Unit+Rationale+-+Poetry+-+Basgall


 * Unit Rationale **

Poetry is part of the many forms of literature that should be provided within the classroom. In order for students to fully comprehend how senses and imagery take place within text we use poetry and the writing of poetry to participate in understanding text. With students writing poetry and reading to understanding poetry it is important that they take the skills taught within this lesson and apply them to everyday text. By learning about the tools and terms that make up poetry students can turn this unit into a life long hobby of not just poetic writing but writing for enjoyment. The school population of Monroe, which will be addressed during this unit, will be of 2,291 students. The demographics for this school district and community have a high percentage of middle class Caucasian families, with the minority and lowest percentage being African American / Asian American families at the middle class and poverty lines. The MEAP reading and writing scores for Monroe High School sat at 59% for reading in 2011 and 40% for writing in 2011. These were specifically focused on 11th grade student tests. The purpose of this unit goes well beyond the classroom and makes students think in a completely different way. By exposing them to famous poetry and poems from their own age group and helping them define ways in which the poem can be interpreted or why the poem may have been written can relate to any student within the classroom. I want to ensure that students’ mindsets about poetry change from the beginning of the unit to the end. I want them to think in terms of authors and poets. With lessons designed to introduce poetry at the beginning of the unit sets the playing field for the rest of the journey. Introduction with examples with each form are extremely important. Then with the introduction we lead into the logistics of the poems in terms of form, ideas, concepts, themes, etc. At the end of this unit the summative assessment will be a genre project, which ends up being a book of poems they publish, with the focus being on poetry. It is what they do with their poetry in terms of presentation and form that will make the summative assessment interesting and relatable to the students. Also included in the summative assessment is a poetry slam where they will host an event open to the community, to their friends and family, where they will perform their most prized poems to the audience. This exposes them to the ultimate world of poetry as well as giving them the tools to be powerful with their words.