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Several of you asked for a HIT, so below you will find my original request followed by the responses I received. Thanks so much to all who replied. You all gave me some great ideas. Original request: A first-year English teacher wants to collaborate with me on teaching a lesson on poetry. She isn't sure exactly what she wants the kids to do, but she's very open to suggestions. She does want the students to give an oral presentation at the conclusion of their research on a poet and a poem written by the poet. She wants me to teach them "how to research." I have some ideas for suggestions for her, but I wanted to ask you all if you had done any spectacular lessons with poets/poetry that you would be willing to share. We do have a couple poetry databases that I will guide the students in using. The students are all freshmen. Responses: At a former school I did a unit with the 7th grade teacher which I think could be done effectively at slomst any level, depending on the poets you choose. We had a list of 20 or so poets we considered accessible to 7th graders. Those chose one from a hat, so it wasn't their choice--we wanted to make sure it was someone new to them. The first day they read as many poems as they could by that person. Took no notes, just read. That night they wrote a journal entry in response to what they read. Anything thoughtful was accepted, but it had to have substance, not just "I have no idea what this guy is saying." The second research day was spend reading (no note taking, again) biographical info on the poet. Followed by the nightly journal entry. The third work day was concentrating on a single poem, doing the usual study of language, images, forms, rhyme schemes, etc.Journal entry on what they had figured out. The follow up was an essay systhesizing what they had learned. Could they see a parallel between poets life and type of poetry he wrote? Influences by others? What does his one poem say? This usnit was a bit of a stretch for 7's, but we tweaked it some the next year, and decided it would work even better with slightly older kids. The students were amazed (and somewhat frightened) that they were not to take notes, not to print out critical articles, etc. They are actually frightened by the lack of "props"--no huge pile of notecards or xeroxed and highlighted papers. But it made the work truly theirs, and they found they really could think about these things without having the former work of others there first. ************************************************** I teach a 6/7/8 Writing class, and my students completed a poetry book. I gave them a variety of poem types, if that's the right word, such as terquain, cinqain, autobiopoem, and so on. Each student needed to try all of the styles, and the final project was a book. For a C, kids had to have certain poems, for a B, all of the C poems plus, and for an A, the B,C and A poems. I had also introduced calligraphy, so they needed at least one piece of calligraphy, either a poem, title page or whatever. I also included an assessment. ************************************************** With my freshmen English classes, I do a poetry project which involves making a poster. Students choose a poet and research him/her. On the poster, the students include information about the poet (picture if possible), three of the poet's poems, and illustrations about the poet and the poems. The students "present" their poster to the class by telling us about their poet and his/her style of poetry and reading the poems. This project seems to work well for me. ***************************************************** This is a slightly less traditional approach to the typical poetry lesson in English class, but what about introducing spoken word poetry/SLAMs that are becoming so popular today. You even see spoken work in Sprite commercials now. If you're not familiar with this type of poetry, go to www.poetryslam.com. They give a brief history, etc. I purchased the video, Slamnation, that documents the National Poetry Slam competition in Portland, OR a couple of years ago. It's a fabulous intro. to this "new" art form. To tie in more traditional poetry, students could be asked to find a poet or poems from the past that they think relate to a spoken word poet or poem today. They could write about the tradition of oral art forms, i.e. storytelling, poetry readings, etc. I am doing a similar unit in April in the hopes of turning some students on to a poetry that they may find more relevant to their lives than say, Frost. ***************************************** One of our English teachers has the kids do a "theme" poetry project - find several poems about love or sports or dogs or whatever. Then they put them together with art work into a "bound" volume of poetry. Very nice! It could be expanded to include info on one poet, and to read one of them aloud to the class. You can try Kathy Schrock's page for ideas for lesson plans and links (http://school.discovery.com/teachers/) or somebody may have already done a webquest. ************************************************* Look in School Library Journal Feb. 2001 issue, p 56....some www sites that would enhance a school library/classroom unit. I think it is absolutely wonderful that your English teacher is doing this with you. She is to be commended. It is a genre that is often forgotten in recent times and one that is so important. ************************************** You might peek at my on-line class that I created www.mediawizard.homestead.com Maybe it will give you some ideas! ***************************************** Jill Fulton, Librarian Providence High School Burbank, CA jlovettfulton@providencehigh.org =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-= All postings to LM_NET are protected under copyright law. To quit LM_NET (or set-reset NOMAIL or DIGEST), send email to: listserv@listserv.syr.edu In the message write EITHER: 1) SIGNOFF LM_NET 2) SET LM_NET NOMAIL or 3) SET LM_NET DIGEST 4) SET LM_NET MAIL * Please allow for confirmation from Listserv. 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