I found this great lesson plan posted on NCTE-Talk. I do not know who the original author is.
LESSON PLAN
Topic: Poetry Supermarket Rationale:Students need to be exposed to different poems to determine their own likes and dislikes about poems and poets. This exercise will allow them to choose poems which they like and dislike and explain why they chose these particular poems. Objectives: TLW:1)choose at least one poem that they like and one poem that they dislike from twenty poems posted around the classroom 2)copy the two chosen poems into their Poetry Journal 3)write a response to the two poems using the Poetry Journal Activity as a guide. Materials Needed:Poems to post around the room, Poetry Shopping List, tape, transparency, overhead projector, Poetry Journals, pen, and paper. Lesson Focus:A Poetry Shopping List is on each student's desk as they enter the room. Instructional Input: 1)For this lesson, it is important for the teacher to allow the students to explore and discover the poems for themselvesas if they are wandering through an art gallery. The teacher will not talk to the students unless the students seek guidance from the teacher. 2)A transparency on the overhead will give the students directions for shopping in the Poetry Supermarket. The transparency will read: a.You have just entered the Poetry Supermarket. Let's go shopping for poems. b.Pick up the Poetry Shopping List that is on your desk. c.Walk around the room and read the twenty posted poems. d.As you read the poems, record your favorite poems and your least favorite poems on your Poetry Shopping List. e.Choose at least one poem that you like and one that you dislike for a journal writing project. f. Copy the poems carefully into your Poetry Journal and include the title and the poet. g.Write a response to the two poems using the Poetry Journal Activity as a guide. 3)Observe that the students are recording their poems on the Poetry Shopping List and responding to the poems in their Poetry Journals. Closure: The teacher will review and summarize the class objectives and instructional input. "What factors went into your liking or disliking of a poem?" Example answers - Like or dislike for a poet, the language used in a poem, rhyme scheme used, and subject matter addressed. Evaluation:Walk around the room and observe that the students are reading and responding to the poems. Each student will turn his/her entries in the Poetry Journal into the teacher for comments and a "+" or "-" grade will be assessed. Transparency You have just entered the Poetry Supermarket. Let's go shopping for poems. 1.After you have received your poetry shopping list, walk around the room and read the twenty posted poems. 2.As you read the poems, record the title and author of each poem onto your poetry shopping list. 3.As you record the poems, mark your favorite poem and your least favorite poem on your poetry shopping list. 4.Choose at least one poem that you like and one that you dislike for a journal writing project. 5.Copy the poems carefully into your Poetry Journal and include the title and the poet. 6.Respond to the two poems using the Poetry Journal Activity Handout as a guide. Handout Poetry Journal Activity In your Poetry Journal, enter the poem you most liked and poem you disliked from the Poetry Supermarket. Copy the poems carefully and include the title and the poet. After thinking about the poems for a while, write about one or more of the following: 1What initially attracted you to this poem? 1How is it like other poems you enjoy? 1How is it unlike any poem you've ever read before? 1What is happening in this poem and to whom? 1Can you follow the poem? If you lose it, where do you get lost? 1What is this poem trying to do? Is it successful? 1What examples of figurative language are present in the poem? 1List your favorite metaphors. 1Is there a rhyme scheme? 1Is the poem written in a specific meter? Describe the rhyme of the poem. 1What images linger in your mind after reading the poem? 1Is there a theme or specific message the poet attempted to convey? 1Do you believe in this poem? Is it real for you? 1Does this poem have any special significance or meaning to your life? 1With whom would you like to share this poem? Poems to Post Around the Classroom She Walks in Beauty She walks in Beauty, like the night Of cloudless climes and starry skies; And all that's best of dark and bright Meet in her aspect and her eyes: Thus mellowed to that tender light Which Heaven to gaudy day denies. One shade the more, one ray the less, Had half impaired the nameless grace Which waves in every raven tress, Or softly lightens o'er her face; Where thoughts serenely sweet express, How pure, how dear their dwelling-place. And on that cheek, and o'er that brow, So soft, so calm, yet eloquent, The smiles that win, the tints that glow, But tell of days in goodness spent, A mind at peace with all below, A heart whose love is innocent! George Gordon, Lord Byron (from Anthology: An Introduction to Literature, 1977, by Lynn Altenbernd) Saying Dante Aloud You can feel the muscles and veins rippling in widening and rising circles, like a bird in flight under your tongue. James Wright (from Contemporary American Poetry, 1991, by A. Poulin, Jr.) Poems to Post Around the Classroom The Year's at the Spring The year's at the spring And the day's at the morn; Morning's at seven; The hillside's dew-pearled; The lark's on the wing; The snail's on the thorn: God's in his heaven All's right with the world! Robert Browning (from The Random House Treasury of Best-Loved Poems, 1990, edited by Louis Phillips) Reunion Already one day has detached itself from all the rest up ahead. It has my photograph in its soft pocket. It wants to carry my breath into the past in its bag of wind. I write poems to untie myself, to do penance and disappear Through the upper right-hand corner of things, to say grace. Charles Wright (from Contemporary American Poetry, 1991, by A. Poulin, Jr.) The Eagle He clasps the crag with crooked hands; Close to the sun in the lonely lands, Ringed with the azure world he stands. The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls; He watches from his mountain walls, And like a thunderbolt he falls. Alfred, Lord Tennyson (from Anthology: An Introduction to Literature, 1977, by Lynn Altenbernd) Poems to Post Around the Classroom The Portrait My mother never forgave my father for killing himself, especially at such an awkward time and in a public park, that spring when I was waiting to be born. She locked his name in her deepest cabinet and would not let him out, though I could hear him thumping. When I came down from the attic with the pastel portrait in my hand of a long-lipped stranger with a brave moustache and deep brown level eyes, she ripped it into shreds without a single word and slapped me hard. In my sixty-fourth year I can feel my cheek still burning. Stanley Kunitz (from Contemporary American Poetry, 1991, by A. Poulin, Jr.) The Germ A mighty creature is the germ, Though smaller than the pachyderm. His customary dwelling place Is deep within the human race. His childish pride he often pleases By giving people strange diseases. Do you, my poppet, feel infirm? You probably contain a germ. Ogden Nash (from Anthology: An Introduction to Literature, 1977, by Lynn Altenbernd) Poems to Post Around the Classroom Monet's "Waterlilies" (for Bill and Sonja) Today as the news from Selma and Saigon poisons the air like fallout, I come again to see the serene great picture that I love. Here space and time exist in light the eye like the eye of faith believes. The seen, the known dissolve in iridescence, become illusive flesh of light that was not, was, forever is. O light beheld as through refracting tears. Here is the aura of that world each of us has lost. Here is the shadow of its joy. Robert Hayden (from Contemporary American Poetry, 1991, by A. Poulin, Jr.) The Sick Rose O rose, thou art sick! The invisible worm That flies in the night, In the howling storm, Has found out thy bed Of crimson joy, And his dark secret love Does thy life destroy. William Blake (from Anthology: An Introduction to Literature, 1977, by Lynn Altenbernd) Poems to Post Around the Classroom We Real Cool The Pool Players. Seven at the Golden Shovel. We real cool. We Left School. We Lurk late. We Strike straight. We Sing sin. We Thin gin. We Jazz June. we Die soon. Gwendolyn Brooks (from Contemporary American Poetry, 1991, by A. Poulin, Jr.) Outwitted He drew a circle that shut me out Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout. But Love and I had the wit to win: We drew a circle that took him in! Edwin Markham (from The Random House Treasury of Best-Loved Poems, 1990, edited by Louis Phillips) Snow If we, as we are, are dust, and dust, as it will, rises, Then we will rise, and recongregate In the wind, in the cloud, and be their issue, Things in a fall in a world of fall, and slip Through the spiked branches and snapped joints of the evergreens, White ants, white ants, and the little ribs. Charles Wright (from Contemporary American Poetry, 1991, by A. Poulin, Jr.) Poems to Post Around the Classroom Falls, Leaves, Fall Fall, leaves, fall: die, flowers, away; Lengthen night and shorten day; Every leaf speaks bliss to me, Fluttering from the autumn tree. I shall smile when wreaths of snow Blossom where the rose should grow; I shall sing when night's decay Ushers in a drearier day. Emily Brontk (from The Random House Treasury of Best-Loved Poems, 1990, edited by Louis Phillips) Watermelons Green Buddhas On the fruit stand. We eat the smile and spit out the teeth. Charles Simic (from Contemporary American Poetry, 1991, by A. Poulin, Jr.) Dream Deferred What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over like a syrupy sweet? Maybe it just sags like a heavy load. Or does it explode? Langston Hughes (from The Random House Treasury of Best-Loved Poems, 1990, edited by Louis Phillips) Poems to Post Around the Classroom The Premonition Walking this field I remember Days of another summer. Oh that was long ago! I kept Close to the heels of my father, Matching his stride with half-steps Until we came to a river. He dipped his hand in the shallow: Water ran over and under Hair on a narrow wrist bone; His image kept following after, Flashed with the sun in the ripple. But when he stood up, that face Was lost in a maze of water. Theodore Roethke (from Contemporary American Poetry, 1991, by A. Poulin, Jr.) I May, I Might, I Must If you will tell me why the fen appears impassible, I then will tell you why I think that I can get across it if I try. Marianne Moore (from The Random House Treasury of Best-Loved Poems, 1990, edited by Louis Phillips) Nocturne in a Deserted Brickyard Stuff of the moon Runs on the lapping sand Out to the longest shadows. Under the curving willows, And round the creep of the wave line, Fluxions of yellow and dusk on the waters Make a wide dreaming pansy of an old pond in the night. Carl Sandburg (from Anthology: An Introduction to Literature, 1977, by Lynn Altenbernd) Poems to Post Around the Classroom Mother o' Mine If I were hanged on the highest hill, Mother o' mine, O mother o' mine! I know whose love would follow me still, Mother o' mine, O mother o' mine! If I were drowned in the deepest sea, Mother o' mine, O mother o' mine! I know whose tears would come down to me, Mother o' mine, O mother o' mine! If I were damned by body and soul, I know whose prayers would make me whole, Mother o' mine, O mother o' mine! Rudyard Kipling (from The Random House Treasury of Best-Loved Poems, 1990, edited by Louis Phillips) The Mirror Watching you in the mirror I wonder what it is like to be so beautiful and why you do not love but cut yourself, shaving like a blind man. I think you let me stare so you can turn against yourself with greater violence, needing to show me how you scrape the flesh away scornfully and without hesitation until I see you correctly, as a man bleeding, not the reflection I desire. Louise Gl|ck (from Contemporary American Poetry, 1991, by A. Poulin, Jr.) ----------------------------------------------------------------- Archives--> http://www.ncte.org/lists/ncte-talk/archives.html To leave the list, send email to majordomo@lists.ncte.org In the first line of the note put: unsubscribe ncte-talk
