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| Overview |
 Using poetry to examine a particular issue provides students an accessible way to have several experiences in a short period of time. This lesson provides students the opportunity working in a collaborative setting to examine the ways that perspective influences how individuals vary in their tone and toward the same or a similar experience based on their point of view. Here this will be done through analysis of Walt Whitman's “I Hear America Singing,” Langston Hughes' “I, Too, Sing America,” and Maya Angelou's “On the Pulse of the Morning.”
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| From Theory to Practice |
Students strengthen their reading skills and their ability to analyze literature when they make connections between their prior knowledge and the pieces they are about to encounter. This lesson makes connections to a prereading activity incorporated into this lesson to encourage students to gain a wider understanding between point of view and tone. The following resources influenced the development of this lesson.
Buehl, Doug. 2001. Classroom Strategies for Interactive Learning. 2e. Newark, Delaware: International Reading Association.
Burke, Jim, Ron Klemp, and Wendell Schwartz. 2002. Reader’s Handbook: A Student Guide for Reading and Learning. Wilmington, Massachusetts: Great Source Education Group.
Fisher, Douglas, Nancy Frey, and Douglas Williams. 2002. “Seven Literacy Strategies That Work.” Educational Leadership 60.3 (November): 70-3.
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| Student Objectives |
Students will
- demonstrate an understanding of tone.
- demonstrate an understanding of the role of cultural experiences on a writer's tone.
- support their observations with support from the text both in oral and written form.
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| Instructional Plan |
Resources
Preparation
- Make copies of the Analysis and Response Assignment, the Varying Views of America Rubric, and, if desired, the Varying Views of America Graphic Organizer.
- Arrange for access to the three poems. All are available online. The poems are also anthologized in some literature texts. If students do not have Internet access, arrange for copies of the poems.
- Test the Varying Views of America Venn Diagram Student Interactive on your computers to familiarize
yourself with the tool and ensure that you have the Flash plug-in installed.
You can download the plug-in from the technical
support page.
Instruction and Activities
- Begin the first session with a mini-lesson reviewing the elements of "tone" and "point of view." This Checklist on the Elements of Literary Style could supplement the review.
- Then break the class into small groups and review the assignment handout, the Varying Views of America Venn Diagram Student Interactive or the graphic organizer, and the rubric with the students.
- Each group will first read each of the poems and write a brief, succinct, summary of each poet’s message, and identify the tone and point of view about his or her subject providing specific text for support.
- Next, the students should indicate on the Varying Views of America Venn Diagram Student Interactive the similarities all poems share, the similarities that exist between two at a time, and the qualities unique to each poem. Each member of the group will record the group’s response using the graphic organizer provided.
- Proceed based on the resources that are available in your classroom for this lesson plan:
If students are working with computers
Once students have entered the details on the three poems on the Venn Diagram Student Interactive, the interactive will ask them two synthesis quesitons. Remind students to print and/or save their work, following the instructions on-screen.
If students are working without computers
Students will gather details on the poems on their copies of the Varying Views of America Graphic Organizer. After the group has finished discussing the poem, ask each student to write on the back of the graphic organizer what he or she has inferred is the poet’s view of America and how life experience affects each writer's tone and point of view.
- Bring the class back together to share their findings. Project the Venn Diagram Student Interactive or draw a three-circle Venn Diagram on the board. Have each group contribute their responses to a section of the graphic organizer .
- Discuss the differences or additions other groups or individuals contribute. Share the inferences students have made and draw conclusions about the influences, especially as they related to point of view, that shaped the tone of each selection.
Extension
Have students write poems in response to one of the three poets as Hughes did to Whitman. Students should focus on tone (anger, sarcasm, humor, sadness, etc.) and emphasize their own backgrounds and life experiences through point of view.
Web Resources
- Checklist: Elements of Literary Style
http://www.lakesideschool.org/upperschool/departments/english
/ErikChristensen/WRITING%20STRATEGIES/LiteraryStyles.htm
- This fifteen-question checklist includes questions that help students analyze
literary works for such stylistic choices as pace, tone, and figures of speech.
Using this checklist, you can extend this lesson by asking students to consider
the checklist and draw conclusions about the style of the author whom they
have examined.
- I Hear America Singing
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15752
- Walt Whitman "I Hear America Singing"
- I, Too, Sing America
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15615
- Langston Hughes "I, Too, Sing America"
- On the Pulse of the Morning
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/AngPuls.html
- Maya Angelou "On the Pulse of the Morning"
- Born in Slavery
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/snhtml/snhome.html
- Born in Slavery: The Federal Writers Project
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| Student Assessment/Reflections |
| Assess both the graphic organizers and the reflective responses using the Varying Views of America Rubric. |
1 - Students read a wide range of print and nonprint texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works.
2 - Students read a wide range of literature from many periods in many genres to build an understanding of the many dimensions (e.g., philosophical, ethical, aesthetic) of human experience.
3 - Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).
12 - Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).
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