Classroom Activities
The proposed length of time for this poetry unit is five weeks plus time for performances. It can, of course, be lengthened or shortened to fit the needs of specific classes. I've broken the activities down by weeks so it may seem like an overabundance of work for the students, but I should also note that I teach 90 minute blocks and those who don't can pick and choose activities as needed.
Week One: Reading and Interpreting
In this first week, students will write a collaborative poem as a class, learn to identify and use poetic devices and figurative language, compare/contrast two poems, learn to hear "voice" in poetry and create alliterative names for themselves.
Collaborative Poem
The theme of this poetry unit is self. While every poem students write during the unit will not be about themselves, what they do write will contain their feelings about particular subjects. Depending upon the subject, these could be newly discovered feelings. I'll present the students with a photo of something in their neighborhood that they may have never noticed. With no explanation of it, I ask them to describe what they see. This should be done either in groups with partners. After the students have completed their written descriptions we discuss them as a class. We then compose a poem, as a class, that the majority agrees upon. This activity initiates a healthy dialogue about what poetry is "supposed" to look like.
Poetic Devices and Figurative Language
After that first poem is completed, I introduce the poetic devices and figurative language as an attempt to revise what we've created. Our anthology, Holt's Elements of Literature, has an introduction to poetry that includes many of the devices listed on the sheet that I distribute (see list under Background). The terms are used in context in the book as well.
Compare/Contrast Two Poems
We then begin reading poetry. We start with the types the students are used to: poems with end rhymes, "Introduction to Poetry" by Billy Collins; poems about poetry, "Valentine for Ernest Mann" by Naomi Shihab Nye; and narrative poems, "Paul Revere's Ride" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Our anthology also includes tips on "How to Read a Poem." Each poem is read at least twice in class and we interpret their meanings. I've tried to instill in the students that there is no wrong way to interpret a poem, and we sometimes manage to veer far off topic.
In keeping with the theme of "self" and "creating a voice," the poems we compare are Walt Whitman's "I Hear America Singing" and Langston Hughes's "I, Too." These two poems celebrate each author's vision of the America in which they live. Whitman's praises the spirit, energy and strength of workers who are strengthening America. Hughes's poem, a response to Whitman's, speaks of an America where Black Americans have been left out but also of hope for their futures. Both are written in free verse and contain many examples of figurative language and imagery. They're prime initiators of a discussion of where students might see themselves in America today, as well as if race, class, and gender have an effect on how they're treated.
Find Voice in Writing
The notion of writing with a "voice" is a complex idea to expect eighth grade students to comprehend, not to mention to expect them to produce a piece of writing with the goal of using "voice." I will not put too much emphasis on the many definitions of voice previously listed. I will, however, touch on the differences between "audible voice" and "dramatic voice" and how they can be used. Exercises like the one mentioned in the Background section of this document will aid in the discussion. Again, we will establish our own, simpler definitions.
Create Alliterative Names for Themselves
Before the students begin to write their own poetry, they have the option to take on a pen name, or new identity. They can also choose whether or not they always write as their alter ego. The name change allows the students to use their dramatic voice, or the liberty to be vocal. Also, when we interpret poems in class, we always make reference to the "speaker" rather than the author by name.
Week Two: Writing Free Verse and Other Poem Types
This week, the students will begin crafting their own poetry. They read and interpret many different types and styles of poetry and put their knowledge into practice. Then they conduct their own searches to find poems that resonate with them personally.
What is Poetry?
The first individual poem that the students write begins with a sentence-starter (see Appendix B) that I give them to complete for homework. The students complete the sentences using figurative language and then create three more sentences of their own. When they return the completed assignment, I let them know that they've written their first poem. I usually don't let them revise this one just so we can see their growth from the beginning to the end of the unit.
Conventions of Odes, Ballads, Sonnets, etc.
In this second week, we move on to more complex poems and away from the nursery-rhyme-like poetry. We read, and listen to on our anthology's accompanying CD, longer narratives, both in and outside of the anthology, like "The Cremation of Sam McGee" by Robert W. Service, ballads and epics, "Casey at the Bat" by Ernest Lawrence Thayer. We read "Ode to Thanks" by Pablo Neruda and very few sonnets.
Write Poetry
The students then have the choice of writing a poem in one of the styles we've studied so far. Most of them write narratives with end rhymes. They also like odes. Before this assignment, they come up with a list of things they would like to celebrate or praise. I've odes to birthdays, boys, ice cream, candy and hair weaves.
Conduct "Internet Poetry Workshop"
By the end of the week, most of the students will be eager to read more poetry. This is the perfect time to conduct the "Internet Poetry Workshop." During this workshop, students search a limited list of websites to read poetry of poet's to whom they might never have been introduced. I give them the links to the sites as well as a worksheet (see Appendix C) to complete explaining which poems they liked and why. Their favorites are copied and stored for future use in their anthologies. They are required to find at least one of the following types of poems: ballad, sonnet, ode.
Week Three: New Daily Poem
This week is dedicated to writing, revising and typing poems. A new poem idea/activity is introduced every day and completed for homework, if not by the end of class. When the students feel like they have a perfect piece, and it's been reviewed by at least one other student, they can add it to the list of poems they've begun to compile.
Color Poem
Many students have a favorite color and in some cases that color means a lot to them, in others it means nothing at all. For this assignment, the students choose one color and write a poem that has that color in every line. Depending on the student that color can take on several different forms and/or parts of speech.
Imagery Poem
This assignment asks students to copy the form of another poet. I choose a short poem with vivid imagery and ask the students to mimic what the poet has done along the lines of sensory details. For example, the poem "Dust and Rain" from Karen Hesse's novel Out of the Dust reads:
- On Sunday
- winds came,
- bringing red dust
- like prairie fire,
- hot and peppery,
- searing the inside of my nose,
- the whites of my eyes.
- Roaring dust,
- turning the day from sunlight to midnight.
The following is a rewrite of the same poem mimicking the sensory detail.
- Then January
- snows came,
- blurring the landscape
- like cold feathers
- soft and freezing
- sticking to clothes and eyelashes
- trapping my feet
- Swirling snow
- turning the dreary winter to brightness.
Portraiture
The students write a portraiture poem about another person whom you have observed. They might write about a family member, a close friend, or someone they don't know well, just as long as it's someone they've seen before. Before this assignment they will read poems that paint portraits of others without "listing" their characteristics. What does this person look like? How do they feel about this person? How would they describe this person (aside from their looks)? All of these questions could be answered in a simple narrative poem.
Where I'm From
This sentence starter is similar to a mad lib. The "Where I'm From" template, created by George Ella Lyon, 7 specifies exactly what parts of speech, family traits, locations, etc. will be used to fill in the blanks. Some of the vocabulary in the template may need to be simplified for students before they begin. It looks like a lengthy assignment so as much clarification prior to the start will benefit all. Regardless of how similar any two students in the class may be, no two of these poems will be alike. This assignment tends to get students thinking more abstractly about themselves and the world in which they live. I use this for a project that comes up in week four.
Poem Starter
This last poem is one that the students will write about themselves. This is saved for last because they've experienced many poems over the past few weeks, poems written both by peers and professionals. By this time, they may think that their writing has "style" and even a "voice." The students will write borrowing from another Karen Hesse poem call "Midnight Truth." This sentence-starter begins with the following two lines:
I'm so filled with
It comes from
But unlike the other poem where essentially every line is mimicked, the students are free to write as much or as little as they'd like. They can choose to follow the model or not.
Week Four: Compile Poetry Anthology
This week is practically spent in the computer lab. I give the students the criteria for their anthologies which includes at least ten poems: five of their own, two from friends for classmates (everyone must share at least two poems), their class collaborative, and two from the workshop. Students will finish typing all original poems, an introduction to every poem they plan to include in the anthology, an introduction to the anthology itself, a table of contents and a cover.
Diary Portraits Project
As mentioned earlier, my school has partnered with an arts organization to integrate arts into our curriculum. One of the most popular projects within the school is the Diary Portraits. The way it started was, an MCG teaching artists took digital photos of the students' neighborhood, which were used for backgrounds, and then of each of the students. Using Adobe Photoshop, which the students and I learned while working on the project, the students combined the neighborhood photos, student photos and their "Where I'm From" poems to create a full-color masterpiece that makes them proud.
Week Five: Practice for performance
This is practice week. Students will choose number of poems they want to perform in front of an audience. I will suggest no more than two because I want it to be more of a performance than a reading of their work. I will provide students with a tip sheet called "Poetry in Performance" to help them through the week (see Appendix D). Students should practice in and outside of class.
Week Six: Performances
The performances will be done for the class and/or other audiences, depending on what the students are willing to share.
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