Objectives
“It wouldn't be L.A. without Mexicans Black Love, Brown Pride in the sets again”-Tupac
Students will be analyzing poems and lyrics to enhance their knowledge of poetry. Instead of shying away from or balking at an impending poetry unit, this curriculum unit will give them a newfound appreciation for rappers, poets, and lyricists. As mentioned earlier, poetry can be a safe space that allows for expression and identity, a space that will enable them to be lost in the lyrics and words. This space catapults their insecurities about English not being their first language away and leaves a way to escape momentarily still with them.
Begin the unit by explaining who Tupac Shakur is. Give background and biographical information to students about him, not just as a rapper but as a poet, lyricist, activist, inmate, and actor. As previously stated, Tony McKenna says, “Tupac was a mirror of contradictions. In the short time he lived, Tupac was a poet, artist, actor, rapper, model, and screenwriter. As well he was a convicted batterer, a ‘thug’ and a self-styled ‘gangsta’ with murky gangland affiliations. On top of all that, he was a revolutionary.”11 Let students know that while Tupac was all those things, it was his ability as a writer, his use of words, spoken and written, that took him to the next level. As such, this unit will show students how to use poetry as both sound and object to take them to the next level. They will learn new things and confirm knowledge of things already known to them. The unit will provide them with a way to take what they learn, and, on their own, as independent learners, they can choose to grow academically and intellectually with this newfound knowledge.
Give background information on the rap beef with Biggie and Pac. What it stemmed from and what it led to. Give background information on the rap beef between Drake and Kendrick Lamar, what it stemmed from and what it led to. This part of the lesson will tie in with some of the activities that will be done as part of one of the culminating projects. Mention how Sha found a teachable with her students in Chicago and what that did for her as an educator and her students as learners.
1. Sonnets and Such
- Explain what a sonnet is and show students the patterns for English and Italian sonnets
- Preteach academic language words (octave, sestet, quatrain, couplet)
- Preteach chosen vocabulary words so students can better comprehend what they are reading (have aides translate the sonnets for me in students’ first language to aid in their understanding)
- Read and analyze two of each kind together whole group and explain how we know, based on the pattern
- Pull four (two of each type) one set have students work in pairs to determine the type and one set have students work independently to determine the type
- As a class discuss the poems whole group and what resonated most with them
- Have students find in the poems the shifts from then to and, explain how they know
- Students should be speaking in complete sentences and writing in complete sentences, ensure they are by modeling this when teaching the lesson
- Provide sentence starters as the sheltered instruction pedagogical practice
2. Shape Poems and Such
- Explain what shape poems are
- Preteach any academic language
- As a class read the following shape poems: The Altar and Easter Wings by George Herbert, Lazy Jane by Shel Silverstein, Swan and Shadow by John Hollander, Broken/Heartbroken and Ho/Horizon/Ho by Ian Hamilton Finlay
- Analyze the poems and their shapes and as a class discuss what they think the shapes mean and their relationship to and relevance of the poems
- Have students work in a group to come with shape poems for 1. A Jordan tennis shoe 2. An Air Force One tennis shoe 3. An iPhone 4. Air Pods 5. Music note 6. Microphone 7. Feather pen
- Assign each student in each group a role (time keeper, facilitator, scribe or type, spokesperson)
- Allow students to choose one shape of their own to come up with a poem of their own for independent practice
- Provide sentence starters and a model of an exemplar as part of the sheltered instruction pedagogical practice
3. Syncopated Poems/Sonnets and Such
I like how Sharon told the story about her student singing the Kanye song regarding Emmett Till when he didn’t know anything about Till. She then showed her students images of Till leaving Chicago, the beating he took in the South, and how he returned to Chicago. It sort of reminds me of Jefrey and him listening to Tupac and not even knowing what the lyrics mean because of the language barrier.
- Explain what syncopated poems are and preteach any academic language
- Remind students of the Biggie/Pac, Kendrick Lamar/Drake beef
- Introduce Kanye lyrics to students about Emmitt Till to gauge their knowledge of what happened to Till and the relevance of the name drop in Kanye’s song
- Depending on their knowledge of him, give a mini lesson who he was, what happened to him, and why knowing a little bit about a lot of stuff is important because it can help to bring into context why artists or poets choose the words they do in their writings.
- Introduce the following poems to students from the Olio book 1. Mark Twain v. Blind Tom 2. Eliza Bethune v. Charity Wiggins 3. Blind Boone Meets Blind Tom, 1889
- Read them to students as typical poems (just straight across line by line)
- Read them to students syncopated
- Play the poems to let students hear the poems and how sound changes the complete dynamic and understanding of the poem
- Discuss how rap beef can be thought of as a syncopated poem because of the back and forth and so on and so forth
- Have two students read the poems (one student as one character)
- Create a syncopated poem with students as a whole class activity (figure out a pattern or graphic organizer for them to follow to aide in their being able to successfully do this (I am still toying with this idea and it may or may not make it to the final draft)
- Explain that students and teacher will write disses to one another in the form of a syncopated form (still figuring out exactly how to go about this/it may or may not make it to the final draft)
4. Erasure and Blackout Poems and Such
- Explain what each type is and how these types of poems lends themselves to visual arts (use a compare/contrast graphic organizer to aid in students’ understanding of the difference between the two)
- Preteach any academic language
- Give background information on Zong and explain what happened on the slave ship, why it happened, what happened because of it, and how the author used that tragedy to write a type of poetry that is unique and invites readers to want to know more about what happened
- Show students Zong and discuss what they feel in relation to the tragedy that occurred
- Provide students with rap lyrics of Biggie and Tupac’s/Drake and Lamar’s disses and have students work with a partner to blackout words to create their own poems from them
- Invite a group or two to share out
- Give students a copy of Tupac’s case file to blackout independently
- Invite students to share out and explain why or how they chose which words to blackout
- Give students a copy of the case file from the Grayson v. Gilbert case and have them blackout with a partner
- Give students a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation and have them blackout independently
- Invite students to share out their blackout and explain their reasoning for which words they chose to keep and which words they chose to blackout
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