Emily Mullins

TE 407 Lab
Burke
21 October 2008

Poetry Lesson

This lesson will be on Robert Frost’s poetry, more specifically “Stopping by

Woods on a Snowy Evening”

Audience: High School, 11th or 12th grade, probably upper level English courses.

Why?: Frost’s poetry, although more traditional in verse, allows readers to use

their imagination and fill in the gaps in the narrative. His poetry is almost like

short stories that ask for readers to invent characters’ or speakers’ motives and

look closely at what they reveal and omit.

Introduction to Lesson: Begin by doing a PowerPoint that will include the

history/biography of Robert Frost. Then I will ask students for their definitions

of poetic terms such as simile, metaphor, rhyme schemes, figurative language,

repetition, alliteration, etc. I will ask them to write these down.

Objective: Students will learn to identify and define poetic devices and identify

themes in Frost’s poems by using these poetic devices. I also want students to

be able to come to conclusions concerning point of view and perspective of the

persona exemplified through the speaker or other characters. We will also look

at the terms narrative and persona so they can draw inferences from the poem

about the speaker and the scene.

The Lesson: During the PowerPoint presentation I will pass out photocopies of
the poem, and I will have someone read it aloud. Then I will have students read

it individually, writing their notations on the side, underlining words they may

not know, as well as underlining any poetic devices. They may even draw the

scene they see. Then in pairs or groups of three they will discuss themes,

speaker’s conflict and motives. I will then ask students to work in groups come

up with a way of creating a story from this poem. They may make inferences

about the speaker or any aspect of the poem, and the story can be told from

any point of view. Then in their groups they will devise a way of depicting the

story they have inferred about. It can be a concept for a music video (story

board or a director’s vision), a comic strip, a short story (Halloween related) or

any other way they can think of being creative. Markers and paper will be up

front.

During the Lesson: I will walk around while they are looking at the poem for

poetic devices and ask which ones they have found, the rhyme scheme they

think it has, and the meaning they have inferred from the lines of the poem.

Then when they are in groups I will ask about the inferences they have made

about the speaker and his position in the woods.

Assignment: For homework I will ask the students to pick any of Robert Frost’s

poems and make inferences about the speaker’s motivations and their

character (internal and external conflicts, perspective, point of view, etc.).

They will need to have evidence for those inferences in the words of the poem.
They can make notes on the poem itself, draw a picture, journal about how it

relates to them, or find another way of analyzing the poem’s meaning.