Overview/Content
In Frost's essay "The Imagining Ear," he calls attention to sound: "[y]our attention is too often called to the poet with extraordinarily vivid sight, and with the faculty of choosing exceptionally telling words for sight. But equally valuable, even for schoolboy themes, is the use of the ear for material and composition."1 By highlighting the sense of sound instead of sight in a poem, we will use sound as a vehicle to focus on the elements of poetry. Students will not only have access to a variety of readings, but a variety of multimedia applications (audio/visual) of these readings. Additionally, the goal is for students to express themselves critically and creatively through speaking and writing while focusing on how authors use sound to create images and feelings.
The overarching strategies of this unit will be the analysis of the sound of poetry by identifying rhyme, meter, rhythm, and tone. Since this class is designed to prepare students for the AP English Literature and Composition exam, students will also be asked to study the elements of SOAPStone.2 Additionally, students will need to understand the structure of the poems in order to explicate them. You will find that the supplementary lessons at the end of this unit are designed to focus on these topics. As always, students will be examining the language of the poetry including (but not limited to) diction, allusion, and imagery.
I am expecting students in this unit to:
- be able to practice the application of poetic devices
- write, revise, and edit their own writing
- assemble a poetry portfolio of terms with examples from their readings
- develop and record opinions about poems and poets
- create their own critical analysis of a set of poems by the same author
- use sound as a foundation to support an individual stance on the value of modern takes on poetry
The culminating project is to have students take poetic devices and apply them critically to the issue of intellectual property in popular culture. By the end of this unit, students will have to take an argumentative stance and defend it by using the poetic devices they have learned through this unit.
The intended use of this unit is for an Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition classroom. All of the lessons in this unit can be adapted for use in a regular or special education course.
School Expectations
Additionally, it is expected in this unit that students will perform a variety of assignments by the end of this unit according to the College Readiness Standards:
- Recognize a clear intent of an author or narrator in uncomplicated narratives
- Locate basic facts clearly stated in a passage.
- Add a sentence to accomplish a fairly straightforward purpose such as illustrating a given statement
- Add a sentence to introduce or conclude an essay or to provide a transition between paragraphs
School Background
New Millennium School of Health, where I teach, is an urban high school located on the far Southeast side of Chicago at the James H. Bowen campus. The campus was transformed into four smaller schools in 2004 as part of Mayor Richard M. Daley's Renaissance 2010 program. The focus on 2010 is to identify failing schools (absenteeism, low percentiles of meets/exceeds on state exams, etc.) and restructure them into several smaller schools housed under the same building. New Millennium School of Health shares the Bowen campus with three other schools that have relatively the same size student population. With just over 300 students, New Mill offers limited classes because of the size of the staff. One of the few alternative options is to take AP English Literature and Composition. Although a high percentage of students are chosen for this class, all Seniors have the option to register for this class. If a student enrolls in this class, AP English Literature and Composition becomes a substitute for Senior English credit; furthermore, it becomes a graduation requirement fulfilling the four English credits needed for graduation. Additionally, it is important to note that currently 99.9% of our students get free and/or reduced lunch and that 23% of our population is categorized legally as special education students.
Comments: