overall meaning of the sonnet? What is the strongest part of the sonnet? Which words and phrases seem to be particularly well chosen? Are there any general nouns that can be replaced by more specific ones? Which weak verbs can be replaced by vivid verbs? Where is the rhyme so weak that it detracts from the sonnet? Are there any similes or metaphors? Are they clichés?
If a teacher is interested in a more expansive list of revision guidelines for poetry an excellent one is available on the Fooling With Words website.
Comments: