$50

for 14 classes

Poetry Exploration

New class

Ages 10-15

Live Group Class

In this course we will explore the poetic form by reading from various time periods, styles, and authors.

Theresa Confer

Average rating:

4.9

Number of reviews:

(56 reviews)

Live video meetings

2x per week, 7 weeks

5-18 learners per class

25 min

About Learning Overview Teacher Reviews

What's included

14 live meetings

5 hrs 50 mins in-class hours

Homework

Write a poem to share with the class. Please submit the poem to the teacher 3 days prior to the final class. I will review the poems and approve them prior to students' sharing them aloud in our last class.

Assessment

Students will not be assessed by the teacher. However, parents can gauge student comprehension by checking their understanding of the literary elements found in each poem.

Class Experience

US Grade 5 - 8

This course will be cancelled if there are less than 3 learners

Prerequisite: Students should have some familiarity with common literary elements such as: 
We will identify literary elements such as: imagery, metaphor, theme, simile, symbolism, stanza, rhyme, beat/rhythm). 
We will begin our first class with a warm up to jolt our memories regarding these terms, but terms should not be new information the students need to be taught.

The rest of the course will be in the style of a relaxed socratic seminar. "A socratic seminar is a discussion, based on a text, in which the teacher asks open-ended questions. Within the context of the discussion, students listen closely to the comments of others, thinking critically for themselves, and articulate their own thoughts and their responses to the thoughts of others" .(works cited: readwritethink.org)

I will make every effort to end class on time, but please be advised that if necessary class may extend 5-10minutes beyond the scheduled end time.

As the teacher, I will provide a poem through screen share during each class. We will read the poem, analyze, and discuss it. We will read poems from classical and modern texts. Some of the poems we will discuss can be found here:
Poems to be read:
Day 1
Warm Up Activity: Literary Terms-brainstorm
I'm Nobody Who Are You? - Emily Dickinson
Hope is the thing with Feathers-Emily Dickinson (if we run out of time this poem will be moved to Day2)

Day 2
Mirror- Sylvia Plath
You're-Sylvia Plath

Day 3
Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night-Dylan Thomas
Cremation of Sam McGee-Robert Service we will listen to <Youtube (Johnny Cash's reading of Sam McGee)>

Day 4
The Road Not Taken- Robert Frost
Nothing Gold Can Stay- Robert Frost

Day 5
Sonnet 18-Shakespeare
Sonnet 29- Shakespeare
Sonnet 130-Shalespeare


Day 6
Littany-Billy Collins
Did I Miss Anything?-Tom Wayman

Day 7
The Gift- Li Young Lee
Those Winter Sundays” -Robert Hayden

Day 8
Lorax-Dr. Seuss
My Job-Dr. Seuss

Day 9
Trees-Joyce Kilmer
The Problem of Writing Poems in the Shape of Trees

Day 10
Being Brave at Night-Edgar Guest
Now We Are Six-A.A.Milne
Wind on the Hill-A.A.Milne
Waiting At the Window Pane-A.A.Milne
My Next-door Neighbor is a Witch-Samiya Vallee (only if time permits)

Day 11
Mother to Son Lagston Hughes
My Papa's Waltz-Theodore Roethke
An Ocean of Memories- Kimberly L. Briones

Day 12
The Haiku's of Jack Kerouac

Day 13
Oh Captain! My Captain! by Walt Whitman 
Still I Rise- Maya Angelou 

Day 14
Eating Poetry-Mark Strand
Look At Me- Todd Alcott
Time for students to share their own works
Tell tale Heart-Edgar Alan Poe ( Animated Video Youtube: only if time permits)

We will discuss the form of the poem, the author's writing style, literary devices, and what we think the purpose of the writing may be. Most important of all, we will discuss our thoughts, feelings, and reactions to the poems.

Learning Goals

Students will further develop their ability to appreciate, analyze, and discuss poetry.
Students will learn by exposure to poetry. We will discuss together different types, some structured some unstructured, and some whimsical.

Other Details

Supply List

I will supply all poems via screen sharing. Where appropriate, I may also screen share YouTube readings of the poems.

However, I will include the Haiku's here only because there are a large number of them. I will also share a rare poem difficult to find elsewhere:

Kimberly L. Briones-An Ocean of Memories
Published: February 2006
My family is the ocean around us.
My father is the hurricane,
knocking anything and everybody out of his path.
My mother is the sunshine after the storm (my father),
clearing and calming everything else.
My oldest brother is the sand,
kicked and blown away by my dad,
but warmed with care by my mom.
My oldest sister is the breeze in the wind,
cool, quiet, and there when you need her.
My other two brothers are the stingrays,
dangerous,
but also willing to fight anyone who comes along.
And I,
I am an old ship at the bottom of the sea,
lost, abandoned, but full of memories.

Haikus Jack Kerouac

***

The bottom of my shoes
are clean
from walking in the rain.

***

Snap your finger
stop the world –
rain falls harder.

***

After the shower
among the drenched roses
the bird thrashing in the bath.

***

Early morning gentle rain,
two big bumblebees
Humming at their work

***

Birds singing
in the dark
—Rainy dawn.

***

The rain has filled
the birdbath
Again, almost

***

Useless, useless,
the heavy rain
Driving into the sea.

***

The little worm
lowers itself from the roof
By a self shat thread

***

Nightfall,
boy smashing dandelions
with a stick.

***

frozen
in the birdbath
A leaf

***

In my medicine cabinet
the winter fly
has died of old age

***

Missing a kick
at the icebox door
It closed anyway.

External Resources

Learners will not need to use any apps or websites beyond the standard Outschool tools.

Meet the teacher

Theresa Confer

Joined December, 2017

4.9

56reviews

Profile

Teacher expertise and credentials

Pennsylvania Teaching Certificate in Secondary Education

I am a certified English teacher. I believe in making learning accessible to students. Some students believe that poetry is too difficult to understand. I believe any student can understand and appreciate poetry with enough time, patience, and guidance. I strongly believe the best way to explore literature is in a relaxed discussion not in a rigid class.