Literature Curriculum Project Syllabi

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

Poetic Forms Lesson Plan 2 using Lorenzo Thomas Lecture excerpts

OVERVIEW: Previously in this unit, students have discussed their personal definitions of poetry and why poetry is written. Students have written their own lyric poems and begun to look at different poetic forms and categories of poetry. Yesterday, students listened to and discussed poet Lorenzo Thomas’ lecture on the European historical roots of US American poetry and analyzed the poets Anne Bradstreet and Emily Dickinson in the context of Thomas’ comments. Today,

AIM: Where do our ideas about what makes a poem come from? What is our African poetic inheritance? What is an example of an Anansi story? Who is Zora Neale Hurston?

OBJECTIVE(s): Students will become more familiar with the traditions passed to US poets from African societies and with US American poets Anne Bradstreet and Emily Dickinson. Students will practice taking notes in a college style lecture.

RESOURCES/MATERIALS : Naropa Archive Lecture excerpts from Lorenzo Thomas’ 1989 lecture “What is the function of the word?”. (See URL listed below 89P113 00:09:53-00:24:33).

ACTIVITIES AND PROCEDURES:

Do Now (5 minute period of writing in journal): Can a story be poetry? Why/why not? How does the way a person tells a story differ depending on who the story is being told to? Give specific examples.

Introduce Lorenzo Thomas and lecture material from Naropa Institute, 1989. Play excerpt (public poetry, protest poetry, point of view, African American oral tradition, middle passage, social and political position of the black community in the US, folklore, fables, Anansi stories, Spike Lee, Brair Rabbit and Tar Baby, John and Ole Massa). Students take notes on lecture.

Audio: Lorenzo Thomas Lecture excerpts

Click Here to Stream Audio
Click Here to Download

Discussion.

Did anything in Thomas’ lecture surprise you? Do you agree/disagree with anything Thomas said? What are some of the normative values in your community? Do you notice anyone expressing those values publicly? How/why/why not?

HOMEWORK/FOLLOW UP LESSONS:

Read A Story, A Story by Gail E. Haley and Mules and Men, chapter 1 “John and the Frog,” by Zora Neale Hurston. The next few classes will focus on these texts.

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