My first two lessons were haphazardly planned, as I only decided at the last minute with my CM that I would teaching something different than we originally planned for. Initially I was supposed to be starting Hamlet with the 12th grade students; however, logistically, that was not going to happen, so she brought up the idea of spending a few days on Shakespeare’s sonnets. I felt comfortable working with sonnets, and agreed, spending the weekend designing lessons for two days.
When I began thinking about the first lessons, I knew that I wanted the students to come away from the class understanding the basic structure of a sonnet and how the formal and organizational components worked together to support the theme of the poem. I also wanted the students to be able to use their knowledge of figurative language, theme, symbolism, and tone to describe the poem. Because the students are in 12th grade, they have read Shakespeare plays before and have some familiarity with the language. In addition, they have also read and analyzed poetry before in past English classes. I knew they were coming to class with some sort of foundation for reading poetry and reading Shakespeare.
With my objectives in mind, I began to think about how I wanted the lesson to proceed and how I wanted to present both the foundational, background information and the poems themselves. Using direct instruction for the beginning of the class seemed to fit best, and was the easiest to plan in a short amount of time. I also did not want to give too detailed an overview on sonnet structure because I did not want to reiterate information they may have heard before, but I did want to review the important points. Once I finished, I wanted to read through and analyze a poem as a class, which would the help students to remember how to analyze poetry when they worked together in groups.
I decided that I would spend about 10 minutes discussing the structure of a sonnet, addressing rhyme scheme, meter, stanza divisions, and the story that is told throughout the 14 lines. After, I would read through one sonnet with the entire class, analyzing as we read it so that they could work to make sense of Shakespeare’s language together. The poems I presented were chosen largely because my CM already had many copies, and they were some of Shakespeare’s better known sonnets. After going through one as a class, I would have the students break up into groups of three or four, and read and analyze a second sonnet. They would also have to hand in an analysis that was written out on paper so that I could assess whether they had understood what they had read. I wanted to have a balance of whole class work, group work, and independent work so that the students could approach the poems in a way that was most comfortable for them.
The morning before I was teaching this lesson, I made additional copies of the sonnets we would be looking at in class. I passed out the sheets to the students and began to explain the basic structural elements. Several of the students had some knowledge of sonnets, but because all of the students had knowledge of poetry in general, I was able to just review how these elements were seen in Shakespearean sonnets without having to provide lengthy explanations. When I went to read the first sonnet that I had planned for, I realized that I had made copies of the wrong sheet, and the poems the students had were not ones that I had planned for; I had read them and quickly analyzed them, but I had not planned out how I would teach them. The students however, did not know that I had copied the wrong poem, and I had to use what was in front of me, so ended up reading a different sonnet with the class. Most of the students seemed to understand what the poem was about and what Shakespeare was trying to say. There were a few who were confused by the language, but I tried to paraphrase it and explain it in a way that was more accessible to them.
When they were discussing the next poem in groups, I walked around the room to check in with each student and see if they understood the poem or found it confusing. I had intended for the students to turn in at the end of the period a write-up of their analysis and what they had discussed about the poem. I don’t think I was very clear though, as to what I wanted for the write-up, and many of the students hadn’t finished by the end of class, and who did pass something in had only written a paragraph, or bullet points. I collected several students’ work and told the rest of the class to pass it in the next day.
Overall, I think that the lesson had gone well; the students were able to understand the structure of a sonnet and how the structure influenced the content and the message that was being conveyed. Reading through the work that was submitted after this first class also confirmed that the students understood the sonnet as many had put it into their own words and several had also written about the theme and tone of the poem.
When I began thinking about the first lessons, I knew that I wanted the students to come away from the class understanding the basic structure of a sonnet and how the formal and organizational components worked together to support the theme of the poem. I also wanted the students to be able to use their knowledge of figurative language, theme, symbolism, and tone to describe the poem. Because the students are in 12th grade, they have read Shakespeare plays before and have some familiarity with the language. In addition, they have also read and analyzed poetry before in past English classes. I knew they were coming to class with some sort of foundation for reading poetry and reading Shakespeare.
With my objectives in mind, I began to think about how I wanted the lesson to proceed and how I wanted to present both the foundational, background information and the poems themselves. Using direct instruction for the beginning of the class seemed to fit best, and was the easiest to plan in a short amount of time. I also did not want to give too detailed an overview on sonnet structure because I did not want to reiterate information they may have heard before, but I did want to review the important points. Once I finished, I wanted to read through and analyze a poem as a class, which would the help students to remember how to analyze poetry when they worked together in groups.
I decided that I would spend about 10 minutes discussing the structure of a sonnet, addressing rhyme scheme, meter, stanza divisions, and the story that is told throughout the 14 lines. After, I would read through one sonnet with the entire class, analyzing as we read it so that they could work to make sense of Shakespeare’s language together. The poems I presented were chosen largely because my CM already had many copies, and they were some of Shakespeare’s better known sonnets. After going through one as a class, I would have the students break up into groups of three or four, and read and analyze a second sonnet. They would also have to hand in an analysis that was written out on paper so that I could assess whether they had understood what they had read. I wanted to have a balance of whole class work, group work, and independent work so that the students could approach the poems in a way that was most comfortable for them.
The morning before I was teaching this lesson, I made additional copies of the sonnets we would be looking at in class. I passed out the sheets to the students and began to explain the basic structural elements. Several of the students had some knowledge of sonnets, but because all of the students had knowledge of poetry in general, I was able to just review how these elements were seen in Shakespearean sonnets without having to provide lengthy explanations. When I went to read the first sonnet that I had planned for, I realized that I had made copies of the wrong sheet, and the poems the students had were not ones that I had planned for; I had read them and quickly analyzed them, but I had not planned out how I would teach them. The students however, did not know that I had copied the wrong poem, and I had to use what was in front of me, so ended up reading a different sonnet with the class. Most of the students seemed to understand what the poem was about and what Shakespeare was trying to say. There were a few who were confused by the language, but I tried to paraphrase it and explain it in a way that was more accessible to them.
When they were discussing the next poem in groups, I walked around the room to check in with each student and see if they understood the poem or found it confusing. I had intended for the students to turn in at the end of the period a write-up of their analysis and what they had discussed about the poem. I don’t think I was very clear though, as to what I wanted for the write-up, and many of the students hadn’t finished by the end of class, and who did pass something in had only written a paragraph, or bullet points. I collected several students’ work and told the rest of the class to pass it in the next day.
Overall, I think that the lesson had gone well; the students were able to understand the structure of a sonnet and how the structure influenced the content and the message that was being conveyed. Reading through the work that was submitted after this first class also confirmed that the students understood the sonnet as many had put it into their own words and several had also written about the theme and tone of the poem.