Unit 2: Intro to Reading Poetry
Unit 2 Introduction to Poetry: Focus on Diction
Essential Questions and Skills:
What is the difference between what a poem does, what it means, and what it is about? What is the importance of diction in poetry for meaning, structure, and rhyme? How do words produce feelings in the reader? How does the poet’s choice of diction affect mood and tone?
How do we read poetry aloud? How do we annotate a poem? How do we explicate a poem? What is TP-CASTT? What is SIFTS? What is threading? How can these techniques help build comprehension and analysis of poetry?
Materials:
“Introduction to Poetry,” Billy Collins
“Blackberry Eating” by Galway Kinnell
“Blackberry-Picking” by Seamus Heaney
“Blackberrying” by Sylvia Plath
“August” by Mary Oliver
“Blackberies for Amelia” by Richard Wilbur
“Blackberry Picking” by Wendy Mooney
“Blackberries” by Yusef Komunyakaa
“Blackberry Sweet” by Dudley Randall
Voice Lessons: Classroom Activities to Teach Diction, Detail, Imagery, Syntax, and Tone by Nancy Dean
Assessments:
A. Homework and in class activities on DO, SHOW, MEAN
B. Student generated multiple choice questions.
C. Quiz on interpretation
D. Weekly vocabulary assessments
E. Un-timed AP style essay: Compare and contrast the significance of the blackberry in two poems of your choosing.
F. Weekly exercises from Voice Lessons: Classroom Activities to Teach Diction, Detail, Imagery, Syntax, and Tone.
Essential Questions and Skills:
What is the difference between what a poem does, what it means, and what it is about? What is the importance of diction in poetry for meaning, structure, and rhyme? How do words produce feelings in the reader? How does the poet’s choice of diction affect mood and tone?
How do we read poetry aloud? How do we annotate a poem? How do we explicate a poem? What is TP-CASTT? What is SIFTS? What is threading? How can these techniques help build comprehension and analysis of poetry?
Materials:
“Introduction to Poetry,” Billy Collins
“Blackberry Eating” by Galway Kinnell
“Blackberry-Picking” by Seamus Heaney
“Blackberrying” by Sylvia Plath
“August” by Mary Oliver
“Blackberies for Amelia” by Richard Wilbur
“Blackberry Picking” by Wendy Mooney
“Blackberries” by Yusef Komunyakaa
“Blackberry Sweet” by Dudley Randall
Voice Lessons: Classroom Activities to Teach Diction, Detail, Imagery, Syntax, and Tone by Nancy Dean
Assessments:
A. Homework and in class activities on DO, SHOW, MEAN
B. Student generated multiple choice questions.
C. Quiz on interpretation
D. Weekly vocabulary assessments
E. Un-timed AP style essay: Compare and contrast the significance of the blackberry in two poems of your choosing.
F. Weekly exercises from Voice Lessons: Classroom Activities to Teach Diction, Detail, Imagery, Syntax, and Tone.
Assignments and Information
Blackberry Unit Poems
Annotation Acronyms
How to write a Thesis Statement
Seamus Heaney "Blackberry Picking" Prompt
Seamus Heaney's AP Lit Student Essays
Seamus Heaney Essay Rubric
Richard Wilbur Reads "Blackberries for Amelia"
Analysis of "Blackberries" by Yusef Kumonyakaa
Analysis of "Blackberries" by
What is Literary Analysis -- Thesis Statement Help
More Thesis Examples (Chart Form for Visual Learners)
TED Talk about Reading Critically
TED Talk about Rhetoric and Word Placement