Rationale
Alliteration, hyperbole, double meanings, repetition, personification, metaphors and similes are just a few examples of literary devices and figurative language that appear in poems written for people of varying ages, from children to adults. With so many literary terms, there is one lingering question that comes to mind. Why? Why do I need to learn about poetry, figurative language and poetic devices? This unit will focus on the answer to this question along with examining an assortment of literary terms. Furthermore, as a teacher, I frequently notice that students are apprehensive to travel outside their "comfort zone." Their performance and motivation will continue at a minimum if they are not given that extra "push." My intention with this unit is to eventually venture away from introductory kinds of poetry—necessary for scaffolding—and challenge my students on a higher level.
George Read Middle School in the state of Delaware consists of approximately 800 sixth, seventh and eighth grade students. George Read is a Title I school. This has allowed the administration to implement a program to accommodate struggling readers. At George Read, 66.1 percent of the students are from low income families. George Read has made great progress in enhancing programs offered to students along with upgrading their technology to provide every opportunity for success. We identify struggling readers by analyzing data from the state testing program, then choose students based on their reading scores. This unit was written specifically for a sixth grade class of struggling readers. Sonnets are a beneficial means for teaching students poetry because they are short in length, which helps to hold the students' attention. Another reason to use sonnets is that many of them, especially age-specific ones, are easy to read but still use an abundance of figurative language.
I always thought that to write poetry you needed to possess a special talent. While I still believe this to be true to a certain degree, my research in this area has shown me that poetry exists in everyone all the time. The way people visualize specific things and the ways they express what they see in simple terms are all still poetry. 1
In the past, each poetry unit that I have taught has consisted of introductory poems read in order to teach the differing forms of figurative language. The purpose of this unit will be for students to not only learn figurative language and poetic devices, but also to be able to identify sonnets, to determine their meaning or "concealed story," and eventually write a sonnet themselves. Sonnets are an excellent resource to use because they are short in length, hence manageable for discussion and short enough for students to establish the overall meaning of the poem.
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