1+Rationale

This unit on poetry will equip students with essential skills to improve their understanding of literature as it relates to reading and writing. During this poetry unit, students will engage in close reading activities during which they will analyze poems, a genre that consists of texts that are concise and carefully constructed, rich and calculated. The experience provided to students in this type of analysis and close reading as they break down the language of poetry will increase their skills when looking at and working with other texts regardless of genre. Along the lines of transferrable skills, poetry contains a high prevalence of the elements of literature. In reading, writing, and analyzing poetry, students will develop their skills in identifying and using literary devices such as symbols, metaphors, allusions, and imagery. In working with the specific elements of poetry in identification and use, students will also be increasing their awareness and understanding of the use and identification of form and structure for the purposes of work with poems and other genres. Through the use of a multi-sensory lesson students will first be engaged in completing an anticipation guide that will draw on their prior knowledge and stimulate interest through prompting them to think about their thoughts and personal preferences regarding the genre of poetry, as a pre-reading activity and introduction to the unit on poetry. Students will then be given a copy of the lyrics to the song "Bowl of Oranges" by Bright Eyes. The teacher will read the song lyrics aloud and then play the song for the class. The inclusion of both reading and listening to the song adds a multi-sensory level to the lesson that will increase engagement and with the addition of a class discussion and brainstorming session on the qualities that combine to make a poem a poem, students will be encouraged to think outside the box and to continue in that realm of thinking across genres. In this unit, the big idea, the main overreaching, overarching theme is not just poetry, but rather, form and function within poetry. We will seek to teach the students why form and function serve to further enhance the meaning of a poem, and how it differs from prose as both a literary device and a genre. We have sequenced our unit of study so that the students will be learning different forms of poems in the context of different themes; thus, for each segment of the unit, they will encounter two new, refreshing changes of pace, instead of studying one form or one theme. We have sequenced this study around what theme we feel will segue best into another mini-unit. We scaffold our students' learning through the flow of poetic forms; each section of the unit builds on a previous part; each poetic form becoming more difficult with more parameters. We will begin to facilitate student learning by immediately having them do activities. We have started with an introduction, where students will receive an overview of haikus, free verse poetry, and sonnets. There is an anticipation guide to gauge students’ reactions to the unit and address some of their preconceptions; this will help them frame their own experiences and expectations of the unit, and hopefully pique interest. The next unit is studying haikus, arguably one of the easiest forms of poetry. We have paired haikus with a nature theme. The students will learn the components of a haiku, and practice writing them all within the context of nature. Next, the students will study free verse poetry, a more challenging form than haiku, in the context of war poetry. They will address issues of how form relates to function and how the author’s purpose plays a major part in the information presented within the poem. They will also look through a historical lens at the war poetry studied in this section of the unit. The ending mini-unit looks at the form and function of sonnets within the appropriate theme of love. Sonnets are the most challenging of the forms presented to the students. To close the unit, we will frame their understanding with a week of culminating experiences, allowing them to work on their final project: a portfolio which will include all of their work throughout the unit. We have selected poems that are relevant to each mini-unit’s needs and standards, as well as contemporary and modern poetry, including songs, to aid in maintaining student motivation. //Teaching Literature to Adolescents// raises an interesting, relevant point. The authors state, “You need to provide your students with an overview of what they are expected to produce – the outcome or project. Knowing that, for example, they need to create a poetry anthology along with articulate reasons for including each poem as the final product in a poetry unit shapes students’ attention as they move through the unit” (52). In our case, knowing that they must create a personal portfolio of poems at the end of the unit, that includes both the work they’ve done in class, appended drafts they’ve worked on at home and a selected professional poem that speaks to them, will serve as a point of focus as we move throughout the unit. They will know clearly what is expected of them at the end of the unit, as well as have most of the work already accomplished at that point. Orienting and socializing occur throughout the unit as the students converse, discuss, and reveal their findings. They will be familiar with how discussions are run within the classroom, and they will possess a sense of camaraderie with their peers, so that no one feels left out, or picked on. For socializing to be effective, a teacher must develop a safe environment for participation. As teachers, we will model what is asked of our students by showing them poems that we would like them to reproduce or reflect on. We might write our own poems along with our students and will participate in discussion to show them acceptable methods. In regard to orienting, as long as we keep our own enthusiasm and passion for the subject evident in our teaching, students will learn that much more. According to //Teaching Literature to Adolescents//, there are three main elements in classroom actions: manner: how a teacher conducts the class, style: what personal flair a teacher may add to instruction, and tact: how the teacher reacts to certain comments, subjects, or anything else that may come up in class. These three areas all contribute to developing a safe environment for learning and participating. It is necessary for the teacher to possess all three qualities. Students should also be developing these skills, not just within this unit, but throughout their lives. Our reflection occurs throughout the unit, as the teacher gauges the effectiveness of instruction. A teacher can tailor future instruction based on student reaction and understanding. If they are not understanding something at the very beginning of the unit, they will not successfully be able to move on from that segment of information, because the rest of the unit builds on what has already been learned. We conduct formative assessment throughout the unit, through quizzes and collecting work as it is completed in an effort to catch any problems or hiccups in comprehension on the part of the students very early on. Learning expectations relate to grade-level expectations through the inclusion of various Sunshine State Standards. Throughout the unit, we specifically included a number of activities and lessons that would reflect these standards. Much of our focus will be on both reading and writing poetry. Some of the standards addressed include: o LA.910.1.7.2 The student will analyze the authors purpose and/or perspective in a variety of text and understand how they affect meaning: Author’s purpose is especially relevant to poetry study, as frequently the purpose is not entirely transparent to the reader. o LA.910.2.1.3 The student will explain how meaning is enhanced through various features of poetry, including sound (e.g., rhythm, repetition, alliteration, consonance, assonance), structure (e.g., meter, rhyme scheme), and graphic elements (e.g., line length, punctuation, word position): Poems utilize metaphors and other literary devices deliberately so that the meaning is not always evident, even after a close reading. The haiku and sonnet mini-units will examine structure and form, including rhyme schemes, meter, rhythm, and other graphic elements. o LA.A.1.4.4 use a systematic process for the collection, processing, and presentation of information: their final portfolio will reflect this process. There are many more standards covered throughout our unit, but these are among the most relevant. We have also included some media literacy standards, as students will be working on computers and learning to navigate the internet to do research. During the lessons that involve the explanation of the elements of poetry (rhyme scheme, syllables, line length, meter, stanzas, meter, etc.) and the forms of poetry (Sonnet, free verse, etc.) overt instruction will be implemented as the teacher of the lesson will be providing explanations to students regarding these aspects of poetry. This direct form of instruction will help students to receive the same basic information. This type of separated instruction is a great transition to a simulated lesson type in which students are being scaffolded to discuss the concepts and information previously taught and come up with examples in the model of the examples provided by the teacher and make use of them in their own writing, ending with an integrated approach as students compose their own poems. Students will also be engaged in Louise Rosenblatt's practice of a valid reading in that as students look at and work with poems throughout the first two weeks, they will be basing their readings of those poems off of textual support that does not contradict their claim or perspective. Similarly, students will be constantly learning and presented with new information that should operate in a system of transformed practice as students are approaching new texts with a changed perspective that arises from their new understandings and knowledge of the literary devices and poetic elements, etc. that are being worked with on a daily basis. Additionally the classroom environment that students will be operating in will be supportive of the sociocultural learning theory which holds that learning takes place within social groups or communities and that the study of literature is best when in a supportive, comfortable environment. The Haiku segment of this unit is the first segment that specifically attends to the poetic form of Haiku through the thematic lens of Nature. This mini-unit will focus students’ attention on the deliberate choices that the author must make when writing poetry. The attentive focus on a short poetic form will prepare students to be able to read and write other forms of poetic and prose writing with more depth and attention to detail. Through Overt Instruction the teacher will guide students in close analysis of the text and in careful selection and use of words through the students’ creation of their own Haikus. During Situated Practice students will write Haikus about Nature as they see it and the world around them, thus creating connections between their existing understanding and the poems. The war segment of the unit especially involves reading poetry for content, and purpose. The student will read poetry and learn specifically about what the author’s purpose is in choosing the themes of the poem. War poetry can encompass a range of emotions and ideas within its context. War poems frequently are a form of protest, or speaking out against a course of action. War is a life and death matter; it is a grave subject, gut-wrenching and undeniably visceral. Reading war poetry will enable students to read for not only the facts and opinions in a poem, but for emotion and gravity. During one lesson, students will engage in a close reading of various songs about war, particularly from the 1960’s and 1970’s. In //Teaching Literature to Adolescents//, the authors advocate studying popular music. In particular, one student teacher talked about how songs served as statements of protest within a historical context. “Students began with an exploration of the meaning of protest, both in their lives and in the larger society. The students discussed how individual protest becomes a larger, collective protest” (Beach, Appleman, Hynds, and Wilhelm 211). In this section of the unit, students will really engage in a close reading of poetry and song, and learn to frame their responses in a historical context. Did poetry – in the form of song – change the world? In the mini-unit that deals with sonnets and love, a lot of group work is utilized to help students collaborate and communicate their ideas successfully. The group work varies from offering their own ideas on what a poem means, to working in pairs to paraphrase a poem from Shakespearean language to modern language. Carol Jago in her book //With Rigor for All// discusses the importance of having students work together and exercise their own ideas by hearing the thoughts of their peers. This activity of collaboration can stretch students' definitions of meaning as well as expand any narrow-minded responses. The first day where the different types of sonnets are discussed is an example of the overt instruction that is paired with the situated practice of colormarking. The students are given one sonnet to focus on that they can then analyze themselves. After listening to the instruction the day before and the previous days on what the sonnet form is, the students can use that information to begin making claims on what the poem means. The colormarking activity we discussed in class is a way to focus close reading visually so that students can note and point out patterns that emerge. This is a great tool for visual learners and can be used in literary analysis of other types of writing. In her article //Guidelines for Teaching Middle and High School Students to Read and Write Well: Six Features of Effective Instruction//, Judith Langer provides six strategies that she recommends for effective teaching. She recommends that teachers vary lesson types, integrate test preparation, make connections between curriculum and life, teach students helpful literary strategies, expect students’ to be generative thinkers, and foster collaboration in the classroom (Langer 2000). Throughout this unit, we have tried to consistently incorporate these practices to successfully teach our students. By varying the types of our lesson plans, we match the best teaching strategy for the lesson to the students’ needs. We try to keep an even balance between separated, simulated, and integrated activities to better help our students learn and develop a personal understanding of poetry. Throughout the entire unit, students are preparing for their final assessment: the poetry portfolio. This assessment is a reflection of the work that the students have done and gives them a chance to demonstrate their understanding in a way more genuine than a test requiring rote memorization or lucky guesses. The analytical and writing skills that are taught throughout the unit provide tools that will prepare students for academic success in testing and in future classes. Poetry can evoke powerful emotions and deep thought. This unit works to make poetry accessible to students, helping them recognize it in popular culture and appreciate it in past works. Students will create poetry that puts their thoughts, emotions, and experiences into words that are powerful and compelling. Through this, the unit helps to connect the students’ lives to the curriculum and content of poetry. One of the goals of this unit is to teach students to understand and create poetry. Throughout the unit we teach students strategies and methods used for reading and writing poetry. Specific attention is paid to structure, form, and devices that students need and use to successfully interact with poetry. This unit is based around student creation and interpretation of poetry. The lessons were designed to encourage and develop generative thought for each student, helping them create personal meaning and understanding of poetry. In many of the lessons throughout the unit, students will work in groups to negotiate meaning. Through collaborative thinking, students will work in a socio-cultural environment that encourages them to listen to each other and build off of each others' ideas. By echoing Langer's effective teaching methods we have created a cohesive unit that will scaffold student learning, and accommodate any special needs learners like second language learners. It is our hope that this unit plan would teach students how wide a variety there is of poetry and that it is accessible to them and a genre worth examining.