"Seeing Two Poems":

This is the guide I prepared to help structure the active reading practice with the two poems which students completed in their collaborative learning teams. The brief instructions at the top of the handout reminded the students about the importance of hearing a poem and the titles and page numbers for the poems directed them to the appropriate places in their books. The divided chart for listing similarities and differences is deliberately simple for the purpose of allowing the students the latitude to consider any and all aspects of the poems that they notice while working together. In the oral directions, I did remind them to consider the poetic devices that we had previously used together and that they had listed on a handout in their notebooks. I also had a list on the board that day of specific devices they could consider with these two poems. The response questions following the chart are designed to prompt students to think about and apply their findings by evaluating their understanding of the two poems and the feelings the poems created in them as readers. While discussing the three questions with the various learning teams, I told them that they could answer them collaboratively or agree to disagree and write individual responses. The students filed this handout in their language arts notebooks following the lesson as a record of work and learning.

"Writing a Poem with Repetition":

This is the overhead transparency and instructional handout I used to explain the poem writing activity to the students following the active reading in their learning teams. The instructions were used for the poems that were written in the collaborative teams and then individually for homework.

"Poetry is a phantom script telling how rainbows are made and why they go away." ­Carl Sandburg

K. Gloden/96
NAME: _____________________________

Language Arts date/class:

SEEING TWO POEMS: "Buffalo Dusk" and "Flower Fed Buffaloes" pages 217 and 274

Listen to each poem as it is read aloud. In your learning team, study each poem individually and then together. Make a list of the similarities and differences between the two poems. Consider the poetic devices from your list of literary terms. Use the abbreviations BD and FFB for the two lists.

SIMILARITIES

DIFFERENCES

Now respond to the following questions about your findings and the poem. Write your responses on the back of this sheet please. Elaborate all of your ideas.

1. Is either poem easier to understand than the other? Why or why not?
2. Which poem is stronger in terms of the feelings it creates for the reader? Why?
3. Which poem do you like better and why? Give specific details from the poems to support your response.

K. Gloden/96 Language Arts
WRITING A POEM WITH REPETITION
Write a poem using the literary device of repetition. In your poem, describe the loss of something you have valued. Imitate the structure of Sandburg's poem, "Buffalo Dusk." Write your final copy on notebook paper or type.

MODEL:

Line one: The ______________________ is/are gone.

In the next 3­5 lines describe the item, person, feeling, etc. that is gone. Include some of the specific qualities or activities of the lost object/feeling that you especially miss. Create an image for your audience.

Then, as Sandburg does, repeat your first line as the last line of your poem.

Last line: The ______________________ is/are gone.
Write the draft of your poem here: