Now we return to the original promised posting — interrupted by a passing bunny.

I called this lesson “Connect the Poetry Dots,” because the students begin with Shakespeare and end with Rossetti and in between are other poets. The way I say other poets might imply that these “other poets” are minor figures. Not so, well maybe Thomas Grey. They are all major figures in English literature but a some of them — Dryden, Pope, Donne — are not often taught in high school classes. When I think back on the poets I have tended to teach they either are Shakespeare (a category on his own) and the Romantics and twentieth-century poets. For these students to read these particular poems is a bit of a challenge.

In the previous post, I told the story of how the lesson evolved. Now here is how the lesson was conveyed to the students.

1. A web page was created which outlined the assignment, included the names and birth years of all the poets, provided links to other sources about British literary periods and a pinterest board. My colleague created a pinterest board with pins related to the authors and poems and images.

2. Xeroxed 4 copies of each set of poems.

3. When class began, I explained the task and showed the web sources. Each student chose at random a poem from the envelope. the envelope contained 16 poems (2 copies of 8 poems). I held back the Shakespeare and Rossetti sonnets.

4. On the basis of the poems chosen, the students organized themselves into two groups so that each poem was in each group. Then I gave each group the Shakespeare and Rossetti sonnets.

5. Each group was given a long sheet of white banner paper to use to create their timeline of the poems. As a group, they had to read the poems, discuss them, observe similarities and differences, notice development of style, discuss evolution of themes, narrator’s voice, subject matter, etc.

6. The students were given two class periods  — and when we return from spring break, they will have another class period to work on the timelines.

This last point is very important. Each class was told that the timelines would be hung up for the entire school to see. They were also told that the timelines would be judged by the other students and teachers on the following criteria: facts and analysis, creativity, and design. They were also told that there would be a prize. When I said “prize,” the immediate question was, “What is the prize?” Now we need to figure out something worthwhile! No pressure.

My classes were given the project first. Once the directions were reviewed and some basic questions answered, they took over. Each group proceeded in a slightly different way. One group spent the entire first class reading each poem aloud and discussing it. They wrote down their observations on a shared googledoc. Another group arranged the poems chronologically, read them quickly, decided on an overarching organizational scheme and then started sketching out their time line. It was really quite fascinating to watch each one’s process.

What was also impressive was how much they were able to see in the poems as single texts and as part of a poetic continuum. These students have a confidence in their own perceptions and insights which is astonishing. They just sing out their ideas and in debate and discussion with their peers modify and adjust. Their interpretation of the poems had just as much penetration and sensitivity as many of the literary scholars I have read.

My colleague’s classes had a substitute teacher the day the project was first rolled out. I was free for her first class and so I introduced the lesson to her class while the substitute observed. Once her class had started work, the substitute asked, “So they are going to do this without first understanding the poems?” That question took me aback. How did she mean that? The girls were understanding the poems, but definitely  not in the way typical for an English class. Often when a poem is “taught,” it is tied to a chair and beaten with a rubber hose as Billy Collins wrote so memorably. This lesson was not about atomizing each poem, but about seeing each poem as a column holding up a span of a bridge connecting Shakespeare to Rossetti. Another reason this was so different was the teacher was not the one imparting the “meaning” of the poem to the students. The students were creating their own meaning and insights.