Poetry and Public Life

CONTENTS OF CURRICULUM UNIT 17.03.07

  1. Unit Guide
  1. Introduction
  2. Content Objectives
  3. Demographics
  4. Rationale
  5. Content
  6. Teaching Strategies
  7. Classroom Activities
  8. Bibliography/Teacher and Student Resources
  9. Appendix 1: Assessment Worksheets for Students
  10. Appendix [2]:  Common Core State Standards for Pennsylvania
  11. Endnotes

A Private Moment in Public View: Analysis of Muslim Poets and Political Activists from the 20th Century to Today

Kathleen Radebaugh

Published September 2017

Tools for this Unit:

Content Objectives

This unit is intended to last for three weeks. The ideal time for this unit is second semester due to the selection of standards and the amount of student driven activities. By the end of the first week, students will be able to identify and define examples of figurative language found in poetry. This is an introductory unit to poetry, and my students might struggle with identifying metaphor, similes, personification, imagery, various forms of rhyme, and hyperbole. More importantly, students need to evaluate the use of figurative language and how the poet develops tone, theme, speaker, and purpose. More time will be spent within whole-group instruction and small guided instruction as I model close reading and an inquiry approach to comprehension.3  My students and I will generate questions based on the development of the line and placement of words for internal and external rhyme, since many of the poems selected for this unit are written in free verse.

Each 90-minute class period will be devoted to one or two of the selected poems depending on the scope of the poem and how much time students need to study and explore the syntax, theme, speaker, and purpose of the poems. Towards the end of the week, I will select students for reciprocal teaching. I suggest avoiding the reciprocal teaching strategy for this unit if it has not been implemented already within your current school year. While students are leading small group discussions, the teacher can work with students who need extra guided reading sessions for fluency and comprehension.

Poems selected for this unit are the following: “Reborn” and “The Wave” by Forough Farrokhzad, “Twigs” by Taha Muhammad Ali, “In that Part of the World” and “The Emerald Mosque on the Hill” by Raza Ali Hasan, “A to Z” by Maxamed Xaashi Dhamac also known as Gaarriye, “Water’s Footfall” by Sohrab Sepehri, “A Rhyme for The Odes” by Mahmoud Darwish, “The Postcard” and “I Become Happy” by Shamsur Rahman. There are audio recordings of most of these poems on various websites like PoemHunter and I will provide analysis in this unit of two poems, “The Wave” by Forough Farrokhzad and “Twigs” by Taha Muhammad Ali. This group of poems ranges in degree of difficulty owing to the variables of length, vernacular, and sophistication in the use of figurative language[], but this variation allows for the distribution of poems among[] students with varying reading levels. Once the students complete their analytical writings and discourse about these selected poems, they will write one or two poems for their writing portfolios based on the central conflicts of the selected poems.

For the third week, students will compare the central themes of the poems to several episodes of the very funny and forward-thinking podcast, Good Muslim, Bad Muslim by Tanzila "Taz" Ahmed and Zahra Noorbakhsh. Taz and Zahara discuss what it is like to grow up in a Christian school and not partake in certain holidays like Easter and Christmas. They chit chat about a range of topics from dating, marrying outside the Muslim faith, maintaining their own personal safety, and how Black Lives Matter activists joined Palestinian protests and vice versa. There are several segments in which they explore how their Islamic upbringing is not only a matter for self-scrutiny but also subject to the horrific stereotypes ascribing radical Islamic terrorism or fellow-traveling with it to the 1.5 billion Muslim people who live around the world.4  Students will bring current events mentioned within the podcast to bear on their enduring understanding of this unit: Muslim poets and activists express private conflicts through lyrical verse for the public to consider.

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