1. Students will be able to synthesize that people are at the route of all they learn. This is important for students in two ways: One, to realize that there was a person who came up with the mathematical theory they are learning; a real, living breathing person who wrote whatever book they find boring at the time; that the scientist who discovered the cell wall had just as many human problems as the students studying it. And two, because making that human connection with their material, consequently making it more relatable, will make students more engaged in the material and in the learning process. For this unit, therefore, students will focus just as much on the poets and their history as on the verse itself.
2. Students will be able to explore poetry as a means of cultural expression. Each experience outlined in the unit will involve a study of the cultural experience the poet was living at the time.
3. Students will be able to thematically and stylistically connectpublished poetry with the experience that inspired it. They will compare different poetic conventions and devices to the reasons that the poets likely decided to use said devices. Students will analyze said devices with regard to how they effectively convey emotions born of movement, uprooting, dislocation, struggle and ambition.
4. Students will be able to write about whether movement made the immigrant or migrant's life better, using examples from poetry, as well as histories of the social conditions during the poets' respective eras, in order to support their stance.