The lab routine was the same for every unit: students logged onto the week's unit by clicking on the icon at the page I created at TeacherWeb, copied and pasted the week's poems and guiding questions onto a Microsoft Word page. This was the text for discussion. I projected the poem from my computer, and read aloud, then conducted discussion. Enrichment included projecting video clips from the Favorite Poem Project website, art and photos of the poets. Audio clips of the poets reading their own work were played for the class from the teacher's computer where they were available. As in any regular classroom, all poems were read aloud, and we attempted full-class discussion although the computer terminals were in the way. Students took notes and answered written questions on the MS Word page where they copied each unit. They emailed written answers and short essays to me. In preparation for the final project, a student-created web research page on one of the poets, each week I taught a design or research-related skill: finding, copying and pasting photographs of the poets and relevant works of art; defining figurative language or finding online definitions for unfamiliar words; creating hyperlinks; changing background color, text font and color, playing with text art.

Teaching Poets
I had the benefit of two teaching poets, one who helped me design the unit, the other who came in and led the students in close readings of two poems.

Creative Writing
Students wrote a total of three poems: one modeled in the style of any poem in the section, "We Sing the Body Electric," one from "Whose Story?" and one ars poetica. These poems were read aloud and critiqued in a workshop setting outside of the lab.

Web Research Page
At the end of the cycle, students spent six class days creating a web research page in Microsoft Word on one of the poets whose work we read this cycle. The skills had been taught throughout the cycle, but were written out on the TeacherWeb page and on a handout (particularly for creating hyperlinks and copying and pasting pictures). The project required a picture of the poet and the poet's name and dates of birth/death (where applicable); a 150-word introduction to the poet that discussed her importance to the student; two poems not read for class; a close reading of each poem of the type the visiting poet did; three hyperlinks within the poems or introduction; a relevant work of art; the student's own ars poetica about the importance of poetry. The web research page was reviewed by students the last two days of the cycle. Lesson Plans are broken down into weekly units. 

How does the poet use childhood as a starting point? How does the concrete image convey complex emotion? How does enjambment work in these poems?

Technical
Find, read and paraphrase biographical material on one of the week's poets. Answer the questions accompanying each poem and email to the teacher.

Things to Think About in These Selections
What are the differences between the way little girls and little boys grow up in our culture? Do we see those differences when a woman poet writes out of her childhood? When the poet taps her childhood experience for a poem, is she writing about her life alone? About experience common only to girls? Or do these poems out of childhood transcend gender and speak to us about how we must all learn some of life's most painful lessons? Also, answer the following questions, in writing, after reading each poem:

• Who is the "I" in each poem?
• Is this a child's perspective, or an adult's?
• How would you characterize the poem's tone? (sad, angry, pensive, wondering, amused, forgiving, bemused, complaining. . .)
• What lesson does the speaker suggest that she has learned?

Writing
Write a 300-500 word essay arguing whether Elizabeth Bishop's "In the Waiting Room" is about the anxieties of becoming a woman or becoming an adult. Cite specific lines.

Poetry

• Sharon Olds, "I Go Back to May 1937" Read Discussion Questions on this poem.
• Audre Lorde, "Hanging Fire" Read Discussion Questions on this poem.
• Julia Alvarez, "The Lost and Found Senoritas" Read Vocabulary for this poem.
• Marilyn Chin, "How I Got That Name" Read Vocabulary for this poem.
• Elizabeth Bishop, "In the Waiting Room"
• Sylvia Plath, "Daddy" (I had this poem posted on my site, but it was blocked for hate language.)
• Ruth Dallas, "In the Giant's Castle" Read Discussion Questions about Plath and Dallas.

Questions About "I Go Back to May 1937," by Sharon Olds

• Is the speaker in this poem child or adult?
• Highlight and paste details from the poem that paint a visual picture of the photograph. What do they make you see?
• Why do you think Olds repeats the phrase "pitiful beautiful untouched body" about both parents?
• Explain her last line, "Do what you are going to do, and I will tell about it."

Questions About "Hanging Fire," by Audre Lorde

• Is this speaker adult or child?
• Is the speaker male or female? How can you tell? (Poet is not speaker; the "I" is often a fictional character, even in a poem.)
• How can "skin betray" a teenager?
• What is making this speaker anxious? Copy and paste lines.
• Copy and paste the two lines that are repeated, like a refrain in a song. Explain why you think the poet used the technique of refrain in this poem.

Alvarez and Chin Vocabulary

In Julia Alvarez's "The Lost and Found Senoritas":

• santas
• Dios Santo
• La Vergin
• el Jefe

In Marilyn Chin's "How I Got That Name":

• resoluteness
• stalwart
• Angel Island -- San Francisco immigration center, like Ellis Island, NY
• transliterated
• wayward
• Nembutal
• dithers
• petty
• devout
• filial
• piety
• adverse
• redolent
• patriarch
• kiosk
• brutish
• pomfret
• imminent
• lethargy
• virtuous
• chasm
• jowls
• metaphysical

After reading "How I Got That Name," listen to the poet read her poem.

Bishop Questions and Writing Assignment

Today you will work on your own or with a classmate.

After you read Elizabeth Bishop's "In the Waiting Room" answer the following questions:

• From the lines "In Worcester, Massachusetts," to "lamps and magazines" describe what the poet makes you see.
• From the lines "My aunt was inside" to "I was too shy to stop" list the images that are pictures from the magazine.
• From the lines "And then I looked at the cover" to "February, 1918" respond to the critical theory that this section is meant to imply that the speaker suddenly becomes one with her aunt.
• In the second stanza, what do you think the speaker means by "falling off. . ."
• Explain the following three lines: "But I felt: you are an I, / you are an Elizabeth / you are one of them."
• Look up epiphany in the dictionary. How is this poem an epiphany? What sudden realization does the child have?

Discuss, in a 3 paragraph argument, whether you think "In the Waiting Room" is about the anxieties of becoming a woman or the anxieties of becoming an adult, and why. Cite specific lines -- you could highlight, copy and paste lines -- then say what those lines mean and how they prove your point. Remember: this is an argument that needs proof from the poem, not just your opinion.

You and your classmate will compose your answer on one computer, sign both names, then email me a copy.

Plath and Dallas Questions

• What is similar about the poems by Plath and Dallas?
• Plath uses a number of Nazi references and images to talk about her father. Highlight, copy and paste these images.
• By contrast, Dallas uses another image -- a giant. What type of giant do you think she means?
• What is the difference in the way these two speakers regard the fathers of their poems?

Nicaraguan poet Daisy Zamora said, "It is important for a woman to be aware of and to recover her own body because we have been told too many times that we were born to make sure that humankind doesn't disappear; we need to have a consciousness of our own selves and our own bodies. I look at my body in this sacred way because I think that you have to love your own body, the body which contains your soul which, like your body, is unique. Parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, the list goes on forever of all the people who have been working through the ages to produce each one of us. Having this consciousness that each human being is an individual and has this uniqueness has enabled me to write these poems. Maybe this perspective is nothing new for men, but for a woman, having this consicousness is important." --from The Language of Life, p. 441

Poetry

• "Psalm of Praise to My Husband's Body" by Denise Levertov
• "Grandmother Love Poem" by Sharon Olds
• "Poem in Which My Legs Are Accepted" by Kathleen Fraser
• "Barbie Doll" by Marge Piercy

4 Poems About the Body

Two of the four poems in this lesson plan were taught by visiting poet Tina Cane. Over the course of two days she conducted close readings of Denise Levertov's "Psalm of Praise to My Husband's Body" and Sharon Olds' "Grandmother Love Poem." I also taught two poems to tie into the theme of the body: "Poem in Which My Legs Are Accepted" by Kathleen Fraser and "Barbie Doll" by Marge Piercy. In class, I used the following

Discussion Questions:

• How do these two poems differ in tone?
• You could not call "Barbie Doll" a song of praise; what would you call it?

Students then completed the following Writing Assignment:

• Select just one stanza from any of today's poems and give it a close reading at home as Tina Cane gave the Denise Levertov poem, a close, line-by-line reading and explanation.
• Explain what each line means, why you think the poet breaks the lines where she does, and the image (picture) conveyed by those lines. Then discuss briefly the feelings that the stanza conveys to you, the reader.
• Length: 150 words or so (copied stanza not included)

You may highlight and Print/Selection to take a paper copy home. You may also hand-write your response.

During Tina's second visit, she assigned the students to Write a Poem
Students should write a poem praising some part of your own or another person's body. I suggested that they might think of Zamora's line "I love my . . ." and use it as a starting point. Zamora begins four of the six stanzas of her poem with this phrase; I encouraged them to do so as well. The technique is called anaphora.

Weekend Homework Assignment
Bring in a 250 word evaluation of poet Tina Cane's visit to the class. In it, note specifically what she helped you understand about poetry or the Denise Levertov poem. Be sure you point out lines or ideas. You may also discuss what having a young working poet come to teach class was like, how it broke up the routine of regular class discussion, or anything else you would like to say about Tina's visit. Attach this evaluation to your two poems written after the models she presented in class. Please check spelling, grammar, word choice and punctuation.

"The ars poetica is a poem that takes the art of poetry—its own means of expression—as its explicit subject." 
—Ed Hirsch, How to Read a Poem.

In other words, ars poetica is about poetry. This week, we listened to each other read from poetry written in response to women's poetry. So you have read poetry by a number of different women, been instructed by a working poet, and have written poetry of your own. Now we will read two ars poetica, "Poetry" by Marianne Moore and "Ars Poetica" by Claribel Alegría and explore how they justify poetry and its place in life. There are two points of interest in the Moore poem you may want to note. The first is in the lines "to discriminate against 'business documnets and / school books'; all these phenomena are important." 'business documents and schoolbooks' comes from a journal entry by Russian author Leo Tolstoy: "Where the boundary between prose and poetry lies, I shall never be able to understand. The question is raised in manuals of style, yet the answer to it lies beyond me. Poetry is verse; prose is not verse. Or else poetry is everything with the exception of business documents and school books." The second reference appears in the following line, "nor till the poets among us can be / 'literalists of / the imagination'." Irish poet W.B. Yeats wrote about another poet, William Blake, ". . .he was a too literal realist of imagination, as others are of nature."

Writing Assignment

• Write your own ars poetica. In it, say what is important about poetry, what its purpose is, why it must exist, what it has meant to you. Include this poem on your Word page.
• Essay: Write one page (3-4 paragraphs) about any two poems you heard this week. Let the essay argue the point that these poems expressed specific gender concers OR they expressed human concerns, not strictly gender. Support your argument with two citations from each poem. Be sure you say what you "got" from those lines or images that you are citing. Be sure to explain how they support your point. In your conclusion, state whether or not you think your classmates' poetry had "the raw material of poetry in / all its rawness and / that which is on the other hand / genuine" (Marianne Moore) and say why.

Web Research Project

Welcome to the end of your Women Poets unit. You will now create a Microsoft Word page composed of information you find during Internet research. Your page will tell us more about one of the poets whose work we read this cycle. Here's how:

1. Open a new Microsoft Word page. Save it to the school's server.
2. Decide which poet you are going to research.
3. Starting with Poets.org, search for the following information about your poet online:

• biographical material
• several poems
• check links for more information

 4.  Copy the following:

• photo of the poet (do not use one already copied)
• two new poems by the poet (do not use one we read together)
• URL for each copied item, pasted beneath the item

 5. Study the poems and biographical material well.
 6. Write a 150 word introduction to your poet; say why the web page user should read this person's work and what it meant to you. Write two 150 word close reading responses to the poems you selected. The idea is to show the reader what you see in those poems that thrills you, makes you think, or changes your view of life. Point out literary devices. Turn these in for correction before posting on page.

Find a piece of art to use with one of the poems at WebMuseum. Copy the art as you learned in previous weeks and put it on the page. Copy the URL and paste it beneath the picture.

1. Correct (if necessary) the Introduction and two Close Readings after they are returned by me.
2. Create three hyperlinks that your reader can click on to learn more about the poet, the poems, the era or anything else that seems worthwhile. Suggestions: criticism of one of the poems from another web page; photographs from the era during which the poet wrote; more biographical material; newspaper story about the poet; a link to Favorite Poem Project if the poet has work represented there. Use nothing we have already used in class.
3. In a box, type your own ars poetica or, if relevant, your poem in response to or inspired by your poet's work. Write a 1-2 line introduction to your poem. Explain what relevance it has to your web page.
4. Proofread the entire page.
5. Change around anything you wish, change graphics, move text.
6. Add background color and texture, print color and text art or anything else you wish to enhance the page. No clip art, please.
7. Save the final page as directed. Include your name, the school, this class and my name. Bring in release form from your parents so we may display your page with your name on it. Otherwise, use your initials on the page.

Grading

• Picture of the poet
• Another work of art relevant to the web page
• 150-word introduction that is interesting and informative
• two poems we have not read in class
• a 150 word close reading for each poem that show how the poems can be read AND cite poetic devices of note
• three hyperlinks
• attractive and readable fonts
• attractive background that enhances reading (does not interfere)
• your own ars poetica with a two line introduction
• URLs for everything that is not your own (poems, pictures, etc.)