Leson Plan_Poetic Deconstruction 080911 #jhusmed

POETIC DECONSTRUCTION: A Digital Approach to Poetry Annotation - English 10th Grade

Margaret Roth, August 10, 2011 - #jhusmed

Objective: Students will use the Oxford English Dictionary to deconstruct poems and create a digital dictionary. They will look up the definitions and etymologies to understand the historical and contextual meanings of the words.

Essential Question: How does improving your familiarity with the etymologies and historical definitions of words change your understanding of the meaning of the poem?

Directions:

You will be working in pairs. Please use #EdDickinson as your Twitter hashtag. Tweet all of your sources to make a class bibliography for this project.
We will watch a brief biography on Emily Dickinson from the Emily Dickinson Museum. The teacher will then read the poem aloud. This is the link to listen to the poem again.
After listening to the poem and reading it to yourself, write down your first impressions. What do you think the poem is about? How does the poem make you feel? Does anything specifically interest you?
Now read the poem again with your partner and mark words and phrases which you find confusing. Mark the words you do not know the definition to. Discuss with your partner and determine a minimum of fifteen words you need to look up.
Using the Oxford English Dictionary, look up definitions and etymologies of each of the words you marked. Create a digital dictionary by linking the definition pages on your Google Doc of the poem.
With your partner, paraphrase the poem. Then discuss the purpose, the imagery, the language, the themes, and the symbolism of the poem. With your new understanding, reconstruct the poem and write a one paragraph Second Impression summary and preliminary analysis. Write a one paragraph response to our Essential Question. Please post your response on your class blog and share via Twitter. Be prepared to share your findings during the next class. We will make a class digital dictionary. Our most frequently discussed words will become our vocabulary list for the week.

Evaluation:

All aspects must be written in complete sentences with attention to structure and grammar.
5 points for First Impressions posted on blog
2 points per word defined accurately in your digital dictionary - 30 points total
5 points for Second Impressions posted on blog
5 points for response to Essential Question posted on blog
5 points for Class and Digital Participation by sharing your blog with Twitter

Standards: from MD Core English Goals - http://mdk12.org/instruction/clg/english/goal1.html

2.1.1 The student will compose to inform by using appropriate types of prose.
2.3.5 The student will synthesize information from two or more sources to fulfill a self-selected or given purpose.
3.1.3 The student will determine grammatical classification of words by using meaning, position, form, and function.
3.1.5 The student will incorporate subjects, predicates, and modifiers when composing original sentences.
3.2 The student will identify how language choices in writing and speaking affect thoughts and feelings.
4.1 The student will describe the effect that a given text, heard or read, has on a listener or reader.

EXAMPLE POETIC DECONSTRUCTION

Emily Dickinson - “There came a day at summer’s full” - http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/emilydickinson/10274

There came a day at summer's full

Entirely for me;

I thought that such were for the saints,

Where revelations be.

The sun, as common, went abroad,

The flowers, accustomed, blew,

As if no soul the solstice passed

That maketh all things new.

The time was scarce profaned by speech;

The symbol of a word