Poetry Craft Lesson

Into Poetry

The Adopt-a-Poet Lesson Series

Works:
“A New Poet” by Linda Pastan
The Wadsworth Anthology of Poetry, ed Jay Parini

Purpose
As important as it is to teach students how to read poetry deeply and perceptively, it
is also our mission to give students a sense of the astonishing range and diversity of
expressions available in this art form. One of the dependable frustrations of teaching
high school literature is that there is so much more out there worth paying attention
to in the way of brilliant poetry than time to visit and investigate. The following
approach puts individual students in charge of their own explorations of the world of
poetry and, in a guided way, asks them to bring back their discoveries for the
edification of the whole class. It solves two problems at once: actively engaging
students in their own literary adventures while exposing the class in a quasi-
systematic and user-friendly way (because it is student to student) to a much larger
number of poetic voices than otherwise might be the case.

Procedure
Step One: Introduce the Adopt-a-Poet assignment with a reading of Linda Pastan’s
“A New Poet.” Explain that a “new poet,” in effect, is anyone whose writing you have
not previously encountered; the thrill of such a discovery – and of sharing what you
find with the rest of the class – is at the center of this activity. Lay out the nitty-gritty
expectations of the assignment: that each student will browse the (category) of poets
to find one whom s/he really likes and prepare an Oral Appreciation (described
below) of the poet designed to introduce his or her work to the class in a 5-7 minute
presentation.

Step Two: Browsing the Canon of (category) Poets. This part of the assignment can
be tailored as narrowly (19th Century English romantic poets) or as broadly ( World
Poets) as the teacher desires, allowing you to shape the assignment to your specific
curricular needs. For example, the “category” used in this lesson plan is
“contemporary American poets” – with ‘contemporary’ defined as anyone who wrote
mainly in the 20th century up to the present. Begin by providing students with a list of
candidate poets who fit the category descriptor (for example, see the attached list of
“contemporary American poets.”) Tell students that their initial job is to sample the
wares of some of these creative types; decide which writer you like among them; and
be ready to choose one of these poets to work with for the remainder of the project.
To jumpstart this process, you can sponsor a silent reading day, either
bringing in a set of anthologies from the District’s latest literature acquisitions – the
Wadsworth Anthology of Poetry, ed Jay Parini, is especially good -- or using the
computer lab to access poetry via one of the many websites with extensive poetry
resources. (See Appendix tk, “Website PoetryResources”). To structure the process,
Poetry Craft Lesson
Into Poetry
have students fill out a “Browsing the (category) Canon” worksheet. (In this case, an
exemplary “Browsing the Canon of Contemporary American Poets” worksheet is
provided.) Another research avenue, of course, is to visit the library. Allow students
a couple of weeks to complete this process of surveying the field and of coming up
with their personal preferences.

Step Three: Adoption day. Since the idea is to expose the class to as many new
voices as possible, only one – or at most, two – students will be allowed to study and
present on the same poet. Accordingly, by Adoption day, students should have three
nominations in mind. (Most students end up with their first preference. Usually, a
brief conversation between competitors for the same poet resolves the conflict; but a
quick bout of “paper, rock, scissors” or flipping a coin can also suffice.)
Now that each student has been matched up with a poet of his or her choice,
the next step is for students to read a generous sampling of their poet’s work. They
should read enough so that they can talk confidently about the hallmarks of their
writer’s style – what themes and ideas does he or she dwell on? What are the
distinctive qualities in his or her use of language and imagery? What tone toward the
subject – playful, ironic, skeptical, world-weary, joyous, etc. -- typically comes through
the poetry? Does the poet usually work in free verse or fixed forms with meter and
rhyme schemes? How do those choices help communicate the poet’s voice to the
reader? And so on.

Step Four: Students write a brief analytical paper (2 pages) in which they
characterize some hallmarks of their poet’s work. Each “hallmark” should be
supported with examples from at least two poems.
In addition, students must write and submit at the same time a “mimetic
poem”, one that imitates a well-known poem of the chosen poet in terms of its
language use, imagery, theme and message. This can be a straightforward variation
on an admired work (after all, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery) or students
may decide to try their hands at parody, making fun of the singular qualities they
have discovered in their poet by exaggerating them. In submitting this piece,
students should type out the model poem, preferably side by side, on the same sheet
of paper with their mimetic version. (Student examples of model/mimetic poem
pairs are included at the end of this lesson.)

Step Five: Prepare an Oral Appreciation. This is an organized and rehearsed five to
seven minute presentation designed to acquaint the class with the poet. It must
include three elements (not necessarily in this order.)
a) a thumbnail biography/description of the poet – just enough to orient the
class to who this individual is/was. Give the class the headlines of the
author’s life and a couple of interesting anecdotes. Plus, briefly address:
What is his or her reputation or claim to fame in the world of literature?
b) choose a favorite poem; memorize at least 20 lines of it and recite that
section from memory – with feeling, of course. (Extra credit available for
dramatically interpreting the entire poem.) This is the part of the talk that
gives the class a direct exposure to the voice of the poet.
Poetry Craft Lesson
Into Poetry
c) prepare an overhead of the memorized poem in which you call out the
identifying hallmarks of this particular poet as they show up, annotated on
the overheard, in the memorized poem. (Optionally, students may support
this element of their talk with a Powerpoint presentation.)

Step Six: Scaffold the Presentation. Students may need the most support in the
area of memorizing their poem, especially those who have not had much experience
with memorizing previously. (The rationale for memorizing is two-fold: first, it
acquaints students with a capacity that they may not know they have in our text-
saturated age but which all humans possess and which they will benefit by
developing confidence in; second, an admired poem that is memorized belongs to its
new ‘owner’ in a direct and palpable way. Everyone should experience that sense of
personal connection with a great poem, even if it is only by means of a few lines of
text.)
Techniques for memorizing are worth discussing in the whole class setting.
Ask students to volunteer what has worked for them in the past. Successful
memorization tricks that should come up in this conversation include:
1) the importance of understanding what the poem is saying before trying to
memorize it;
2) frequent, brief sessions for memorizing over a period of several days as
opposed to attempting to cram the text into your brain in a single session
the day before the performance;
3) reading it outloud ten times;
4) memorizing from back to front (last line first, then next-to-last line and last
line, etc.)
5) copying over or printing out the text by hand;
6) reciting to a partner who holds the text and who can prompt you with a
missing word or two;
7) reciting into the mirror;
8) “chunking” the text, so that you think of it in a series of 3-4 big divisions,
not just line by line…
9) using a tape recorder…
10) connecting the end of one line or section with the beginning of the next via
some outlandish mental image…

Step Seven: The Performance of the Oral Appreciation -- These can be scheduled
over a period of several weeks or even months. For example, in a class of 35
students, hearing two to three presentations a week would give about a month to
launch the whole process and the rest of the semester to hear from every student
(and for the class to learn about quite a few poets in the selected category.)
Keeping the presentations to a brief 5-7 minutes means that there is always time for
the regular lesson plan; meanwhile, the exposure to different poetic voices becomes
an intriguing, student-driven initiative built-into the regular curriculum.
Poetry Craft Lesson
Into Poetry
Name _______________

ADOPT A POET PROJECT

BROWSING THE CANON

OF CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN POETS

Your assignment is to identify a contemporary American poet that you plan to

focus on for your class presentation by Monday, October 16. To encourage you to go
into the library stacks, book stores or Internet resources to encounter some of the
alternatives, I’m asking you to complete the following reading/browsing exercise by
Wednesday, October 11.

You are to sample and briefly comment on the writing of five

contemporary American poets of your choice. For purposes of this
assignment, “sample” means read 4-5 poems. “Briefly comment”
means write a paragraph expressing your opinion about what you read
– do you think you might find this poet good company to study in some
depth? Is this poet’s work of sufficient interest to you to merit bringing
him or her to the attention of your classmates? The writers you sample
here can come from the “green light” list of contemporary American
Poets already furnished you, or may be any other working American
poet you stumble across and find interesting. They should be writers
who you are curious about but whom you have not yet read extensively.

If you have already settled on an author for this project, look at this exercise
as an opportunity to confirm your wisdom by testing it against some possible
alternatives. If you are still in the process of choosing a candidate, systematic
browsing and sampling will get you started toward making a good choice.

1. Author ______________________
Titles of poems sampled:
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
My thoughts about this writer as a possible subject for further study:
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
Poetry Craft Lesson
Into Poetry
2. Author ______________________
Titles of poems sampled:
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
My thoughts about this writer as a possible subject for further study:
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________

3. Author ______________________
Titles of poems sampled:
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
My thoughts about this writer as a possible subject for further study:
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________

4. Author ______________________
Titles of poems sampled:
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
My thoughts about this writer as a possible subject for further study:
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________

5. Author ______________________
Titles of poems sampled:
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
My thoughts about this writer as a possible subject for further study:
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________