Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 26 views

    Make All Photocopies - Prepare Background Knowledge On Spoon River Anthology and Poetic/literary

    Uploaded by

    Andi Kazani
    This lesson is for high school English students and introduces them to Edgar Lee Masters' Spoon River Anthology. Students will analyze poetic devices used in examples from the text. They will then use historical research done by peers about real people from a small Illinois town to write their own epitaphs incorporating literary techniques and historical context. The goals are for students to identify poetic devices, include historical context in their original poetry, and make inferences about history from evidence.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Make All Photocopies - Prepare Background Knowledge On Spoon River Anthology and Poetic/literary

    Uploaded by

    Andi Kazani
    26 views3 pages
    This lesson is for high school English students and introduces them to Edgar Lee Masters' Spoon River Anthology. Students will analyze poetic devices used in examples from the text. They will then use historical research done by peers about real people from a small Illinois town to write their own epitaphs incorporating literary techniques and historical context. The goals are for students to identify poetic devices, include historical context in their original poetry, and make inferences about history from evidence.

    Original Description:

    Original Title

    11671 (1)

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    This lesson is for high school English students and introduces them to Edgar Lee Masters' Spoon River Anthology. Students will analyze poetic devices used in examples from the text. They will then use historical research done by peers about real people from a small Illinois town to write their own epitaphs incorporating literary techniques and historical context. The goals are for students to identify poetic devices, include historical context in their original poetry, and make inferences about history from evidence.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    26 views3 pages

    Make All Photocopies - Prepare Background Knowledge On Spoon River Anthology and Poetic/literary

    Uploaded by

    Andi Kazani
    This lesson is for high school English students and introduces them to Edgar Lee Masters' Spoon River Anthology. Students will analyze poetic devices used in examples from the text. They will then use historical research done by peers about real people from a small Illinois town to write their own epitaphs incorporating literary techniques and historical context. The goals are for students to identify poetic devices, include historical context in their original poetry, and make inferences about history from evidence.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 3

    Lesson 

    Title: Spoon River Anthology Literary Analysis 

    Lesson Class Name and Grade Level: This lesson is intended for late high school English 
    classes. 

    Lesson Type: Lecture, Questioning, Group work, Discussion. 

    Illinois Learning Standards: 

    2.A.4a  Analyze and evaluate the effective use of literary techniques (e.g., figurative language, 
    allusion, dialogue, description, symbolism, word choice, dialect) in classic and contemporary 
    literature representing a variety of forms and media. 

    2.A.5d  Evaluate the influence of historical context on form, style and point of view for a 
    variety of literary works. 

    Introduction: This assignment is part of an interdisciplinary initiative with the history 
    department.  History students will complete primary source research on a member of the 
    community through research in local document repositories (libraries, genealogical societies, 
    etc.) and field work in the cemetery.  They will compile information about a person and the 
    historical context of that person’s life.  Students in the English class have the opportunity to 
    use this research to incorporate it into epitaphs of their own creation. 

    Goals: When students complete this lesson, they should be able to: 

    1. Identify poetic devices 
    2. Incorporate historical context into their own creative poetry 
    3. Deduce information about historical events based on factual evidence 

    Materials/Equipment: 

    1. Copy of a Spoon River Anthology poem of your choice  
    2. Spoon River Anthology Epitaph Worksheet 
    3. Research from history students 

    Procedures:  

      Pre‐class Preparation: 

    • Make all photocopies 
    • Prepare background knowledge on Spoon River Anthology and poetic/literary 
    devices 
     
    Statement of Objectives 
    At the close of the lesson, students will be able to: 
    1. Be able to identify literary and poetic devices 
    2. Begin to grasp the relationship between historical context and creative output 
    Outline of Lesson Contents 

    1. Introduce Spoon River Anthology.  Explain the general format of the novel (a series 
    of short, free verse poems that represent the epitaphs of characters, etc.).  Explain 
    how this class is aligned with the history project in which students undertake 
    primary research on their own. 
    a. Ask: What is a free verse poem? 
    b. Ask: Why might Masters have used this format to write his 
    epitaphs? 
    c. Ask: This book was very popular when it was published in 1915.  
    Why do you think this is? 
     
    2. Go over definitions for poetic devices and literary devices.   Keep in mind that 
    literary terms (especially imagery, allusion, and diction) might be more beneficial 
    than poetic device terms since Masters is writing in free verse and his writing is 
    rather prose‐like.  
     
    3. Hand out a copy of a poem from Spoon River Anthology to each student.  Spoon 
    River Anthology is reproduced online at 
    http://spoonriveranthology.net/spoon/river/.  Conversely, it is possible that one is 
    already listed in your literature textbook.   
     
    4. As a class, analyze the poetic/literary devices used by Masters.  The goal is to get 
    an idea of the author’s intention. 
    a. Ask: How does [x] device make you feel?  What does it do for the 
    reader? 
    b. Ask: Why might Masters have expressed this idea with [x] device? 
     
    5. Explain how this class is aligned with a history class.  Students will be using 
    research compiled by history students in order to write an epitaph of their own 
    that uses poetic devices.  Hand out research from other students and Spoon River 
    Anthology Epitaph Worksheet.  Have students being this worksheet in class so that 
    they are able to ask questions.  What they do not finish will be their homework. 
    a. Ask: How is this situation just like the situation Masters was in when 
    he wrote Spoon River Anthology? 
    b. Ask: How will the historical context of someone’s life affect your 
    epitaph? 
    c. Ask: How will you interpret the historical data given to you? 

    Suggested Reading: 
     
    Masters, Edgar Lee, and John E. Hallwas. Spoon River Anthology: An Annotated Edition. 
    Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 1993.  
    Russell, Herbert K. Edgar Lee Masters: A Biography. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2001.  

    Masters, Edgar Lee. "Spoon River Anthology: The Definitive Online Edition." Spoon River 
    Anthology. http://spoonriveranthology.net/spoon/river/ (accessed March 08, 2010). 

    You might also like