Course: 9th grade ELA
Materials Needed: projector; access to Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ywy-Tthdg7w); 5-7 Printed copies of “Mr. Oxford Don, by John Agard, paper and writing utensils for students
Class Objectives: Students will be able to define and identify poetic devices of sound, such as alliteration, assonance, consonance, and rhyme.
- Connection to Course Goals: This lesson will coach students on careful reading and listening, preparing them for more complex poetic concepts, such as theme, tone, meter, and allegory.
- Anticipatory Set: Ask students to think about some of their favorite song lyrics. Spend ~5 minutes journaling what sounds they love in those lyrics, considering rhyme, wordplay, pun, rhythm, etc.
- Introduction: After journaling, discuss some lyrics, and use students’ discoveries to introduce and define the four poetic elements we will be studying in this lesson.
- Procedure:
- Group-making, assign one poetic device to each group (5-7 groups of 3-5) [10 minutes]
- Listen to and project text of “Mr. Oxford Don” to board/projector, hand out a printed copy to each group [5 minutes]
- Ask students to identify and discuss incidences of their groups’ device in the text, and to mark them on the poem. Play poem once more just before wrapping up group work, so everyone has a second opportunity to hear the poetic devices. Ask each group to choose one person to lead group discussion (others may join in) [15 minutes]
- [About 40 minutes into class]
- Class discussion, going group by group, of literary devices in the poem [30 minutes]
- Discussion of general impressions of the piece [10 minutes]
- Conclusion: Wrap up discussion. Give homework assignment (Go to Poetry Foundation website, browse poems by author/topic/era/occasion, choose two pieces and identify one of each poetic device covered in class in each of the poems. Be prepared to discuss one of your poems at the start of next class.