The Uses of Poetry in the Classroom

Strategies as the Unit Unfolds

Each week will serve as the basis for teaching, practicing and applying a different comprehension strategy. The order that I have chosen for teaching these strategies is more or less arbitrary, but I think that they are arranged in such a way that the skills do build on one another. You could easily alter it without greatly affecting the final outcome, since the skills do reinforce each other but are not necessarily cumulative. If you do restructure the order, be advised that the supplements/teaching rubrics will also need slight revisions. The structure for weeks two through four all function in about the same way. The first two days of the week are spent introducing the strategy and the poem that you will use to teach it. The next two days of the week allow students to practice with another poem based on the same concept. This is guided practice; students should work and get feedback in class so that the final day of the week can be reserved for independent practice that will enable the teacher to evaluate their progress on this strategy. I have suggested poems from the poem list at the end of this unit for each week's lesson. Most of them aren't repeated, but you may want to use some of the same poems for successive portions of your study. Teaching rubrics are provided for each of the strategies and can be used throughout each of the individual weeks. This isn't problematic because each week allows for three stages: introduction, guided practice and independent practice. For each of these stages, scaffolding will be provided to a decreasing extent as you progress through the week. That is to say, at the first stage, teachers guide and provide most of the answers. In the second stage, teachers use leading questions to allow students to provide most of their own answers so that by the third stage the teacher is only observing and responding to students' individual needs.

Embedded in this study are the basics of poetry because this unit is designed to be taught at the beginning of the school year. That way, you can continually include the study of poetry throughout the year without having to interrupt the flow of instruction to introduce the foundation that we establish here. Even if poetry is not included in your school's curriculum, including poems that can supplement what you are studying one to two times a month will ensure that what students learned in this unit is reinforced so that they do not lose all the skills that they acquired here. As far as the strategies go, reinforce them throughout the year by posting their names and brief reminders about how to use them around your room. Also, remind students to use them, especially as you begin the study of a text that will cause them difficulty.

Week One: Building Background

This is the foundational week for our study of poetry. We want student interest and their awareness that our upcoming literary journey is relevant to their lives right now. To that end, a popular song that is about fathers should be used initially. Type the lyrics and omit key words so that what results is like a cloze activity. I have chosen "Dance with My Father" by Luther Vandross, but you may feel that another song is more appropriate. Tell students that they will be expected to think about their fathers, then fill in the lyrics sheet with words that remind them of their fathers. Be careful of sensitive situations by giving students the option to write about a father figure who could be a brother, uncle or female relative. Students can share their work in small groups or with the whole class. As a conclusion, discuss and make a class graphic organizer about the characteristics students remembered about their fathers based on their lyrics.

During this week, also be sure to introduce key vocabulary including: line, stanza, speaker, alliteration, metaphor, simile, image, couplet, rhyme, rhythm, paraphrase, hyperbole, enjambment. This list is by no means comprehensive and was constructed with this introductory unit in mind. As you come back to poems throughout the year (and perhaps even to celebrate National Poetry Month in April), you can add to this list or share more of it with students. I personally find that flashcards are an effective way to reinforce new concepts and teach a valuable study technique that many middle-schoolers do not develop or practice. I usually make an oversized "sample set." Before I let students make their own flashcards, I show them my set and how you can study with them. This is a key step that I have added because there are nearly always students who either have only a foggy idea or no idea at all how flashcards should work.

Week Two: Remembering Fathers: Clarifying

During this week, we will focus our study on applying the vocabulary that we have been building over the previous week, so in your discussion of the poems be sure to use the new vocabulary. For this week's strategy, students should practice with the idea that clarifying texts, particularly as you read, improves comprehension. Before you begin, remind them of the activity from Week One so that they can be continuously aware of the thematic connection among the poems we are studying. Begin with "Men at Forty." Since it is a short poem barely three lines long, it will be less intimidating to reluctant readers. Model for students what you would be thinking as you read this with an emphasis on pausing and clarifying confusing parts (Example: "Hmm…I know that this is probably about the speaker's father from the title. I am not sure why she says she tried to kill her father. Let's read on and maybe I will find out."). This think-aloud will be extremely helpful when students begin to apply this strategy over the next few days. They will have a basis for their own work because they have seen it in action. You will want to use the Clarifying rubric or a variation thereof for this opening activity. Keep in mind that, due to formatting restrictions, none of the supplements/rubrics are fancy; my goal was to provide you with a solid foundation that you can easily alter to fit your tastes. Here it the first one:

Clarifying

Directions: Read the poem that you have been given, then respond to the following questions.

1. What does it mean to "clarify" something?
2. What is the title and author of your poem?
3. Practice visualizing: As you read this poem, what images come to mind? Draw a picture here of what you see.
4. Practice visualizing: Look at your response to number 3. In the space below, write the words or phrases that made you think of what you drew in number 3.
5. In the chart below, choose 4 lines or groups of lines that confuse you. Next, write each one in prose form to help you figure out what it means. Finally, write what you think it means in the final column.

6. Quote from the Poem...	Prose From	What I think the quote means...

7. How does clarifying help you understand texts?

At this point, now, students are ready for guided practice. Remember to reinforce the strategy that you are teaching. Give students one of the two remaining poems for that week. They should use the supplement above to read and respond to it. Once that is accomplished, discuss their answers and make sure they understand how that particular strategy can aid in understanding future poems and future texts. You may find it useful to develop a set of questions to prepare for this discussion.

Next comes the first of three mini-evaluations that will take place at the end of each week which is their independent practice using a poem from the list and the supplement for that week.. For this week's strategy, I suggest using these poems from the poem list: "Yesterday", "Daddy" (excerpts may be appropriate) and "Men at Forty". Choose one of these poems to have students complete this assignment. Below is a sample analysis to guide your discussions during this week.

"Men at Forty" is short, so may be a less intimidating introductory poem for your students. Though not explicitly about fathers, this poem does suggest some things about men who are forty years old and who usually are fathers. It is full of ideas that need to be clarified. Your task is to help students do this. For example, why do these men shut doors "softly"? Have students think about the opposite of gently shutting a door; why don't these men slam doors and why is that worth mentioning? Perhaps this is something that they learned from their own fathers ("Don't slam that door, son!"), but if that is true, they would have probably learned to do this successfully long before they reach forty. Indeed, most grown men do not go around slamming doors, but the poem leaves us with the implication that life is the teacher and that the "doors" and "rooms" are actual objects but are also symbolic of phases of life. In other words, these men have learned that good endings are gentle ones. The missing punctuation at the end of the poem further suggests the importance of finishing well. The supplement is a good guide for students as they try their hand at this comprehension strategy.

Week Three: Remembering Fathers: Visualizing

Procedures for weeks three and four follow the same sequence as that of week two. For this week, I suggest "My Papa's Waltz", "Those Winter Sundays" and "Whose Mouth do I speak with". Begin with Robert Hayden's poem. Discuss what it means as well as the challenging vocabulary, such as "austere offices." Be sure that students are aware of the theme and the strategy. Have students draw the image that comes to mind as they read this poem. Have them share and discuss their drawings, then show them "Humble Poor." Duplications can be easily obtained online. This painting was paired with Hayden's poem in Words with Wings, a children's book with outstanding color. Discuss why the book's editor chose this painting and how it differs from what students drew.

Be sure that the second column of the chart in the supplement is filled out and discussed throughout each of this week's stages. It is not enough to just draw a picture,; students must know what language led them to the picture that they see in their minds. Going back to the text makes the strategy more readily available for future use because they are consciously aware of how language can provide pictures that make text easier to understand. Below is the supplement and a sample analysis of "My Papa's Waltz":

Visualizing

Directions: Read the poem that you have been given, then respond to the following questions.

1. What does it mean to "visualize" something?
2. What is the title and author of your poem?
3. Practice visualizing: After you read the poem, draw a picture of what it brings to your mind.
4. Practice visualizing: Look at your picture in number 2. Now, go back through the poem and write the words or phrases that made you think of the picture that you drew. Next to each quote, write how each one contributed to what you saw in your mind.

5. Quote from the Poem...	How it affected what I saw...

6. How does visualizing help you understand texts?

In "My Papa's Waltz", students will first need to tackle key vocabulary that may cause them difficulty, including: waltz (Have they seen one before?), whiskey, romped, countenance, "beat time". After that, you may find it helpful to encourage students to visualize this scene. Additionally, some of your students may connect strongly to this memory of a drunken parent. You can find an audio version of this poem online at www.poets.org; that reading will help you introduce its sing-song rhythm that reinforces the fact that this is a child's memory of his father. He was quite young when this happened, and we get the sense that this was a regular occurrence not only from the repetitive rhythm, but also from the last line when the speaker says that he "still" clung to his father's shirt. So consistent was this behavior that it felt choreographed, like a dance, to this young boy. He could, and does, tell us exactly what his father would do first, describe the look on his mother's face (though she did not intervene) and how the whole episode would end. Although this could be nothing more than a parent's frustrated response to a child's resistance to bedtime, we are given the sense that it is more than that. The romping that upsets the pans and the father's dirty hands that don't hold his son's hand, rather his wrist, leave us with a sense of this child's feeling of neglect. Yes, this child is afforded some attention, but it "was not easy." Indeed, he seems to ache for healthy attention from his dad; look at his persistence as he "hung on like death" in spite of his father's drunkenness. And that sentiment is echoed in the last line; the final moment of this scene is of the boy "still clinging to [his]shirt." The need for his father doesn't leave him, even as the speaker remembers him.

Week Four: Remembering Fathers: Connecting to Prior Experiences

Strategies for weeks three and four follow the same sequence as that of week two. The following poems deal thematically with father-issues to which students can relate; they will work particularly well for teaching students to connect literature to their own experiences: "Parents", "Working Late" and "The Gift".

"The Gift" by Li-Young Lee nicely introduces the connecting strategy. Students may not have a father who is as tender as the one portrayed here, but may have a similar adult figure in their lives or a memory similar to that of the speaker. The first stanza contains the premise of the entire poem. Conceivably, it could have ended there, but it doesn't. The poet allows the speaker to remember many of the details of an early childhood experience that could have killed a part of him. That part is the true subject of this poem. The gift, in actuality, that the father gives to the son is the splinter after he removes it from the little boy's hand. But the deeper and more lasting gift is that of his father's true love. That is the kind of love that distracts the beloved from pain because of a "lovely face" that releases a voice that is like "dark water, a prayer." That is to say, it is not completely tranquil, but is all-encompassing and elicits faith as a prayer does. This father, at least in the child's memory of him, is not one who doesn't discipline his children, but he knows how to balance that with the "measures of tenderness" that are his hands. The father plants this gift of love in his son so that the son is able to one day pass it on to his wife. This poem is thus able to comment gently on the effect that fathers have on the way that their sons are able to love their own families. The gift from this father to son has been a good one. You may want to challenge students to think of a personal experience like the speaker's. How do the speaker's feelings and memories correspond to or contradict their own?

Connecting to Prior Experiences

Directions: Read the poem that you have been given, then respond to the following questions.

1. What does it mean to "connect" to something?
2. What is the title and author of your poem?
3. Practice visualizing: As you read this poem, what images come to mind? Draw a picture here of what you see.
4. Practice visualizing: Look at your response to number 3. In the space below, write the words or phrases that made you think of what you drew in number 3.
5. As you read, think of how this poem reminds you of familiar things. Choose a few quotes from the poem, and write them in the first column. In the second column, write what each quote that you chose reminds you of. It can be something you've read, seen, or experienced.

6. Quote from the Poem...	This reminds me of...
   &nbps;	&nbps;

7. How does clarifying help you understand texts?

Week Five: Poetry vs. Prose

This week should be an exploration of how poetry accomplishes what prose cannot. For this week, students will need to activate their knowledge of the comprehension skills that they have been learning and practicing. For this teaching stage (before we move into guided practice for the next stage and independent practice thereafter), a poem that we have previously analyzed may be best. First, read through the poem. Remind students to visualize, clarify and connect as they go, to aid in their comprehension. Discuss what the poem is about in loose terms. Have students put the entire poem in prose as a class, with you as the teacher guiding the "translation." Have a class recorder who writes the class's answers on chart paper. After you have finished, reread your work to be sure that you have maintained the integrity of the poem. You may want to display both the original with the prose version of each of your classes so that students can compare what has been done in other classes to their own work.

Next comes guided practice. Give students another poem. Have them translate it into prose on their own. Remind them to use their comprehension strategies as they read. Once they have finished, lead a discussion about their various translations. In groups, have students come up with a list of characteristics that differentiate prose from poetry. As a class, discuss the individual lists and come up with a class list of those characteristics. You may want to post that list so that students can refer to it.

Conclude your comparison by giving a lecture on the key characteristic differences between poetry and prose. Include also the historical and enduring importance of poetry to humanity. You may come up with your own list or refer to the notes listed below.

Notes on Poetry

• Poetry is a different way of "saying" something
• Difficulty comes in the nature of what's said and the content of what's said
• Includes symbols, figurative language, etc. and other conventions that are unlike everyday speech
• Isn't written like a suspense novel or an informative brochure
• In spite of the difficulty, it is an ancient art form. Why?
• Its rhythm is natural to our senses (think of the rhythm of seasons, the ocean, our breath)
• Mankind is "form-making"; we create forms or patterns to understand the world better; rhythm facilitates this process
• Poetry is different from prose for two main reasons
• Economy (has the capacity to express a lot in few words)
• Lack of economy (defamiliarizes us from the everyday world; challenges us to see it with fresh eyes)
• Poetry brings a scene into focus

Depending on the age and skill level of your students, you may want to have them copy these notes in a bulleted format, or use this time to teach a mini-lesson on lecture note-taking skills. Give them guidelines (written on the board or transparency) then give the lecture while they write their own notes. Finally, check their work, by having a transparency of the key components of your lecture previously outlined and ready to display. Have the students check their work against your notes. You may want to have a brief discussion about the information that you or they chose to omit.

Week Six: Culminating Assessment

For your culminating assessment, you need copies of both Culminating Assessment supplements, construction paper, glue, other art materials, copies of poems you have studied in this unit (for Part One) and supplemental poems (for Part Two). For Part Two, you may use the extra ones provided in the poem list or use some of your personal favorites. Here are the Culminating Assessment Rubrics:

Culminating Assessment: Part One

Directions: Congratulations! You have completed a study of poetry. The following assignment will help me as your teacher see how much you've learned and will help you reinforce the skills that we have been practicing. Read and follow the following directions.

Step 1:Think about your own father or "father-figure". Choose a poem from the group

    that we have studied over the past few weeks that reminds you of that person.

Step 2: In an essay that is at least one page, answer the following questions. Be sure to

    reread your work so that there aren't careless mistakes.

• What is the title and who is the author of your poem?
• What is this poem about? (Use your skills to visualize and clarify to answer this question!) How do you know? (Go back to the text to prove your answer.)
• Describe the person whom you chose in Step 1.
• Describe the person who is remembered in the poem that you chose.
• Compare these two people. How are they alike, and how are they different?
• Now reread your work to make sure that it makes sense, there are no spelling mistakes and that there are no grammar mistakes.

Due Date:_____________________

Culminating Assessment: Part Two

Directions: This is the second part of the major grade that you will receive based on the study that we have just completed. This is your Notes page. It will help you complete this project.

Step 1:Choose a poem from the group that you have been given.

Step 2: Read it out loud at least 2 times.

Step 3: As you read, visualize what the poem is about. Draw what you see below.

Step 4: Write the words or phrases that made you think of the picture(s) you drew in Step

3. Next to each word/phrase, write a few sentences that explain what about those words made you think about the image that you drew.

Step 5: Clarify-Choose two words or phrases that were confusing to you when you first read the poem, and briefly explain how you clarified for yourself what they meant.

(table 05.01.07.04 available in print form)

Step 6: Connecting: As you read this poem, choose something within in it that lets you complete this phrase: This reminds me of… In a few additional sentences, explain your first sentence (Why does this line remind you of what you wrote? How did it do that?).

Step 7: Use the above information to complete a project that looks like what is described below.

Step 8: Choose one of the strategies and explain how it has helped you understand what you read better.

(chart 05.01.07.01 available in print form)

Use the rubric below to make sure that you meet all of the requirements. Remember that rubrics help teachers and students be on the same page as far as expectations are concerned.

(table 05.01.07.05 available in print form)

This phase of the unit is reserved for assessment and may take up to 2 weeks. Use your judgment for this decision and on how precisely you need to break up this assignment. For the purposes of writing this unit, I am breaking it up into parts.

• Part One: Students will choose from the list of poems that we have studied and write a brief essay on how the father remembered therein is like their own father or the father-figure in their life.
• Part Two: Students will analyze another poem that departs from our theme of "fatherhood." This departure and their resulting project will remove the familiarity of our theme. The goal is to be able to see if the strategies and studying that we have been doing truly allow students to translate their knowledge into other territory.

Other considerations for the success of this unit are as follows:

Have students keep all work for this unit in a Poetry Folder. To save money, you can use a sheet of construction paper folded over. If you decide that you want students to write their own poetry, you can staple notebook paper on the inside cover. That can serve as their writing space.

I have found that students must be continually reminded of what they are studying. Have you ever had a student ask (in the middle of a lesson!) "What class is this?" To combat this obliviousness, surround them with your subject. In other words, create a "poetry classroom", as one of my colleagues put it. Students can bring in favorite poems or lyrics that can be posted in a special place. Also, dedicate a wall to the unit's thematic content. It can say simply, "Fathers Are…" in big letters. As you progress through the unit, let students bring in words or clippings that remind them of their own fathers or the ones that you study in the poems you read. Perhaps you can purchase or create your own poetry corners with magnetic poetry. You can put the magnets on a corner of your blackboard or on big old plates that you can find at resale shops. If you are extra adventurous, you may want to hang evocative lines of poetry from the ceiling on sentence strips. That gives students something curriculum-related to gaze at in their less attentive moments.