poem

II. What do poetry, music, and the visual arts say about love?

Aim: What is a poem?

Students will be able to (SWBAT):

Recognize basic concepts of poetic style (rhyme, rhythm, verse, stanza, metaphor, simile, hyperbole, personification, etc)
Produce simple poetic texts, using poetic devices, such as metaphors, similes, and personifications.
Understand main elements involved in musical productions (voice, chorus, instruments, lyrics).
Learn the main skills in essay writing.

Readings: Shakespeare's Sonnets; Romantic literature (English, European, Indian, and American); Spanish language poetry (Lorca, Neruda, etc).

The teacher will read aloud several poems. The students will be asked also to read them again. Intonation, vocabulary, and meaning will be explained.

Teacher modeling
The teacher will present a poem (Harlem or Dream Deferred, by Langston Hughes), using jazz tunes as the background. After the reading, the teacher will propose an interpretation of the poem, using historical and social data (Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights movement, minority issues, etc) connected with the linguistic substance of the poem.
Additional activity: Listen to the poet reading from his work: Langston Hughes reading The Negro Speaks of Rivers. Download the audio file at: http://poets.org/LIT/poem/lhughe07.htm

In groups, students will receive one or two poems. They will discuss meaning and interpretation. Each group will produce first a reading an interpretation of the poem containing several elements:

Oral presentation (the reading of the poem)
Musical background (students will choose the most appropriate music to come along with the reading)
Artistic (visual arts) elements accompanying the reading. Are there any art, photographs, pictures, paintings (student-produced or researched) that can help the public understand the meaning of the poem?
Short written essay: The meaning of this poem for me.

Homework assignments:
1. Write a short composition describing the meaning of this given poem as you understand it.
2. Write 10 metaphors and 10 similes using your own experience.
3. Find 5 poems that you like, match them with appropriate music, sounds, pictures, or artwork, and present them to the class.
4. Write an essay on the subject of poetry, music, art, love, and your own experience. Ex: How are poetry and music alike?

Resources:
For more lyrics and information on Langston Hughes, see:
http://nku.edu/~diesmanj/hughes.html
http://poets.org/LIT/POET/lhughfst.htm
For background information on Harlem Renaissance, go to the multimedia site of the Encarta Encyclopedia: http://encarta.msn.com/schoolhouse/Harlem/harlem.asp
To instill interest in poetry you may ask the students to conduct internet searches on sites that cover poetry and the poets, such as: http://poets.org/index.cfm