Patricia M. Sorrentino
By the end of this unit, all of my students should be able to recognize alliteration, rhyme, wordplay (including metaphors, similes, puns, and others), irony, imagery, and tone. They will not only be able to highlight these elements of poetry, but they should be able to write their own examples of these elements in their own original rap and/or poetry.
Also, my students should be able to understand theme within lyrics or poetry and make text-to-text connections, text-to-self connections, and text-to-world connections. These connections also highlight the necessary skills my students need to have in March when they are taking CAPT. I will ask my students to decide why a compacted, rhymed statement is more powerful than a longer, unrhymed paragraph, which will have them question how successful an author is at creating a good piece of literature/writing; this task also fits in perfectly with sections from CAPT. In the beginning of the unit, my students will mostly make these connections through writing. They will be given specific questions, such as "How does the message of this rap/poem make you feel? Do you agree with the message? Why or why not? How does this message connect to you or others you know? Explain in detail your answers." The foundation of this question is "text-to-self." There will be other questions that address different elements of writing about text as well.
As we become experienced readers/writers of rap and poetry, I will ask my students to not only write their responses, but to form literature circles and engage in whole class discussions. The purpose for this sequence is because in the past, my students feel more comfortable writing independently, whether it is due to fear of rejection or fear of being wrong, they historically do not discuss personal reactions well. I need to make sure my students have had practice with this material and have a chance to receive positive feedback from me before they can feel comfortable sharing as a class.
Also, throughout the unit, I will ask my students to write a line or few lines of rap/poetry and offer them a chance to share their work. Also, each one of my students will be asked to read aloud at least one rap or poem we will be working on each class period. I need to prepare them and allow them time to become comfortable performing before asking them to complete their final assessment, which will be to write their own poem/rap and perform it in front of a larger audience at the very end of this unit.
