Lesson Plans
Lesson 1: Ninth Grade
Ultimately, students will write a précis of a given text at the ninth grade level. Additionally, at the forefront of planning, I keep in mind that at the broader goal is for students at the twelfth grade level to use the skills learned from an engagement with a specific text at the ninth grade level to enhance their engagement of the text through comparative analysis of a work with similar meaning at the twelfth grade. We will use Edgar Allen Poe's "To Helen" for the purpose of this ninth grade lesson.
I have titled this ninth grade lesson Extra! Extra! Read All About It! The objective of this lesson is for students to write a headline for the poem "To Helen". To do so effectively, students must have a firm grasp of vocabulary and tone. Students will identify significant vocabulary and determine the tone that should be reflected in a headline developed. This lesson will take approximately ninety minutes.
To begin, pose the question, "Why do journalists use headlines?" Possible responses might include, "to tell us what the article is about", "to make us want to read it", "to give a summary of the article" to name a few. Each student should have a sheet of paper for this next step. Project the image of 3-4 ambiguous headlines via the overhead or though some other technological/visual medium. (If technology is not available, it is perfectly conducive to write the phrasing on the board one at a time or to pass out strips of paper with the headlines indicated for various students to read aloud.) As each headline is projected, ask students to read the projected headline, study its wording for 10 seconds and then write a two to three sentence summary of what they think the actual newspaper article was about. Then students, who will be given an opportunity to share, may share individual responses.
I suggest using headlines from tabloids in which you are able to pull the actual articles to share with the class after summaries have been shared. Headlines below include some so ambiguous that students are certain to have fun creating stories to fit them. This step will be repeated with each headline presented. Suggested headlines might include (with example responses) those below. I must keep in mind that children have active imaginations and thus, I prepare myself for a wealth of emotional responses.
(table 05.01.14.02 available in print form)
Other headlines might include those below:
QUEEN MARY HAVING BOTTOM SCRAPED, DEALERS WILL HEAR CAR TALK AT NOON, MINERS REFUSE TO WORK AFTER DEATH, MILK DRINKERS ARE TURNING TO POWDER, DRUNK GETS NINE MONTHS IN VIOLIN CASE, JUVENILE COURT TO TRY SHOOTING DEFENDANT, COMPLAINTS ABOUT NBA REFEREES GROWING UGLY, MAN EATING PIRANHA MISTAKENLY SOLD AS PET FISH, ASTRONAUT TAKES BLAME FOR GAS IN SPACECRAFT, GRANDMOTHER OF EIGHT MAKES HOLE IN ONE, HOSPITALS ARE SUED BY 7 FOOT DOCTORS, LACK OF BRAINS HINDERS RESEARCH, IRAQI HEAD SEEKS ARMS8
Guiding student conversation, point out that stories—obviously conflicting and funny to boot—derived from certain headlines are possible because the headlines do not provide a description accurate enough for us to determine the content of the article. Present also headlines that are not ambiguous and would thus provide quality models for those students are to produce. Hence, the class should come to consensus about the importance of having a headline that fully captures or accurately represents the overall scope of the text for which it is crafted.
I would then share Bruce Lansky's Not Exactly the News or Caught in the Act9. Each of these poems is made up entirely of headlines and provides a vivid link, for a ninth grade class, to introduce the poetry to come. Then using the What Do We Know About…/What's Missing chart below, a student recorder will fill in the information based on random responses from the class. I would then fill in any missing details in the What's Missing? column key to historical/literary background that did not come out in the pre-knowledge discussion.
(table 05.01.14.03 available in print form)
Students will then be arranged in groups of three or four. (See Suggested Teacher Resources for grouping strategies) A dictionary/mythological resource will be available for this next stage for each group. Each student will receive a copy of Poe's "To Helen" and will be asked to listen as I read the poem. They will then read it silently to themselves and then write their immediate reaction on their own sheet of paper. We will then share students' reactions. They will read it a second time, highlighting any words/phrases that are unclear to them. After the class has identified any unknown words/phrases, I will ask each group to read the poem again and to respond to the following:
(table 05.01.14.04 available in print form)
Then I will facilitate a discussion of the text, including the vocabulary that articulates the veneration/admiration with which Poe memorializes Helen of Troy through this poem.
Following the facilitated discussion, student groups will collaborate to write a headline for the poem. Note that they are moving now from the summary to the headline. When we began the lesson, they started with the headline and backtracked to the summary. (To make it even more challenging, I might assign each group a letter of the alphabet and have them design a headline using alliteration based on their group's respective letter.)
Groups will share their headlines and the class will discuss how each group's headline reflects the tone—or should be adjusted to do so—and theme of the text. They will then celebrate, transpose and post their final drafts of the headline onto a sentence strip or prepared newsprint/bulletin board.
Lesson 2: Tenth Grade
For this lesson, The Beautiful Woman, students will examine societal/personal opinions of beauty and evaluate Poe's word choice and its relevance to tone. The lesson is designed to span the last thirty minutes of a class period and conclude at the end of a ninety-minute period on the following day.
On the first day, I will begin by playing Boyz II Men's Beautiful Woman or some other song that celebrates womanhood.
After the song begins, I will ask students to fold a piece of notebook paper into four sections and label individual sections look, smell, sound, action, respectively. I will then ask them to take five minutes and write in each section what they think a beautiful woman looks like, smells like, sounds like and acts like. They may not use vacuous words such as nice, alright, ok, or good. To increase the challenge I may ask them to respond creating a simile or metaphor or hyperbole. They will then share their responses with a partner.
For homework, I will ask students to search magazines, newspapers, the Internet, and books and find a medium that presents a visual of the beautiful woman, making certain to emphasize that students should not bring images that are obviously sexual in nature. (Pictures of the students themselves or of family members may need to be avoided depending on the maturity level of the class.) They should bring an image for day two for the continuation of the lesson.
As the students enter on day two, I will have posted prominently around the room various images of women. I will have these images of women posted just in case some students do not bring in a significant number of images of women as requested. It always pays to be overly prepared. I will ask them to post their images around the room to create a gallery. My posted images will be diverse and may include prints such as a print of Rosie the Riveter, The Mona Lisa, Maxfield Parrish's Cinderella, Nina Gonzales' El Mercado de Flores, B. J. Zhang's Wise and the like. We will post all images that the students bring unless they are inappropriate for our setting. Often ancillary materials are available in my teacher textbook, which includes appropriate visuals. A variety of postcard images are also readily available at local card shops.
Students will then be given five Post-it® notes on which they are to write their names. Students will do a Gallery Walk, for ten to fifteen minutes, going freely from image to image discussing why the image is or is not an image of a beautiful woman. (If more structure is required, students can be placed in groups at each image and move clockwise after a set time. Playing music during the walk and turning it off as you do in Musical Chairs can be a great indication of when students should move to the next area.) Students will have to personally choose five of the images that are representative of the beautiful woman. After choosing, they are to briefly describe characteristics of beauty for each of their chosen beautiful images and post it around the corresponding images chosen. After returning to their seats, students will then discuss what makes the images receiving the greatest number of Post-its® beautiful.
I will then provide students with a copy of "To Helen". We will read the poem as a group, identifying any unknown words/phrases. As students have already had an experience with the text as ninth graders, the poem is familiar. (Remember my contentions.) Students will then be asked to highlight words/phrases/figurative elements that Poe uses which indicate Helens's beauty—such as Like those Nicéan barks of yore./That gently, o'er a perfumed sea, hyacinth hair, classic face, and statue-like. We will follow with a discussion of what image each of these terms suggests about Helen's beauty.
From our discussion, students will be asked to complete a three hundred word quick-write in which they discuss Poe's tone as it is expressed through his representation of Helen. Students are now equipped to use wording from the text to qualify their responses.
Lesson 3: Eleventh Grade
For this lesson, Is She Really Beautiful?, I will introduce H. D.'s "Helen". Students will use a graphic organizer to compare "Helen" with "To Helen". Though it will not be my students' first engagement with "To Helen", I will facilitate a brief five to ten minute reading and discussion of the text.
First, I will share with my students a pre-school book on opposites. Gary Rosen's song, "Opposites" is another wonderful method of introducing opposites. It is available with audio at http://www.songsforteaching.com/garyrosen/opposites.htm. Yes, the older children may grumble, but they love returning to their elementary school roots. Another text, Animated Picture Book Big/Small is available online at http://www.liveandlearn.com
/bigsml.html.
I will then provide the texts "To Helen" and "Helen", for silent reading. After they have read both silently, I will poll students, asking them to show with a thumbs up or thumbs down as I call out the title of the poem, if the tone is positive (thumbs up) or negative (thumbs down). Because students have already engaged "To Helen" in both the ninth and tenth grades, the primary focus will be on "Helen".
The students will complete the T-chart below with a partner indicating rhetorical devices used to project the positive/negative tone in each of the texts. Students will then explain the results of the aforementioned poll using the rhetorical devices they have listed.
(table 05.01.14.05 available in print form)
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