Al+is+Backward

This lesson plan is designed for students of a lower division, general education, undergraduate literature class, considering these results, assessment methods, and the use of New Media.


 * 1. what will students need to know (knowledge and skills) to achieve results?**

The abstract nature of figurative language in poetry. The subjectivity of responding to poems. The metatextuality of this particular Frost poem in terms of the theme of individualism vs. conformity in its content, as well as potential conflicting interpretations.


 * 2. what activities will equip students with necessary knowledge and skills?**

Students will have read the poem for the day of the class session, without any additional readings/research (yet). In order to demonstrate the slipperiness of figurative/poetic language, they will also have been asked to choose a theme they think exists in the poem, and write their own short one-stanza poem based on that theme. The first thing we will do in class is split into groups based on the themes students responded to and (voluntarily) share a few poems with one another. Within these group discussions, the varying poems should display the slipperiness of figurative vis-a-vis more direct language.

We will then freewrite for 5-10 minutes a critical analysis of Frost's poem. Students will share (again voluntarily) these reactions. Since this activity is contingent on there being varied responses, I will have prepared a few different readings in the event that all student contributions are too similar. Using the various responses, I will lead a discussion tending to the questions, "What are the speaker's attitudes about conformity/individuality?" To move into the metatextuality, we will continue with discussing the questions, "Should we have the same or similar interpretations of this or any poem? Why or why not? Why, then, do we have different responses to this particular poem?"

To reinforce the idea of the subjectivity of poems, as follow-up home assignment, I will ask students to conduct an internet search on the keywords "The Road Not Taken." [Google's results range from archival, to critical academic analysis, to personal blogging, to various other contexts] In the context of cyberspace, they are to choose one of the digital locations of this poem, and write a response about that particular page and site, considering the questions, "What kind of page/site is it? What is the poem's function on that page/site?"


 * 3. what will need to be taught and coached, and how?**

Navigating the internet, which they should all be familiar with doing.


 * 4. is the overall design coherent and effective?**

Yes, it deserves a thousands-of-dollars Pell Grant for further research.