Viola's+Design

Working design of reading Frost's "The Road Not Taken"

These exercises will allow them to gain a more complex and enriched understanding of one of the most widely read American poems. Rather than getting the more typical interpretation of the poem being a positive affirmation of non-conformity, students will be able to see the contradictions and equivocations in the poem, and the arbitrariness of choices one makes in one's life. Not only will they practice close reading and critical thinking skills that are valuable in reading any kind of text, they will be stirred to rethink their conception of the poem and what it shows them about choice, human fallibility, memory, etc.

In class:

Start by asking 3-4 students to read the poem aloud, in order to get multiple interpretations of what the poem sounds like it is saying -- this will break the ice and get the class into the material, and hopefully allow them to hear the different interpretations (and not just in their own heads) so they can rethink whether the poem might have something more to say than just making a difference in one's life by non-conforming and being a unique individual.

Have students free-write for about 5-10 mins about, say, the "sigh" at the end of the poem--"what kind of a sigh is the speaker heaving at the end? how can you tell from the poem?".

Then, have an open discussion about the poem, asking students to share ideas they've written down for their free-writing exercise, which paves the way to a deeper reading of the poem. Other important questions are also asked, such as, "let's describe and compare the two roads--are they really that different?", or "what kind of a difference do you think the speaker's choice has made?", or "do you trust the speaker? why?", etc.

After class/Out of class:

Teacher can choose to do a shorter or longer project.

__Shorter__: This assignment will be done on a wiki platform. Students submit a short writing assignment on a prompt. It could be geared towards building a wiki on what the contradictions are in the poem, and what role the equivocations play in contributing to the "sigh" at the end of the poem. Students will also read and comment on their classmates' entries.

__Longer__: Students will create a visible interpretation of their reading of the poem--ask them to create a digital multimedia reading of the poem that utilizes video, images, sound, etc. to convey their interpretations. This could be a digital storytelling project on their reading of the poem, or they could perform and record their reading. All of these projects will be uploaded onto the class wiki.