Rationale
Education has become more rigorous than ever before. Students are expected to be at a higher rigor level than their parents ever were. Students are expected to be well prepared and do well on their state mandated assessment. As for Arizona, the standard for reading a different form of text includes poems. The state standard reads: “Refer to parts of stories, dramas, and poems when writing or speaking about a text, using terms such as chapter, scene, and stanza; describe how each successive part builds on earlier sections”. This emphasis begins as early as second grade but is tested after the beginning of third grade. Although lower grades such as kindergarten through second grade use a simple form of poems, in this case “nursery rhymes”, this emphasis still introduces new rigor. Students are expected to name the elements of a poem, and also read and answer questions pertaining to the content of the poem. For many students, this task is difficult. Students of the Dine Nation are able to read simple poems but the language involved, the structure of the text, the organization of the text, makes it difficult for them to do well on their assessment--let alone consider this type of text entertainment to read for enjoyment.
This unit is created to help students, especially students of the Dine Nation, to become familiar with poetry and find it as enjoyable to read as any other form of literature. The activities are directed to students who live on the Dine Nation because of the familiar content of the poems. Poems selected are geared towards the student’s experiences and connect to their prior knowledge. The poems selected feature authors that are aware of and familiar with the students’ culture. The poetry is carefully selected to increase students’ background knowledge as well as for cultural relevance. Authors include Sherman Alexie, Orlando White, Luci Tapohanso, Shonto Begay, and Nancy Bo Flood. In addition, other authors such as Dr. Seuss and Shel Silverstein, as well as some nursery rhymes, will be included for comparison and variation. Nursery rhymes will be used to introduce the unit of study as something familiar from the early years of education.
Not only the content but also the formal elements of the poems will be addressed. Students will identify the stanza, verse, lines, couplet, alliteration, rhythm, rhyming, tone and mood (the basic genre). The unit is structured to include activities to help students be familiar with the features of a poem. The vocabulary words are the key elements and very important for the students to learn. The main key factor involving this unit is the use of cultural relevancy.
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