(Katelyn)+Summative+Unit+Rationale

Summative Unit Rationale I like the genres (except the sonnet), the use of a response journal, and the portfolio as a mean of assessment. If you are going to have "Open-Mic," you need to feature the oral elements of these genres, such as tone, rhyme, alliteration, line-breaks and pacing. Each of these genres have these oral features, although the sonnet, less so. It may be easier to introduce these types together to show contrasts: for example between free verse and ballad or between ballad and slam, Reading a lot of these can help students identify with certain ones: for their portfolio they could write in two genres and include a favorite example of a third genre. Most important is a reflection on what makes each poem powerful and effective. The reflection is the true measure of learning, since the poems will vary according to the aptitude of the student. Look for lots of engaging examples of these genres. 5/5 A time comes when a student is an adolescent that requires them to express themselves and have a sense of identity. We as Secondary Education Teachers have a duty to facilitate this rough time where they don’t know quite who they are or who they want to be. Within the Language Arts world, there are many ways for students to express themselves, though most teachers don’t seem to take their curriculum to a level where students are learning //and// finding a form of expression to cater their identity to. For me, writing in high school was largely a form of escapism because I could write whatever I wanted and the paper would be the judge. Journal writing and creative writing are essential for every student’s growth and development in Language, Literature, and Writing. The type of creative writing I am stressing is the genre of poetry. This is a //must// in the development of a creative mind, though most teachers seem to cower in fear of poetry’s enormous __animosity__(??) and ambiguity. In the world of poetry, sometimes anything goes and how are we as teachers supposed to be able to facilitate the creation of a genre we ourselves aren’t familiar with?

My Summative Unit is a Poetry Intensive focusing more on the creation of than just the learning of. The students will be immersed in a various forms of poetry and figurative language used in these forms. It is essential for students to know that figurative language can be used to create masterpieces smaller than a page. It is also essential for students to know that creative writing is for everyone and they can let their personalities shine through the help of a teacher’s creative lesson planning.

The Unit will last five weeks. Each week is devoted to a different form of poetry and the last week will be preparation for their Unit Assessment. The first week will be simply the introduction of poetry in the form of Free Verse. Students will have a change to create their own poetry in the first week without boundaries and as we go along, forms will become more and more restricted until the last section. The students will be given a “Figurative Language Cheat Sheet” with a list of the different types of figurative language they need to be using in each poem. I will also introduce journals this week. The requirements for journals are extremely lenient, especially if I am asking them to write their own work in the journal. I am requiring that if I ask them to write a poem and turn it in to me typed, __they must use at least four uses of figurative language from the cheat sheet__. [ Do poets really write this way??] If I ask them to write it in their journals, it is not required, but recommended. Journals are simply meant for expression and creativity and I don’t want to hinder that by putting too many restrictions on their minds.

The second week will consist of the Ballad. I will be using some Emily Dickenson and a few others to facilitate the creation of the Ballad, and we will look intently on the form and how it is different from Free Verse. We will write at least two of our own Ballads and create a few small verses in our journals. __The third week will be Sonnets, which is usually considered the most restricted poetry to be learning before college. I will obviously show a Shakespearean sonnet, but there will be others, such as a fast look at John Keats for the romantics and Edna St. Vincent Millay__. [The sonnet is the one genre that does not read out loud easily. Each of the others is highly oral, even dramatic. I suggest omitting the sonnet, since it will take the most time and suck the air out or your unit]. This will be the hardest week, though once we are done here, we will move on to Slam Poetry. The fourth week will be a fun and exciting week after being so restricted with our writing. Slam Poetry is a form of performance poetry that is essential for a high school classroom. The two major performances I will be showing are Saul Williams, who is an actual slam poet, and George Carlin’s Modern Man skit. The George Carlin skit will not be the whole thing, for time and appropriateness sake, but it is very rewarding nonetheless. They will then create their own.

By the last week, they will have comprised a hefty amount of their own work. My requirements for their Summative Assessment are as follows: they will compile their six favorite works from throughout the unit; they will peer edit, revise, individually edit, and make changes to them; they will show all of their work in a portfolio from start to finish and write a reflection on the process of editing and revision; finally, they will choose their favorite poem to perform on the last two days of the unit, during our “Open-Mic Night” during their class time. This process is tedious, but by the times a student is a senior in high school, they should be able to handle the intensity.

The students will be immersed in different authors’ live when they take a plunge into their poetry. They will work collaboratively //and// separately to come up with their own meaning to the poetry and forms. They will take the time to create their own and find that their personality and identity will shine through more than they imagined. This unit will be rewarding not only for their growth as a student, but also their development as a person.