FK Lane High School
English
Mrs. Maslow
Create an FK Lane HS
Web Site For Favorite Poems
URL: www. teachersnetwork.org/teachnet-lab/fklane/pmaslow.poem.html
Assignment: After
studying how a poet uses literary devices to portray a certain tone and
theme for 8 poems and writing short essays about them, students will write
an essay about which poem is their favorite to be submited to the
class
website on www.nicenet.org.
The poems read and analyzed previously are all from
the Adventures in Appreciation textbook from Harcourt, Brace,
Jovanovitch except Hope is a Thing with Feathers, by Emily
Dickinson and I am a Rock-by Paul Simon.
The other poems are
Recuerdo, by Edna St. Vincent Millay; Dreams,
by Langston Hughes; The Base Stealer , by Robert Francis; She
Sweeps with Many Colored Brooms, by Emily Dickinson; First Lesson,
by
Philip Booth; Miss Rosie, by Lucille Clifton.
Basic literary devices covered are: figurative language-
metaphor, simile, symbolism; repetition and refrain.
Answer these questions before you write the first
draft of your essay on why you picked one of the 8 poems we studied as
your favorite:Why did you choose this poem as your favorite? What is it
about this poem that affected you more than the other poems? What
particular literary device that the author used do you find especially
appealing? What about the subject matter appealed to you more than
the other poems?
Evaluate A National Web
Site For Favorite Poems
Assignment:
Visit this national poetry site called the
Favorite Poem Project.
1. Students will find the list of poets First click on the two
we have studied-Emily Dickinson and then Langston Hughes.
First read "Hope is a Thing with Feathers" and then click at the right
hand top and read the four letters from people explaining why they picked
this poem as their favorite. When they click on Langston Hughes they
can then hear the poem read by clicking on the upper right corner.
2. Students should then click on the poets that they recognize
from class to see other poems by this author. Read the poems
and if there are letters read those. If the poem is recorded click
on that symbol and hear the poem aloud. There is also a section
with a video presentation
of several poems for the students to also look at.
After reading about 12 poems students choose
their favorite to read again and print so they can write an essay at a
later date on why it is their favorite from this group. Here is a checklist
provided to help students chose their favorite poem : Why did you choose
this poem as your favorite? What is it about this poem that affected you
more than the other poems? What particular literary device that the
author used do you find especially appealing? Did you find
that either hearing the poems read or reading people's letters about why
the poem was their favorite was helpful in understanding the poem?
Follow-up Lesson- Students will write an essay on the poem that they
they chose as their favorite. They will discuss contributing
literary elements when explaining why it is their favorite. They
can submit their favorite poem and an explanation on why they chose it
to the national poetry
site.