Literature Curriculum Project Syllabi

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

Blues Lesson Plan 3 using Lorenzo Thomas Lecture excerpts

OVERVIEW: Previously in this unit, students have listened to, read, and discussed several US American poets including blues singers Bessie Smith and Robert Johnson. Yesterday, students wrote their own blues poems as homework.

AIM: Are blues poems political? When is a personal issue also political?

OBJECTIVE(s): Students will become more familiar with the blues as a musical and poetic form.

RESOURCES/MATERIALS: Naropa Archive Lecture excerpts from Lorenzo Thomas’ class lecture. ( See URL listed below 89P116 00:14:47-00:30:17.)

ACTIVITIES AND PROCEDURES:

Do Now: Read blues poems from last night’s homework.

Review historical references of Baraka and Ginsberg poems and blues poems heard so far.

When were the poems/songs in question written?

What was going on in the US at those times? In the world?

What was going on in the lives of the narrators of the poems as far as you can tell from the writing?

Do any of the blues poems students wrote contain historical references?

Are students’ blues poems lyric?

What personal information about the narrators is revealed in students’ poems?

Introduce and play Lorenzo Thomas lecture starting with song by Lightning Hopkins “War is starting again” written in 1958 ( See URL listed below 89P116 00:14:47 – 00:30:17). Students take notes on songs, lecture.

Audio: Lorenzo Thomas Lecture excerpts

Click Here to Stream Audio
Click Here to Download

Discussion of “War is starting again” and “ Vietnam Blues”.

What do the historical events of the songs mean to the singer/narrators?

What is the form of the poem?

HOMEWORK/FOLLOW UP LESSONS:

Research a blues artist we have not covered in class.

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