The last section of the unit will be poetry. Several weeks will be spent on this area. To begin this section, students will need an introduction to terminology related to poetry. Important vocabulary to know will be:
Mood
Imagery
Figure of Speech
Rhyme
Simile
Metaphor
Alliteration
Assonance
Students will first learn the terminology and be given examples of each. When reading each poem, students will be asked to give examples where appropriate. This will be done in addition to interpretation of the poetry and class activities. All poetry will be read aloud, to be followed by a question and answer period. At this time I would like my students to begin keeping a poetry book. Initially, I would just like them to get into the habit of writing down what they’re feeling and get their reactions to poetry they are reading. Their poetry books will contain selected poems read in class along with their interpretations, opinions, etc. In addition, the books will include their own writings. Throughout this section on poetry, students will be given specific writing tasks, that will involve using various elements of poetry. This will be done gradually, as initially I will be more concerned with their getting their thoughts and emotions on paper than I will on the structure of their writing. For reluctant writers, I hope to have available poetry written by other students which has been published. I think this might encourage my students to at least try.
The first poet will be Langston Hughes. Students will be exposed through lecture to the time period in which Hughes lived and write. Each of his poems will be read aloud. They include: “Still Here,” “Harlem,” “Dream Variations,” “Bad Morning,” “Mother to Son,” “My People” and “Minstrel Man.” Students will be asked to comment on the following: Who or what is being described? Is the content important? Is it relevant now? Could the same poem be written today and have the same meaning? Students will respond to these questions orally as well as on paper.
ACTIVITIES
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1. Students will be asked to re-read the poems “My People” and “Mother to Son” and give examples of the use of metaphors used in each poem.
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2. Students will be asked to identify which of Hughes’ poems deals specifically with the theme of survival.
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3. Students will be asked to write a poem on one of the following topics: Dreams, On the Streets and My Sons. The poem should deal with some aspect of survival and make use of metaphors and/or similes.
The next poet is Gwendolyn Brooks. Her poems “The Ballad Of Rudolph Reed,” “The Bean Eaters” and “Children Of the Poor” deal with common people who are less fortunate and are trying to maintain some semblance of dignity. Students will be asked to describe the mood of each poem and explain how the writer’s visual images aid in their interpretation of the poems.
ACTIVITIES
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1. Students will copy these poems in their poetry books and include their interpretations of the poem.
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2. Students will write one paragraph telling whether they agree or disagree with the action taken by Rudolph to defend his home and family in the poem, “The Ballad Of Rudolph Reed”.
The third poet is Nikki Giovanni. Her poems “Nikki Rosa,” “Hands:For Mother’s Day” and “Harvest” are interesting not only for their content but in writing style as well. Students will readily be able to see the visual difference in her writing style compared to, say, Hughes or Brooks. Some of her poems extend for lines without ever seeing a period or a comma, where others are heavily punctuated with a series of dots as if while she were writing, her thoughts drifted or just stopped, only to begin again or to change to something new. Her poetry is written in conversational form, a predecessor to the more popular “rapping” rhymes heard today. Students will find her poetry interesting and perhaps more challenging to work with.
ACTIVITIES
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1. Students will imitate the style of Nikki Giovanni by writing a poem on any topic they wish.
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or
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2. Students can write a rap song dealing with some aspect of self-identity. The song should include positive qualities about themselves. Music can be added at their discretion. This will be an easy task since many of them have done this in the past quite successfully in drama class.
The final poet will be Maya Angelou. I thought that at this time students could use illustrations for poetry as an alternative way of interpreting what they are reading. Maya Angelou’s “Now Sheba Sings” is a good example of poetry conceived with illustrations in mind. In this book Maya Angelou wrote poetry to accompany drawings that were given to her. Students may want to experiment with this by writing poetry for artwork. Students can use drawings or pictures from reading books, art books, magazines etc. They can be abstract or thematic. In addition, they can reverse the process and take some of Angelou’s poetry and illustrate them. Angelou’s “Song For The Old Ones” and “Alone” would work well with this.
ADDITIONAL ACTIVITIES
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1. Students will identify and cite examples of the following in Maya Angelou’s Poems “Alone” and “Sons For The Old One”
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A) Rhyme
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B) Figure Of Speech
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C) Similes
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D) Imagery
In the following section I will give detailed plans of some of the activities described in this unit.