Title: What Makes Good Poetry?
Topic: Free Verse Poetry
Grade: 9-12
Objectives: Students are able to identify what makes a poem appealing to them, and list some elements that poets use to catch attention and make meaning.
Idea: In an introductory lesson to a unit on poetry, students will consider, both as a class and individually, what they like or dislike in poetry. The poems listed above offer some challenges to a narrow definition of poetry — most of them are unrhymed free verse poems with varying line lengths. The teacher will read at least one of these poems to the class as an opening for student discussion on how the poem differs from, or corresponds to, the students' expectations of poetry. After the reading, give students copies of the poem, so they can see the shape it takes on the page. Students will also identify what elements of the poem they like or dislike. After a preliminary discussion, students will go to the library with the assignment of finding a poem that appeals to them. In addition to setting aside various poetry anthologies, there will be a folder of poems the teacher has selected for students to consider if they choose.
Materials:
Poems (suggestions from Americans' Favorite Poems):
"Mansion" by A.R. Ammons
"The Bean Eaters" by Gwendolyn Brooks
"Jabberwocky" by Lewis Carroll
"The Rain" by Robert Creeley
"The Bee" by James Dickey
"The Pebble" by Zbigniew Herbert
"Strawberries" by W.S. Merwin
"The Night Dances" or "Polly's Tree" by Sylvia Plath
"My Papa's Waltz" by Theodore Roethke
"The Snow Man" by Wallace Stevens
"Pot Roast" by Mark Strand
"My Fly" by C.K. Williams
Modifications: Read all poems to insure they are age-appropriate. If students have all read one poem in another class or in a previous year, perhaps exchange that one for one of the unknown poems (to facilitate discussion and save time).
Source: http://www.favoritepoem.org/lessonplans-links/whatispoetry.html
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