Poetry Unlocked: The Lady of Shalott by Alfred Lord Tennyson

Students will understand poetic terminology such as stanza, rhyme scheme, alliteration, and other literary devices. 

Students will learn to analyze symbolism within the poem. 

Students will connect aspects of the poem to their everyday lives (for instance, what effect does isolation have on the Lady? What effect might it have on us?). 

My passions are writing and poetry, and it's my great joy that my five kids can quote Shakespeare and Longfellow. So many students claim to "hate" poetry, but that's often because poetry is difficult to understand. My goal is to give students the tools they need to unlock poems. Like John Keats suddenly understanding Homer once he read the English translation, I want my students to look "...at each other with a wild surmise/ Silent, upon a peak in Darien." 

Professionally, I hold degrees in Journalism and French Literature from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and I've been published in numerous newspapers and magazines. I've also taught writing and literature classes to students of all ages and abilities. 

55 minutes per week in class, and maybe some time outside of class.