Colin Konkel Brown Lesson Plan 10/19/2013 Lesson: Dialogue with the Writer.

In this lesson students will read a poem and engage in a critical dialogue with the poet, asking them any questions they may have had, what they agree with, and what they disagree with, in hopes that the students will walk away with a greater understanding of the authors choices and intent. Standards: Common Core: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including words with multiple meanings or language that is particularly fresh, engaging, or beautiful. (Include Shakespeare as well as other authors.) Common Core: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.11-12.1d Establish and maintain a formal style and objective tone while attending to the norms and conventions of the discipline in which they are writing. Objectives: SWABT Read a poem, looking at the poets word choice and structure, and develop their own opinion about what the poet was trying to say. They will be able to support that opinion with evidence from the text. SWABT Use proper letter-writing conventions to get their opinion across, and any questions they may have for the poet. SWABT Ask critical questions about a text that will better help their construction of meaning. SWABT Engage with the text, forming these critical questions, and in so doing participating in a type of dialogue with the writer. Instructional Materials and Resources: I will need: -A copy of W.H. Audens poem, The Unknown Citizen. -A document projector or access to a computer that I can project the poem onto the board with. -Markers if Im working with a whiteboard, chalk if Im working on a black board. -Students will need lined paper and writing utensils. Learner Factors: This lesson is designed to not alienate students who may not like poetry and/or are unfamiliar with a lot of the terms that are used in Language Arts classes surrounding poetry, such as metaphor, meter, etc. In this lesson, students have only to read the poem and write down questions they may have that can pertain from anything to thematic content to word choice, and anything else they can think of. This lessons goal is, in part, to get students thinking as they read, not to bog them down with technical vocabulary. Environmental Factors:

Student grouping will range from whole class discussion to small group discussion. Ideally, these groups will be made up of 3-4 students each. Desks should be arranged prior to the start of this activity in small groups. Otherwise, no significant changes will have to be made to the classroom environment. Rationale: Oftentimes, students seem to not like poetry because of the intimidating way it is taught. Too often, English teachers ask students to pay close attention to rhyme, meter, metaphors, and other technical things to the point where the students dont even have a chance to enjoy the poem for its own sake. In other words, they lose sight of the forest for the trees. This assignment, which asks students to simply read the poem and write down any questions or thoughts that occur to them as they read, is designed so that students can enjoy the poem while still critically engaging with it. Students will be asked to ask questions, to agree, to disagree, to wonder why the author wrote this poem, all in hopes that this will help them understand the poem without getting lost in all of the details. After students read and question the poem, they will be asked to write a letter to author of the poem, asking them the questions they have about the poem, what they liked and agreed with, what they disliked and why, what they disagreed with and why, and so on. In other words, students are being asked to engage in a written dialogue with the poet, which will help hone their writing skills and get them to engage with the text on a deeper level. If students have to pose their questions to the poems author, they will truly realize that this author felt so passionately about this issue that they decided to sit down and write about it, which hopefully rehumanizes poetry for some students who see it solely as a pointless academic exercise. I chose the poem The Unknown Citizen by W.H. Auden primarily because of its themes. One of the themes of this poem, in my opinion, is how the individual gets lost in a tide of bureaucracy. This poem suggests that stripped of our personal relationships we can be reduced to a pile of statistics. Viewed in this light, this poem ties into my overarching concept of American Literature: Revolutionary History, Past and Present for a few reasons. First of all, the United States is a country that values individuality, at least in theory. This poem, in a sense, is one view of how that individuality is compromised by the systems that were subjected to, such as unions and consumer reports. Instructional Tasks and Activities 1-5min: TEACHER -Teacher prepares for the lesson: prepares to project poem onto the board. -Teacher opens class with question: By a show of hands, who likes poetry? Who doesnt? -Teacher prompts discussion by asking question: Why dont you like poetry? Why do you like poetry? What gets in the way of you liking poetry? What makes it hard to understand? etc. -Teacher writes student responses on the board. 1-5min: STUDENT -Students walk into class and get settled. -Students respond to teachers questions by either raising or not raising their hands.

-students participate in teacher-directed discussion, offering up their reasons for liking or disliking poetry 6-10min: TEACHER - Teacher tells students they are going to read W.H. Audens poem, telling them not to worry about breaking the poem down, or analyzing it. Instead, the teacher says, keep a piece of paper handy and prepare to write down questions about the poem that pop into your head as you read. -Teacher tells students: Before a scientist solves any type of problem, they must first determine that there is a problem. To do this, they need to have a question, a question theyre trying to solve. Questions are the root of discovery. Teacher then tells students that theres no such thing as a bad question but some questions are indeed better than others. Teacher asks students the difference between an alright and a great question. -Teacher expects that he will need to wait a few moments to allow students to think. -Teacher listens to students answer the question about questions, writing down answers on the board. -If discussion is slow to start, teacher will draw a diagram on the board that will have two columns. One column will have the heading alright question, the other Great Questions. 6-10min: STUDENTS -Students hear the teacher telling them not to analyze the poem. -Students listen to the teacher brief lecture on the importance of questions, and attempt to answer the question of What is the difference between an alright question and a great question? -Students begin to try to answer the question. 11-20min: TEACHER -Teacher instructs students to write down what everyone has determined to be great questions, if possible, about the poem as it is read aloud. -Teacher emphasizes that the students just need to write down questions about the poem. Questions and other observations. -Teacher models what a great question about this poem may look like. -Teacher, or student volunteer, reads the poem aloud. -While the poem is still projected on the board, teacher asks students to work in the small groups to come up with good questions (5 minutes is dedicated to this specifically). -teacher circulates amongst the groups, answering questions and joining discussions. 11-20min: STUDENTS -students listen to the poem being read aloud, writing down good questions and observations as they come. -students share their questions with their small groups. Small groups are free to formulate new questions. 21-25min: TEACHER -Teacher asks groups to share with the whole class the questions they came up with.

-Teacher instructs each group to write some of their questions on the board. -Other students are encouraged to try to answer the questions, or at least discuss them once students return to their seats. 21-25min: STUDENTS -students write some of their questions that they formed in their groups on the board, attempting to answer, or at least discuss, questions that other groups had. 26-45min: TEACHER -teacher asks students to write a letter to W.H. Auden, posing the questions that they and/or the class came up with, as well as any possible answers. In other words, students will be analyzing the poem without getting lost in poetic conventions and vocabulary. The letter to Auden will be about a page, handwritten. -Teacher answers students questions about the assignment as they arise. 26-45min: STUDENTS -Students write the letter to Auden as instructed. 45-50min: TEACHER -teacher asks students to finish letter for homework and type it up and answers any lingering questions. 45-50min: STUDENTS -students wrap up their letter, receive homework instruction, and ask questions as needed. Assessment: This activitys final assessment will be the letter: the quality of the writing, the appropriateness of the style, the pertinence of the questions, evidence that students engaged with the text. Before this, however, there are other points where the students progress will be assessed. The first of these is when the teacher asks students if they like or dislike poetry. From the students answers to these questions, the teacher can gauge how much the students know about poetry and the reading of it. The second point of assessment is the students grasp of what is a good and a not-so-good question. The teacher asks this question to make sure that he (myself), and the students are on the same page in regards to what types of questions and observations the teacher is looking for. Another major point of assessment is when the students write their individual/group questions on the board. At this point the teacher can determine if the students got it or didnt. Even they didnt more instruction would be needed before moving on to the actual letter itself.