Poem Sample: “How to Torture Your Students” by Jane Pomazal and Bruce Lansky
(click on book)
Subject: Language Arts Time of Lesson: 11 days/50minutes
Grade: Eighth
Age Range of Students: 12-14
Number of Female Students: XX
Number of Male Students: XX
Total Number of Students: XX
1. This is a class of Eighth grade students.
2. There is XX English Language learner(s) in the class.
3. There doesn’t seem to be any students with special needs per say. But some students could require a bit of on-on-one attention to assist them in the lesson.
4. Students will read works of classic literature to identify setting, mood, tone, and significant literary devices.
5. California State Standards:
Reading
1.0 Word Analysis, Fluency, and Systematic Vocabulary Development
Students use their knowledge of word origins and word relationships, as well as historical and literary context clues, to determine the meaning of specialized vocabulary and to understand the precise meaning of grade-level-appropriate words.
Vocabulary and Concept Development
1.1 Analyze idioms, analogies, metaphors, and similes to infer the literal and figurative meanings of phrases.
1.3 Use word meanings within the appropriate context and show ability to verify those meanings by definition, restatement, example, comparison, or contrast.
3.0 Literary Response and Analysis
Students read and respond to historically or culturally significant works of literature that reflect and enhance their studies of history and social science. They clarify the ideas and connect them to other literary works. The selections in Recommended Readings in Literature, Kindergarten Through Grade Eight illustrate the quality and complexity of the materials to be read by students.
Narrative Analysis of Grade-Level-Appropriate Text
3.3 Compare and contrast motivations and reactions of literary characters from different historical eras confronting similar situations or conflicts.
3.4 Analyze the relevance of the setting (e.g., place, time, customs) to the mood, tone, and meaning of the text.
3.6 Identify significant literary devices (e.g., metaphor, symbolism, dialect, irony) that define a writer’s style and use those elements to interpret the work.
Listening & Speaking
2.0 Speaking Applications (Genres and Their Characteristics)
Students deliver well-organized formal presentations employing traditional rhetorical strategies (e.g., narration, exposition, persuasion, description). Student speaking demonstrates a command of standard American English and the organizational and delivery strategies outlined in Listening and Speaking Standard 1.0.
2.5 Recite poems (of four to six stanzas), sections of speeches, or dramatic soliloquies, using voice modulation, tone, and gestures expressively to enhance the meaning.
NETS-Standards
The numbers in parentheses after each item identify the standards (1–6) most closely linked to the activity described. Each activity may relate to one indicator, to multiple indicators, or to the overall standards referenced. The categories are:
1. Creativity and Innovation
2. Communication and Collaboration
3. Research and Information Fluency
4. Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making
5. Digital Citizenship
6. Technology Operations and Concepts
7. Select and use the appropriate tools and digital resources to accomplish a variety of tasks and to solve problems. (3, 4, 6)
8. Use collaborative electronic authoring tools to explore common curriculum content from multicultural perspectives with other learners. (2, 3, 4, 5)
9. Integrate a variety of file types to create and illustrate a document or presentation. (1, 6)
6. Objectives:
- Students will read poems aloud either in class or create a podcast.
- Students will identify significant literary devices in selected text.
- Students will understand the elements of poetry
7. Materials:
A. Student anthologies.
B. Poetry books
C. Notebook paper for graphic organizers
D. Computer with internet access
E. Microphone (with or without headphones)
F. Audacity or similar audio recording software
G. Blog site
H. Audio CD
I. CD player (may use computer)
8. Procedure:
A. Motivation: Students will read aloud either in class or on an audio podcast a poem of their choice that is “school appropriate”.
B. Sequence of events:
1. Day 1—Poetry Terms (50 minutes)
a) Students use a graphic organizer to write down the terms associated with poem.
i) Types of poems
ii) Literary elements of poems
iii) Introduce vocabulary: rhythm, elegy, meter, end rhymes, couplet, internal rhymes, exact rhymes, approximates or near rhymes, free verse, alliteration, assonance, and onomatopoeia.
b) Discuss different authors of poetry
i) Edgar Allen Poe
ii) Shel Silverstein
iii) Emily Dickenson
iv) Tupac Shakur
2. Day 2—“Valentine for Ernest Mann” (50 minutes)
a) Review the vocabulary (rhythm, elegy, meter, end rhymes, etc.)
b) Read “Valentine for Ernest Mann” by Naomi Shihab Nye
c) Listen to poem on audio cod
d) Have students answer comprehension questions after they read.
e) Using a 3 column graphic organizer, have students document the type of poem and what literary elements are found.
3. Day 3—“Paul Revere’s Ride” (50 minutes)
a) Review the vocabulary (rhythm, elegy, meter, end rhymes, etc.)
b) Read “Paul Revere’s Ride” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
c) Listen to poem on audio cod
d) Have students answer comprehension questions after they read.
e) Using a 3 column graphic organizer, have students document the type of poem and what literary elements are found.
4. Day 4—“The Cremation of Sam McGee”; “The Dying Cowboy”; “Maiden-Savin’ Sam” (50 minutes)
a) Review the vocabulary (rhythm, elegy, meter, end rhymes, etc.)
b) Read “The Cremation of Sam McGee” by Robert W. Service; “The Dying Cowboy” by Henry Maynard; “Maiden-Savin’ Sam” by Jenny Ellison
c) Listen to poems on audio cod
d) Have students answer comprehension questions after they read.
e) Using a 3 column graphic organizer, have students document the type of poem and what literary elements are found.
5. Day 5—“Beowulf”; “Casey at the Bat”
a) Review the vocabulary (rhythm, elegy, meter, end rhymes, etc.)
b) Read “Beowulf” by Dr. David Breeden; “Casey at the Bat” by Ernest Lawrence Thayer
c) Listen to poem on audio cod
d) Have students answer comprehension questions after they read.
e) Using a 3 column graphic organizer, have students document the type of poem and what literary elements are found.
6. Day 6—“Oda a las gracias”/“Ode to Thanks”; “Birdfoot’s Grandpa”; “Ode to a Toad”
a) Review the vocabulary (rhythm, elegy, meter, end rhymes, etc.)
b) Read “Oda a las gracias”/“Ode to Thanks” by Pablo Neruda; “Birdfoot’s Grandpa” by Joseph Bruchac; “Ode to a Toad”
c) Listen to poem on audio cod
d) Have students answer comprehension questions after they read.
e) Using a 3 column graphic organizer, have students document the type of poem and what literary elements are found
7. Day 7—“On the Grasshopper and the Cricket”; “Oh Captain! My Captain!”
a) Review the vocabulary (rhythm, elegy, meter, end rhymes, etc.)
b) Read “On the Grasshopper and the Cricket” by John Keats; “Oh Captain! My Captain!” by Walt Whitman
c) Listen to poem on audio cod
d) Have students answer comprehension questions after they read.
e) Using a 3 column graphic organizer, have students document the type of poem and what literary elements are found
8. Day 8—“I Hear America Singing”; “I, Too”
a) Review the vocabulary (rhythm, elegy, meter, end rhymes, etc.)
b) Read “I Hear America Singing” by Walt Whitman; “I, Too” by Langston Hughes
c) Listen to poem on audio cod
d) Have students answer comprehension questions after they read.
e) Using a 3 column graphic organizer, have students document the type of poem and what literary elements are found
9. Day 9-10—Student Poetry Recital
a) Students to read aloud a poem of their choosing not from the anthology either in class or on a pod cast
i) Poems must be a minimum of 6 lines
ii) Poems must be “school appropriate”
iii) Poems may be student authored
iv) Those who chose to use a podcast can either have the recording played in class or privately.
b) A sample podcast will be provided on the teacher’s blog.
10. Day 11—Review and Assessment
a) Review the poems and terms
b) Test on poetry terms and give sample poems for students to identify they types of poetry and the elements of the poem
9. Assessment: How well students identify elements of poetry and can the different types
10. Assignment:
A. Students will answer comprehension questions about the poems.
B. Students will create a graphic organizer to show examples of poetry including styles and literary devices.
C. Read aloud a poem of their choice either in class or on a podcast.
11. Reflection:
