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K–12 teaching and learning · from the UNC School of Education

A poem of possibilities: Thinking about the future

http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=943

A lesson plan for grade 12 English Language Arts

Provider: IRA/NCTE


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Using John Updike’s poem “Ex-Basketball Player&rdquo as a model, students write original poems considering their own goals, plans and hopes for the future. The teacher reads the poem aloud and engages students in an analysis of the details of the poem and helps clarify any unfamiliar vocabulary. After reading the poem, students discuss its style, theme, and structure and suggest other ways in which the poem could have been written. Then, in groups, students try to re-write the poem as prose, free verse, in rhyme, or some other poetic format. When students have composed their own original poem predicting where they will be in five years, they work in collaborative groups to edit and revise their work. Students finally address an envelope, place the poem inside, and give the poem to the teacher to mail to them in five years. This lesson provides several online resources to help students write their poems, as well as opportunities for self-reflection. Readwritethink provides assignment guidelines, helpful prewriting questions, questions for reflection about the activity, and links to the poem “Ex-basketball Player” by John Updike.

North Carolina Curriculum Alignment

English Language Arts (2004)

Grade 12

  • Goal 1: The learner will express reflections and reactions to print and non-print text as well as to personal experience.
    • Objective 1.01: Compose reflective texts that give the audience:
      - an understanding of complex thoughts and feelings.
      - a sense of significance (social, political, or philosophical implications).
      - a sense of encouragement to reflect on his or her own ideas.
    • Objective 1.02: Respond to texts so that the audience will:
      - empathize with the voice of the text.
      - make connections between the learner's life and the text.
      - reflect on how cultural or historical perspectives may have influenced these responses.
      - examine the learner's own response in light of peers' responses.
      -recognize features of the author's use of language and how the learner relates these features to his/her own writing.
  • Goal 2: The learner will inform an audience by exploring general principles at work in life and literature.
    • Objective 2.02: Analyze general principles at work in life and literature by:
      - discovering and defining principles at work in personal experience and in literature.
      -predicting what is likely to happen in the future on the basis of those principles.
    • Objective 2.03: Compose texts (in print and non-print media) that help the audience understand a principle or theory by:
      - researching experience for relevant principles that relate to themes in literature and life.
      - presenting a thesis, supporting it, and considering alternative perspectives on the topic.
      -adjusting the diction, tone, language, and method of presentation to the audience.
  • Goal 4: The learner will analyze and critique texts from various perspectives and approaches.
    • Objective 4.02: Develop critiques that give an audience:
      - an appreciation of how themes relate among texts.
      -an understanding of how authors' assumptions, cultural backgrounds, and social values affect texts.
      -an understanding of how more than one critical approach affects interpretation.
  • Goal 6: The learner will apply conventions of grammar and language usage.
    • Objective 6.01: Apply knowledge of literary terms, grammar, and rhetoric in order to write clearly, succinctly, and accurately by:
      - understanding how to use and apply grammatical, metaphorical, or rhetorical devices.
      - recognizing how to use different language conventions (such as loose or periodic sentences, effective use of passive voice, or the importance of strong verbs).
      - revising writing to enhance voice and style, sentence variety, subtlety of meaning, and tone in considerations of questions being addressed, purpose, audience, and genres.
      - contrasting use of language conventions of authors in different time periods of British literature.
      - analyzing the power of standard usage over nonstandard usage in formal settings such a job interviews, academic presentations, or public speaking events.
    • Objective 6.02: Discern and correct errors in speaking and writing by:
      - reviewing and refining purposeful use of various sentence types.
      - editing for correct punctuation, spelling, mechanics, and standard edited American English.
      - using appropriate transitional words and phrases.