Reading Poetry with Middle School Students

•Mary Ann Reilly•Blueprints for Learning

• Pause for a moment and reflect: What words or phrases come to mind when you think about the teaching of writing?

• Working individually and as quickly as you can for the next five (5) minutes, write each item you think of on a separate sticky-note and stick each note on your group’s (blank) poster.

• You should have a pile of sticky notes spread randomly across your poster.

• Work together to sort all the notes into appropriate groupings.

• Label each grouping.

For something to be a masterpiece, you have to have enough time to talk when you have nothing to say.

– John Cage, Lecture on Nothing

The World Is Too Much With Us--William Wordsworth

The world is too much with us; late and soon,Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:Little we see in nature that is ours;We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!This sea that bares her bosom to the moon,The winds that will be howling at all hours,Are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers,For this, for everything, we are out of tune;It moves us not. — Great God! I’d rather beA pagan suckled in a creed outworn;So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.

How do you eat an elephant?

• Let’s start with a basic understanding of what the poem might be talking about.

• Re-read the poem and circle all the words (including references) that are unfamiliar or that you are unsure of.

• Use a dictionary and look up all the circled words and

write the definitions next to the appropriate lines in the poem.

• Re-read the poem (again), substituting the definitions you just wrote for the words in the poem.

• Write a brief (2-3 sentences) paraphrase of what the poem is about. Share your paraphrase with a partner.

What changed?

What content is (re)visited over the next week(s)?

• metaphor, simile, onomatopoeia• assonance, consonance, alliteration• denotation/connotation• rhyme scheme• meter• sonnet form

And now we go back to the poem...

The World Is Too Much With Us--William Wordsworth

The world is too much with us; late and soon,Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:Little we see in nature that is ours;We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!This sea that bares her bosom to the moon,The winds that will be howling at all hours,Are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers,For this, for everything, we are out of tune;It moves us not. — Great God! I’d rather beA pagan suckled in a creed outworn;So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.

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After all this work, what happens when students are asked to respond to a question like this:

How does Wordsworth’s use of figurative language extend the meaning of the poem “The World is Too Much With Us”?

And how does the depth of that response temper the way in which you might respond to students’ writing?

For example...

Salman Rushdie’s Haroun and the Sea of Stories

12 chapters in 12 weeks

Chapter Focus

1.The Shah of Blah2.The Mail Coach3.The Dull lake4.An Iff and a Butt5.About Guppees and Chupwalas6.The Spy’s Story7.Into the Twilight Strip8.Shadow warriors9.The Dark Ship10.Haroun’s Wish11.Princess Batcheat12.Was it the Walrus?

wordssentencesparagraphsnarrationcharacterscenedialoguedetailsgesturegesture & word choiceon your owndeatils, details, details, & ending