Edwina E. Johnson
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I. I will give the students background information in the form of mini lectures.
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II. Initially I would start the class by giving the students song lyrics on paper without telling them what it is they are reading.
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III. After the class has had sometime to look over the lyrics, I will play a tape of the same song of a popular artist such as Michael Jackson or David Lee Roth.
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IV. I would pose discussion questions such as “What is the theme of the poem?” “What significance (meaning) does it have for you?”
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V. I have had the students do some writing this year. I gave the students topics such as Love, Friendship, Happiness, Sadness etc. to get them started. The students will be divided into groups of 3-4 students and allowed to collaborate on their work. The students will also be allowed to work alone.
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VI. I will collect the poems and go over them and hand them back to the students.
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VII. The students will make corrections, revisions and additions.
The poets I will use in my curriculum unit are Langston Hughes, Emily Dickinson, Imamu Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones), Miguel Algarin, Miguel Pinero, and Julio Marzan.
I will give the class background information on each poet. The underlying purpose will be to enable the students to better understand the author. The class will be informed of the lifestyle the author led, when and where he or she lived.
The authors I have chosen are of Black, White and Hispanic descent. My purpose is to represent my entire student population which will be comprised of the various groups of people.
I feel as though these authors will catch and hold the interest of my students.
I had formerly begun to work with “Limericks” in my class. In addition I will introduce or review the
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a. simile
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b. metaphor
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c. stanza
I feel as though it will be valuable to approach the class with song lyrics initially because they will be familiar with the artists and to illustrate the similarity between music and poetry.
Our study of Poetry will be beneficial to my class because it will (1) improve their reading skills (2) enable and facilitate their writing Poetry (3) improve their understanding of Poetry.
The poems I will utilize are as follows:
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Mother To Son, Morning After, Shakespeare In Harlem, and Ballad of The Gypsy by Langston Hughes.
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The Day Came Slow—Till Five O’Clock I Like To See It Lap The Miyles and Wild Nights—Wild Nights by Emily Dickinson.
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Cold Term, Song Form, Air, A Poem For Black Hearts, Ballad of The Morning Streets and Red Light by Imamu Aniri Baraka.
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Love Without Love, Call Out My Number and Maced by Luis Llorens Torres.
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Neither This Nor That my Luis Pales Matos.
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The Night Has Twenty-Four Hours By Pedro Juan Pietri
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Underground Poetry by Pedro Pietri
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About the Rats by Jorge Lopez (Translation by Miguel Pinero)
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Dedicated to Maria Rodriguez Martinez by Lucky Cien Fuegos (translation by Miguel Algarin)
I will teach the unit one day a week, because I find it necessary to change what I do in class so as not to bore the students and keep the class interested.