Seeing two poems

This lesson will teach students how to actively read a poem and identify poetic devices.

A lesson plan for grade 8 English Language Arts

By Karyn A. Gloden

Provided by Teachers Connect

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Related topics

• Learn more about analysis, language arts, literary devices, literature, poetry, repetition, similarities and differences, and structure.

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Learning outcomes

Students will:

• compare and contrast two poems
• work collaboratively with peers
• make inferences
• evaluate poetry
• write creatively and use the technique of repetition
• share writing with peers as the publishing phase of the writing process

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

2 Days

Materials/resources

• Copies of two poems: “Buffalo Dusk” by Carl Sandburg and “Flower Fed Buffaloes” by Vachel Lindsay
• Seeing Two Poems Response Guide and Writing a Poem With Repetition Guide Handouts and Overhead Notecards with topics appropriate for writing activity written on each.

Pre-activities

Students will be given a list of poetry terms to define and apply to their reading of poems as the unit of study continues.

Activities

1. Pass out response guide: Seeing Two Poems and copies of “Buffalo Dusk” and “Flower Fed Buffaloes.”
2. Volunteers read poems aloud as rest of class follows along in text.
3. Instruct students to work together in their learning teams to make a list of the similarities and differences between the two poems. Tell students to select a voice control monitor and a clock watcher. Tell students they have 15 minutes to complete the chart.
4. Circulate among learning teams as they work on the chart. Offer assistance and check progress as the students discuss and complete the chart.
5. At end of time period, call class back together and ask each team to choose a speaker (not a team member who has served another task role).
6. Call on each team to report similarities they have listed on the chart. Instruct students to add items to their charts which others report that their team did not notice. As each team’s speaker reports, the teacher comments and questions them about their findings. Prompt the students to infer the historical time frame of the poems’ topics.
7. After each team has reported, the teacher summarizes the process the students have experienced of actively reading poems.
8. Tell students that they will now model the technique of repetition used in the two poems. Show overhead transparency with suggested structure for 5 line poem modeling Sandburg’s poem, “The _______________ is gone.”
9. Tell students that they will practice the structure for the poem by creating one in their learning teams. Have each team draw an index card from teacher’s hand with a topic written on it. This will be the subject of the poem. Tell students to appoint one person in the team as the recorder. They will have 10 minutes to write their poems.
10. Teacher circulates among teams as they work on their group poem using assigned topic. Call class back together and ask each team to share the poem they have created. Remind students that they have not had time for revisions or “cleaning up” of these drafts.
11. Ask students if they have any questions about the poem writing structure and ask each student to write their own poem for tomorrow’s class. Each student may choose his/her own topic.
12. Class the following day begins with a sharing of the completed poems.

Assessment

The completion of the charts and the follow up discussion will be a measure of the students’ progress in identifying poetic devices in a poem and their ability to comprehend and interpret meaning.

The completion of the group poems will allow the teacher to evaluate the students’ understanding of the technique of repetition and their ability to apply this technique in their own writing.

The completion of the individual poems will allow the teacher to further evaluate the students’ ability to construct a poem utilizing specific poetic devices. The teacher may also evaluate the poems in terms of written conventions like spelling and the students’ ability to write from a creative stance.

Supplemental information

Comments

This lesson plan is from the Collection of the Tried *n* True lesson plans from the Department of Public Instruction.