David
Lippincott
High
school language arts unit
Purpose: The purpose of this unit
is to prove to the students that poetry can be easy and fun. This unit will show the students that
writing poetry can also be easy to write and fun to share. This poetry unit will give the students a
new prospective on reading poetry.
Throughout the week the students will also learn the different styles of
poetry.
Day
1:
- The class will start with an exercise that will
loosen the students and allow them to have a little fun. Each student on a sheet of paper will write
down a “what if question” and on a second sheet of paper write down an
answer. The sheets of paper will then
be passed randomly around to other students.
We will then do the same process but, this time write down a “How”
question and then an answer on a second sheet of paper. These will then be randomly passed around to
the students. The students will then
read the combinations they receive so the class can hear what interesting and
funning combinations came about.
- The second exercise will show the students that it
can be easy to write a poem and anyone can write a poem. This exercise is called Don’t Borrow,
Steal. I will pass around different
articles and stories. The students will
then pick one to two lines from these different writings and then pass the
article to the next student. They will
then put the lines together to form a poem.
They will have a chance to write and revise their poems before they share
the poems in class the next day.
Day
2:
- Class will begin with sharing the poems from the
day before.
- The next class exercise is called Poem with
Complications. Each student will write
down something that sounds like a title of a poem. Then the students will write down a line from their favorite
song. These will than be passed out to
random students along with guidelines to help them write their poem. They will be given time in class to work on
the poem and then they will read the poems in class.
Day
3:
- This day I will start out with a lecture on
different styles and schemes found in poems.
I would talk about things like imagery, metaphors, similes, and styles
such as a sonnet.
-I would then find interesting examples that the
students could relate to. I would use
examples such as song lyrics and poems that the students could relate to their
everyday lives. We would read the poems
aloud and I would play the songs for them so they can hear the song as they
read along.
Day
4:
-The students would have a workday, where they would
take their thoughts and their
favorite style of poems and write their own poems. I will allow them to get together with a partner to help them
make adjustments with their poems. The
students will then read their poems to the class.
-At the end of the class each student will be given
a section of an Edgar Allen Poe poem.
They are to have read this section of the poem for the next day’s
assignment.
Day
5:
-
This
day will be a day where each student will recite their section of the Edgar
Allen Poe poem. To make the readings
more interesting the lights will be turned off and candles will be lit. Many of Poe’s famous poems were very dark
and dreary. I will try make the class
room dark and dreary by turning the lights off and burning the candles. This will help put the students in the mood
and in turn make reading the poems more enjoyable. This will hopefully teach the students that reading poetry can be
enjoyable and interesting if they just put themselves in the right frame of
mind.
Here is a list of poems that I wrote after the class
sessions. There are also a couple of
poems that I wrote during class activities that I later revised.
In
the early afternoon
The
children cheerfully play
As
the warm humid air blows
The
overcast slowly crawls towards the town
The
winds gust faster and the sky becomes darker
The
expected down pour is getting closer
The
children are becoming anxious to play in the rain
The
parents are yelling from the front door for the kids to come in
The
first drop of rain is followed by roaring thunder
The
children laughing begin playing and splashing in the puddles
But
as fast as a snap of the finger,
The
rain turns from a gentile down pour to an angry storm
The
children’s laughs turn to nervous cries and
The
once peaceful sunny day has turned to a panic
The
howling and gusting wind along with the rain
Bombard
the town causing it to flood
The
water is rushing through the streets
Causing
panic and frustration among the people.
As
the storm ends the wind and rain have flattened the town
The
people are left with nothing
The
town left in ruins
I
love fishing
It
leaves me wishing
That
I was out fishing
There
are many fish to catch
And
I have won many a match
I
love to catch bass
But
I hate to get a sun burn rash
I
would rather play a harp
Then
catch a dirty carp
My
friends all fish
And
they all wish
That
they could catch all the fish
I
am forever hoping
That
I never stop fishing
When
I die
I
want to die with my rod in hand
Life
is like a football game
There
are winners and
There
are losers.
There
are great times and
There
are not so great times
It
takes hard work and
It
takes dedication
It
takes some skill and
It
takes some luck
To
win is like a taste of heaven and
To
lose is like a taste of hell
Wearing
a purple zipper vest
Her
mother strut along side of her
Someone
said to her, I see you’ve won first prize
Fore
she wore a scarlet letter near her heart
In
the near future they will wonder where they are heading
The
city is covered in black and yellow
There
sport teams are bad and the city is gloomy
Neither
lady is happy
Because
this is not a city to crow about
Ode
to the red can
I
love you in my hand
I
am a huge fan
Of
that beautiful red can
It
makes me so happy,
But
also very flabby.
The
red can is my best friend
I
hate when it comes to the end
I
must get another can
While
I work on my sun tan
I will
never leave that red can
Till
I leave this land
The
Forgotten Night (revise form class)
God
pity the man
An
autoworker having a beer at Curley’s crowded bar
That
night the Irish guitar player was good
As
the night rolls on the man is losing grasp of reality
On
the road home
He
thinks this city is nothing to crow about
He
drank on this St. Patrick’s day
This
theory could be tested on a rat
The
next morning he thinks
Was
this a real memory or is it an imagined event.