Christine's+Design

This unit is designed for a college freshman English class that meets three times per week. It will serve to provide students with a greater understanding of why to read poetry, and why to read poets of the past, touching on what the cannon is, how it came about, and how it may or may not be changing. I hope to give them an idea about how literature functions in an historical and cultural context, as well as the basics of reading poetry, including close reading, and recognizing and understanding poetic devices.

Pre-Assignment: Introduce Robert Frost and cover the following: Who was Frost and when did he live/write? Why is it important to read Frost (what are the generally accepted reasons, and my personal ones, despite my own ambivalence for his work)? Was he part of a larger literary movement? What are some of his best known works? Homework: Read poem and any supplementary materials on reading poetry that we're using as a class.

In Class: Class discussion on the poem, moving from a surface reading to a deeper reading. Begin to cover themes of the poem and poetic devices. What is this poem about? Homework: Reread poem, identify at least three poetic devices Frost uses. How are they effective or not? Why would a writer choose to write this way?

In Class: Have students do a free-write on poetic devices in general, and/or within the poem. Afterward, have students break into small groups, divide poem into stanzas, assign a stanza to each group. Have each group re-write their stanza without poetic devices. Can a poem convey more than a literal meaning without poetic devices? Have groups report on what they've come up with. Do the student's stanzas focus more on literal or metaphoric/symbolic aspects of the poem? Discuss interpretive meaning. Homework: Have students write their own poem based on a theme in the Frost poem (warn them about avoiding cliches).

In Class: Have some students read their poems aloud, and discuss the devices they've used, how they've applied them, and why, and compare to Frost. Do the students find Frost's themes and writing style enduring, and is his work relevant to today's readers? How might cultural and historical context influence a writer's style and subject matter? Do we like Frost? Should we read him whether we like him or not (hopefully this discussion will touch on the subject of reading things you don't like for a greater purpose, and on the topics of universal themes)? Homework: Assign 3-page essay, due a week from that day, on Frost, choosing from a list of poems I've either handed out to them or posted on-line.