ALEX Lesson Plan

This lesson is part of a larger unit dealing with Early American Literature. In this lesson, students will become familiar with the figurative devices and strategies that 17th Century Puritan poets use when creating closed or fixed-form poetry. 

This is a College- and Career-Ready Standards showcase lesson plan.

Poetry I (poems of Philip Pain)

Poetry II (poems of Philip Pain) 

Teacher access to an interactive whiteboard (if one is available)

Student access to a computer, PowerPoint, and/or a flash drive (You may choose to use mybigcampus or other LMS)

Prior to this lesson, students should be familiar with the major characteristics of Puritan society and writing. The students should also be familiar with key literary devices that will be used in this lesson--metaphor, extended metaphor, apostrophe, alliteration, allusion, types of rhyme, rhyme scheme, poetic meter, and personification.

Also, the teacher must prepare  the "Meditation 4" template for students to annotate while going through the lesson. The teacher must select five meditation poems for students to annotate independently.

1. Prior to the lesson, students should be arranged into pairs.

2. Distribute student copies of "Mediation 4" by Philip Pain.

3. Students will read "Meditation 4" in pairs and discuss the meaning of the poem.  

4. Teacher will allow student pairs to share their thoughts concerning the poem with the class.

5. In pairs, each group is responsible for finding a pair of literary devices. Device slips indicating which devices the group will find should be distributed to each group. (Example: Group One-metaphor and true rhyme; Group Two-Eye Rhyme and Apostrophe) Make certain that one group maps out the rhyme scheme, and one group maps out the rhythm of the poem. Each group is to write an explanation of how/why Philip Pain used the literary devices. 

6. After students have worked together, review how to annotate the poem using PowerPoint and allow students to share their responses as we go through the poem. 

7. At the conclusion of this exercise, each student should create his/her own PowerPoint presentation (slide) demonstrating how to annotate a Philip Pain meditation poem.

Each group will turn in its "Meditation 4" annotation and literary device explanations.

Each student will create and submit a PowerPoint presentation in which the student annotates and explains how Philip Pain used true rhyme, eye rhyme, apostrophe, metaphor, repetition, personification, and allusion. The students must also determine the rhyme scheme of his/her selected meditation poem. Explain the meaning and/or significance of the metaphors, allusions, and repetition in the selected meditation poem.

Students can apply the strategies in this lesson to the annotation and/or analysis of any closed-form poem--specifically "To My Dear and Loving Husband" by Anne Bradstreet.

Students will be grouped according to skill level as a means of increasing participation and mastery from weaker students.