Literature Curriculum Project Syllabi

Poetry Lesson Plan
Suggested Level for teaching students: Upper Level High School
Bushwick Community High School- New York

Lesson Plan using Harryette Mullen’s “Dim Lady”

OVERVIEW: Previously in this unit, students were introduced to the sonnet form. Students read four sonnets by William Shakespeare including Sonnet 130. Students are familiar with the rhyme scheme and meter Shakespeare used in his sonnets and have reviewed the four sonnets line by line in groups in order to come up with a group thesis about what the subject and theme of each sonnet is. Students have also identified details in each sonnet which support or explain the points Shakespeare is trying to make.

Today, students will listen to Harryette Mullen read her poem “Dim Lady”, compare and contrast the poem with Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130, and write their own sonnets based on one of the four Shakespeare sonnets they have read.

AIM : How is Harryette Mullen’s poem different from and similar to Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130?

OBJECTIVE(s): Students will become more familiar with the ways in which a person’s surroundings affect the details they choose to include in their poetry.

RESOURCES/MATERIALS: Sonnet 130 by William Shakespeare; “Dim Lady” by Harryette Mullen – Naropa Archive reading SWP 1998/2000?; text found in Mullen’s book Sleeping With the Dictionary (2002).

ACTIVITIES AND PROCEDURES:

Do Now (5 minute period of writing in journal): Start your own poem beginning with the line “My honeybunch’s peepers are nothing like neon.”

Brief class discussion:

Did this line remind you of any of the sonnets we have read in class?

Would Shakespeare have used the word “neon”? Why/why not?

What kinds of details and images did Shakespeare use in his poems?

Introduce Harryette Mullen and poem “Dim Lady”. Students will underline details they notice in the poem while listening to her read it.

Audio: Harryette Mullen reciting her poem “Dim Lady”.

Click Here to Stream Audio
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Discussion:

How is her version different from/similar to Shakespeare?

What kinds of differences/similarities do you notice in the details she uses? What might be some reasons for these differences/similarities? How are the kinds of details you use in your poetry different from/similar to Shakespeare and Mullen?

HOMEWORK/FOLLOW UP LESSONS: Students will write at least one sonnet based on a Shakespeare sonnet and read it aloud in class.

This syllabus is credited to Rachel McKeen
Bushwick Community High School , New York