Poetry in Action: English for Grade 11 Session Design by Preston Grover and Ryan Erwin LEARNING OBJECTIVES Content

Standards CCSS English Language Arts: Vocabulary Acquisition & Use Standard 5A o Interpret figures of speech (e.g., hyperbole, paradox) in context and analyze their role in the text. Theatre Standards II Standard 2 objective 2A o Demonstrate a clear voice when communicating in performance. Theatre Standards II Standard 2 objective 2B o Explain the elements of voice and speech production; e.g., intensity, pitch, rhythm, volume. Enduring Understandings Students will understand that elements of voice and speech production, including pitch and volume impact the way listeners understand the speakers relationship to the text they are presenting (e.g. their comprehension of the text, their interest in the text) Key Knowledge Students will know that pitch and volume are elements of voice and speech production. Students will know that pitch is how high or how low ones voice is. Students will know that volume is how loud or quiet ones voice is. Students will know that alliteration is the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words. Students will know that a paradox is a statement or proposition that, despite sound (or apparently sound) logical, leads to a conclusion that seems self-contradictory. Students will know that anaphora is the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses. Students will know that onomatopoeia is the formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named. Skills Student will be able to identify anafora, alliteration, onomatopoeia, and paradox. Students will be able to interpret figures of speech and analyze their role in texts. Students will be able to communicate in a clear voice. ASSESSMENT Performance Tasks Students talk to each other while changing their volume and pitch to demonstrate that they understand what pitch and volume are. Students read and listen to a recording of Road Not Taken in which they in order to examine how listening to a speaker read a poem can change their interpretation of the poem. Students read aloud a poem to peers in which they use different figure of speech.

Students identify figures of speech used in the reading of a poem by a peer to demonstrate that they can identify those elements of speech. Students are asked how figures of speech affect poetry to demonstrate that they can critically think about the impact that figures of speech have in poetry. Other Assessments Students read and identify a specific figure of speech in a poem to demonstrate that they can identify that figure of speech in poetry. MATERIALS NEEDED Teacher Materials Attached Poems Recording of Road Not Taken LEARNING PLAN Framing / Hook 1) Break students into pairs 2) Have them discuss with their partner a current event (e.g, school event, sporting event, national news, etc.) 3) Stop the discussions and ask students if anyone can explain what pitch is. a) If students are unsure of what pitch is, explain that it is how high or how low the voice is. 4) Have them continue their discussion, with one partner using a high pitched voice and the other with a low pitched voice. a) Note: Partners may switch roles so that students can experience both variations of pitch. 5) Stop the discussions again and ask if anyone can explain what volume is. a) If students are unsure of what volume is, explain that it is how loud or how quiet your voice is. 6) Have them continue their discussion, with one partner using a loud voice and the other using a quiet voice. a) Note: Partners may switch roles so that students can experience both variations of volume 7) Stop students again and discuss what changed in their conversation as their pitch changed and as their volume changed. Process 8) Hand out a copy of The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost. 9) Give them a couple of minutes to read the poem. 10) Listen to a recording of The Road Not Taken http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUaQgRiJukA a) Tell students to pay attention to the voice of the reader and have them be prepared to express how the reading affected their reception of the poem. 11) Ask students to give their opinions on the reading of the poem. a) What they liked? What changed from listening to the poem rather than just reading?

12) Divide the class into pairs 13) Give each pair two copies of a poem (See attached) with a definition of a figure of speech present in their poem. a) NOTE: Each group should have a different poem. 14) Explain to the class that they will be given 10 minutes to read the poem and identify and understand the figures of speech in their poem. a) They should be prepared to explain their figure of speech to others in the class. 15) Split each pair up to form two separate groups with the class. 16) Have them each present their poem and explain their figure of speech 1. Have students give feedback on the voice. Reflection 17) Have them sit in a circle 18) Write on the board each figure of speech and elements of voice a) Paradox b) Alliteration c) Onomatopoeia d) Anaphora e) Volume f) Pitch 19) Have students go up and write the definition on the board of each word. 20) Ask students what were some things that stood out to them a) Ask students: How did the various figures of speech impact the text? How different would the poems be without figures of speech? b) Ask students: When you were listening to a poem being read, how did volume and pitch affect the way you understood the poem?

The Road Not Taken Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim Because it was grassy and wanted wear, Though as for that the passing there Had really worn them about the same,

And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. -Robert Frost

Two Dead Boys One bright day in the middle of the night, Two dead boys got up to fight. Back-to-back they faced each other, Drew their swords, and shot each other. A deaf policeman heard the noise, Came and killed those two dead boys. If you don't believe this lie is true, Ask the blind man, because he saw it too. -Unknown Paradox: a statement or proposition that, despite sound (or apparently sound) logical, leads to a conclusion that seems self-contradictory. Ex: The storm clouds looked very dark on that bright, sunny day

Noise Day Lets have one day for girls and boyses When you can make the grandest noises. Screech, scream, clang a bell, Sneeze hiccup whistle shout, Laugh until your lungs wear out, Toot a whistle, kick a can, Bang a spoon against a pan, Sing, yodel, bellow, hum, Blow a horn, beat a drum, Rattle a window, slam a door, Scrape a rake across the floor, Use a drill, drive a nail, Turn the hose on the garbage pail, Shout Yahoo Hurrah Hooray, Turn up the music all the way, Try and bounce your bowling ball, Ride a skateboard up the wall, Chomp your food with a smack and a slurp, Chew chomp hiccup burp. One day a year do all of these, The rest of the days be quiet please. -Shel Silverstein Onomatopoeia: the formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named Ex: Bang, Crash, Sizzle

THE TYGER Tyger! Tyger! burning bright In the forests of the night, What immortal hand or eye Could frame thy fearful symmetry? In what distant deeps or skies Burnt the fire of thine eyes? On what wings dare he aspire? What the hand dare sieze the fire? And what shoulder, & what art. Could twist the sinews of thy heart? And when thy heart began to beat, What dread hand? & what dread feet? What the hammer? what the chain? In what furnace was thy brain? What the anvil? what dread grasp Dare its deadly terrors clasp? When the stars threw down their spears, And watered heaven with their tears, Did he smile his work to see? Did he who made the Lamb make thee? Tyger! Tyger! burning bright In the forests of the night, What immortal hand or eye Dare frame thy fearful symmetry? -William Blake Alliteration: the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words. Ex: I brought brittle to breakfast

Sonnet No. 66 Tired with all these, for restful death I cry, As to behold desert a beggar born, And needy nothing trimm'd in jollity, And purest faith unhappily forsworn, And gilded honour shamefully misplac'd, And maiden virtue rudely strumpeted, And right perfection wrongfully disgrac'd, And strength by limping sway disabled And art made tongue-tied by authority, And folly--doctor-like--controlling skill, And simple truth miscall'd simplicity, And captive good attending captain ill: Tir'd with all these, from these would I be gone, Save that, to die, I leave my love alone. -William Shakespeare Anaphora: the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses. Ex: We learned about English. We learned about Theatre. We learned about English and Theatre.