Activities
The First Activity for the Poetry Class
On the first day of the unit on poetry, I shall introduce poetry by having students define poetry and determine what makes poetry different from prose based on their prior knowledge and linguistic experience. Student responses will be written down and then checked by whole group for completeness. For example, "Was anything about poetry left out?" We shall read aloud and listen to Langston Hughes' "The South." I shall ask students to say what they noticed about the poem. We shall have a discussion of the techniques the students identify. I will provide definitions for each of the following terms: end rhyme; stress and meter; internal rhyme: alliteration, consonance, assonance; onomatopoeia; and caesura. Once students are comfortable with these terms, they will work in pairs to identify them in nursery rhymes provided by the teacher. Students will identify the effects the different devices have on the tone, voice and content of the poems examined. These activities fall under Classroom Talk, Questioning, and Collaborative Group Work and Scaffolding.
Ritual for Reading a Poem in Class
Each time the class and I read a poem for the first time in class, we will perform the same ritual. If I have a recording of the poem, I will play it for the students to listen. I will then reread the poem deliberately for the students to hear the rhythm. If I do not have a recording, I will do the first reading aloud of the poem, and two students will read after me. Student who read will be volunteers. So each poem will be read aloud three times. After the poem has been read aloud three times, I will ask students to comment on the poem, making sure that they indicate if they like the way it sounds, or if they reacted to any particular lines. The class and I will discuss the poem based first upon its sound and student reactions to it. Students will check any unfamiliar words in their dictionaries, and make a note of them. They will next identify end rhyme, internal rhyme, alliteration, personification, etc. They will also paraphrase at least two stanzas of the poem. The strategies employed here are Classroom
Talk, Questioning and Writing to Learn.
Practicing Alliteration and Other Devices
Students will be asked to write two lines of alliterative verse using their first letter of their first name for the alliteration in the first part of each line, and the initial letter of their last name for the second part of the two lines. For example, Maxine Sample will yield: "Many months ago, she shockingly suggested/That Mary and my mother should support her and her sick son." Students will read what they have written aloud for them to listen. Class mates will be allowed to make suggestions on how each of the samples can be improved. There will be variations in this activity. Sometimes, students will pick a note card with an event and the letter they are to use out of a brown paper bag. Students will be asked to write lines, or mini poems, using other poetic devices such as onomatopoeia, or end rhyme. Students will first read their texts, and receive aural feedback before displaying them on the bulletin board. The strategies associated with this activity are Classroom Talk, Questioning, Scaffolding, Writing to Learn, and Collaborative Group Work.
Rewriting Lines of a Poem to Change the Mood or Tone
Working in pairs, students will be asked to change the diction of the stanza of a poem in order to change the mood or tone. They will also be asked to speed up the pace of the poem or to slow it down by employing long or short words. Another technique is rearranging the lines of a poem or truncating lines to see how the meaning is affected. The first five lines of Walt Whitman's poem, "Song of Myself," is a good illustration of this: "I celebrate myself,/ And what I assume you shall assume,/ For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you./ I loafe and invite my soul,/ I lean and loafe at my ease . . . . observing a spear of summer grass." TO: "I celebrate myself,/ And what I assume you shall assume,/ For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you./ I lean and loafe at my ease . . . . " TO: "I celebrate myself, / For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you./ And what I assume you shall assume,/ I lean and loafe at my ease . . . . observing a spear of summer grass." Students will share with class their alterations of the poem. Students will share their work by reading aloud and receiving aural feedback from their peers. The strategies associated with this activity are Classroom Talk, Scaffolding, Writing to Learn, and Collaborative Group Work.
Changing the Stress in Poems to Alter the Meaning
Working in pairs, students will read the same poem with the stressed changed to alter the meaning. A twist on this is for students to read the poems assuming the personae of different people. For example, a student can read a poem as a father, as an infant, as a judge, while another reads as another character. The changes in personae will affect the stress in the poem. A judge will make a more deliberate, slow and authoritative rendition that will slow down the speed and place greater emphasis on the stressed syllables. An infant will read more quickly and in a more sing-song manner. Students listening to different renditions of the same poem should be able to identify differences in sound and determine if the different renditions affected the meaning of the poem. The whole group will discuss the differences in meaning they notice and write reflective journals on this exercise. The strategies associated with this activity are Classroom Talk, Scaffolding, Writing to Learn, and Collaborative Group Work.
Researching the Life and Times of a Poet
Students, working in different Literacy Circles where they will be discussing, will research the life of one poet whose work we studied in class. Students will receive their roles from the teacher: Coordinator, Wordsmith, Researcher, and Editor. They will use the biographical data to facilitate understanding of the poet's message and concerns. They will employ this information in their written analyses of the poems where appropriate. Each group will prepare a presentation for a date noted in the schedule. Students will be given a rubric with guidelines for their topic, treatment of the topic, and suggestions for an interesting presentation. The strategies associated with this activity are Classroom Talk, Questioning, Scaffolding, Writing to Learn, and Literacy Circles.
Responding to a Specific Poem by Changing the Theme
I will provide students with copies of the poem, "If We Must Die," by Claude McKay. Students will read the poem aloud and perform it; finally, they will discuss McKay's meaning, and point out how the devices he used affect the emotions of his poem. The next day, they will write their own response poem, "If We Must Live." They will share their poems with the whole group that will provide them with constructive feedback. The strategies associated with this activity are Classroom Talk, Questioning, Scaffolding, Writing to Learn, and Collaborative Group work.
Counting Stressed Syllables in Lines of Poetry
Before students actually identify the stressed syllables in lines of poetry, they will take polysyllabic words and stress them according to my direction. For example, they will pronounce PILLOW as PILLow first and pillOW after. The uppercase letters signify the stressed syllable. They will do the same with their names and addresses. Once they are comfortable with the procedure, the class as a whole will scan "Mending Wall" syllable by syllable. The strategies associated with this activity are Classroom Talk, Questioning, Scaffolding, Writing to Learn, and Collaborative Group work.
Providing Parallel Songs for Selected Poems
Students will select one of the poems provided by me and for homework, will find a song that, for them, best reflects the spirit of the poem. On the next day, students will share their songs they have linked to the poems and briefly explain the parallels they see. The strategies associated with this activity are Classroom Talk, Questioning, Scaffolding, and Writing to Learn.
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