Objective
Students will be able to recognize symptoms and signs of depression within certain poems. Students will recall personal experiences as well as depressive symptoms in others through discussion and written work.
Teacher should list characteristics of depression on board and discuss with students prior to lesson. It should be stressed to students that everyone experiences these feelings from time to time and that this is a normal part of living day to day. A person can be labeled “depressed” by a doctor if these symptoms occur at the same time for a long period of time.
DEPRESSION
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1. Loss of interest in pleasures.
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2. Changes in appetite—overeating / undereating.
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3. Sudden increase or decrease of weight.
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4. Change of sleeping patterns.
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5. Hyperactivity or restlessness.
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6. Feeling of excessive guilt.
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7. Inability to concentrate.
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8. Recurrent thoughts of death or suicide.
For this lesson, I have chosen two poems written by Langston Hughes. The titles are “Mother to Son” and “Still Here”. These poems can be found in many Langston Hughes poetry books. They should be reproduced for each student. The teacher should read aloud to students so as to give the feeling of struggle than Langston Hughes portrays. Many children are familiar with Langston Hughes and his poems are very simple and concrete.
The poem “Still Here” deals with how Langston has been battered and his dreams and hopes gone with the wind. The world tries to make him stop laughing and loving but he is still here. “Mother to Son” is a very famous poem in which the mother tries to encourage hope in her son to keep going. My favorite line in the poem is “life for me ain’t been no crystal stair”.
Discussion
Comprehension questions.
“Still Here”—Langston Hughes
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A. Who or what has scarred the poet?
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B. What has the enemy tried to do to the poet?
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C. What are some things that could make a person stop laughing and living?
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D. What does the poet say to make you think he will keep trying?
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E. Even though he says he doesn’t care, do you think he really does?
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F. When people say “I don’t care”, what do you think they are really saying?
“Mother to Son”—Langston Hughes
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A. What does the mother compare life to?
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B. What obstacles are on the stairs?
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C. Do you think the mother is a strong person? What makes you think this?
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D. Has your mother, father, or grandparents ever given you advice? What was it?
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E. Do you feel that older people can give young people advice? Why?
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F. Do young people have a respectful attitude toward older people?
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G. How do you think this attitude makes older people feel?
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H. Have you ever felt that people don’t listen to you? How does that make you feel?
Teachers should be able to sense when the group is getting restless and allow conversation to take off in different directions if feelings or emotions are being discussed. The teacher can always draw the discussion back to the poems. I have planned to spend two weeks on death and two weeks on suicide. I was surprised at how many poems I found dealing with each topic, but found it hard to choose poems that were easy and concrete enough for the middle school special education students to comprehend. I hope to spur an interest in poetry and not create a power struggle in my classroom in which students try to persuade me not to do the poetry unit. Teachers must be careful not to pry if students only offer a little information. I have heard students accuse teachers of being nosy and wanting to know everyone’s business.
These questions may be used as an exercise for other poems dealing with depression. The teacher should ditto questions for students.
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A. Have you ever felt like sleeping forever?
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B. What happened to make you feel that way?
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C. What did you do to shake that feeling?
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D. Have you ever felt very guilty for something you had no control over?
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E. What was it?
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F. Have you ever had a problem where it was almost impossible to think of anything else? How did you solve it?
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G. Do you know anyone who always feels that life is unfair?
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H. Are they fun people to be around? Why?
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I. When you feel down, what are some things you do?
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J. Do you know people who use drugs and alcohol because they are unhappy?
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K. What can they do instead of using drugs and alcohol?
