Objectives
This unit will cover basically three objectives. They will be fulfilled in order in a span of 15 days. As the objectives are introduced, they will follow from objectives in previous lessons. The first objective for this unit is to teach students the elements of poetry. Students will be exposed to variety of poems to encourage them to identify the simple elements of a poem such as: verse, stanza, line, couplet, rhythm, rhyme, alliteration, and figurative language. Studies show that students who are exposed to learning the terminology are able to do better on their assessments. Not having mastered a descriptive vocabulary is the leading cause of academic failure in grades 3 through 12. The students who are deficient in vocabulary will find it harder to answer questions and comprehend the text assigned. As in any culture or home life, family members are not likely to help with this by discussing poetry. People in our community are not likely to ask their children at the end of the day, “What type of figurative language did you find in your readings today, or what line or stanza did you find the most interesting part of the poem?” Therefore, most of the terminology that the students will acquire will come from the school setting--which means the classroom will have to be equipped with vocabulary word walls, samples or examples to explain, and a setting to provide hands on materials. The activities in this unit will better prepare students to use the vocabulary needed to acquire the understanding of poetry. Students who learn the terminology at the beginning will have a better understanding of “poetry discussion” when it comes to assessment. This in turn will help students achieve better on their comprehension questions.
The second objective that the students will learn is to understand the content of a poem. What is the poem trying to convey to its audience? Realizing this objective is another important means of understanding of why a poem is written. On the Dine nation, students are not typically attracted to poetry. Although fictional literature is assigned as a part of homework, students are not given poems by choice to take home to read. Once again at the school setting, the learner will have to be provided with strategies to use when it comes to understanding what they are reading. The students will learn how to interpret and how to analyze a poem. The activities will involve highlighting of key words, imagery through drawing, and the use of graphic organizers. Students will also work collaboratively and be involved in certain given activities. Through analyzing the poem, the students should be able to understand the purpose of the poem, identify the central message or theme of the poem, understand the author’s purpose, and seek and use background information to get a better grasp of the poem. Through learning these strategies, students should be able to answer questions about the poem when an assessment is administered.
The last objective is for the students to be able to write a poem. After learning to understand the components of a poem, and to understand the message of a poem, students should be able to compose a poem. The reading goes hand in hand with writing. It is essential that students should do writing along with reading. Their poems can be written in structures and thematic types that they choose: rhyming, haiku, concrete poem through the use of alliteration, focus on adjectives, etc.
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