Stage 1 Pre-Requisite Skill: Tying in Literary Techniques: Poetic Devices: Rhythm and Rhyme

Literary Device: Rhythm

1.1. Poetry is literature that fits language into a rhythm or pattern. Often, a poem is arranged in lines and the lines are arranged in stanzas. Usually, a poem has a definite, regular rhythm. The pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in the lines of a poem is called its rhythm. There are many possible patterns of rhythm.

The poem is written in iambic tetrameter, which means a line consisting of four iambicfeet. The word "tetrameter" simply means that there are four feet in the line; iambic tetrameter is a line comprising four iambs, unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable, which means that four words in each eight-syllable line are stressed.Example: An iambic foot is an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. A line of iambic tetrameter is four of such feet in a row:

da / DUM / da / DUM / da / DUM / da / DUM

An example:

x / / / x / / / x / / / x / /
For- / get / | / not / yet / | / the / tried / | / in- / tent

Another:

x / / / x / / / x / / / x / /
Come / live / | / with / me / | / and / be / | / my / love

("The Passionate Shepherd to His Love", by Christopher Marlowe)

Literary Device: Rhyme

Marking rhyme: Mark the rhyme (mark theend of each line with a letter for the rhyme scheme)

Example: "Mary Had A Little Lamb" (Nursery Rhyme) Author: Sarah J. Hale - 1788-1879 (1830)

Mary had a little lamb, / A
Its fleece was white as snow; / B
And everywhere that Mary went, / C
The lamb was sure to go. / B
He followed her to school one day, / D
Which was against the rule; / E
It made the children laugh and play / D
To see a lamb at school. / E

Pre Reading Activity

Restoring words in poetic lines: Task: In the poem, "Stopping By Woods on A Snowy Evening", within the four lines of each stanza, the first, second and fourth lines rhyme - AABA BBCB CCDC- the exception being the last stanza, in which the rhyme scheme is DDDD. Another factor to consider is that it is written in the form of iambic tetrameter: In each poetic line the words are scrambled. Find the correct order of the words and write your answers in space provided.

Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening Robert Frost

Stanza 1

I know woods I think whose are these.______

though village is in the house his; ______

stopping here me not will he see ______

his woods with snow fill to watch up. ______

Stanza 2

must it think queer horse my little ______

without near a farmhouse stop to ______

lake frozen and woods the between ______

of the evening the darkest year. ______

Stanza 3

gives bells harness shake a he his ______

there is some ask to mistake if. ______

the sweep the only other sound’s ______

downy easy wind and of flake. ______

Stanza 4

dark, lovely woods the and deep are ______

to keep but promises have I ______

to sleep before go miles I and ______

to sleep go miles I before and ______

Worksheet 2

Let’s read Robert Frost’s poem, “Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening". As you listen to and read the poem, underline the words you don’t understand. Try to guess their meaning. Ask your peers or your teacher.

“Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep

Checking Comprehension through LOTS:

Read the poem again, and think about the following questions to make sure you understand the main details of the poem:

1. Whose woods are these? Why does the speaker stop by them?

2. Why does the narrator think that his horse “must think it queer” to stop in this particular place?

3. What time of the year is it? What time of day?

4. What picture of the woods do you form from the first three stanzas? Be specific.

5. Give a detailed description of what is happening in the poem.

Worksheet 3 Explicit teaching of the HOTS of Compare and Contrast

Let us Compare and Contrast two pictures. We compare things when we find similarities and we contrast things when we find differences. Which and how many differences did you find? Why do you think it was important to spot differences?

Helpful vocabulary:

To compare: also, as, as well, at the same time, both, in the same manner, in the same manner, in the same way, like, likewise, most important, in comparison, same, similar, similarly, the same as, too

To contrast:Although, but, differ, even though, however, contrast, instead, nevertheless, on the contrary, on the other hand, rather, unlike, while, whereas, yet

We used the Higher Order Thinking Skill to compare

______and ______

We use the HOTS of Compare and Contrast in real life when we

*______*______

*______*______
Worksheet 4

Application of HOTS to the Text

1. Whose attitudes towards life and responsibilities in life are compared in the poem?

What are they?

(Comparing the speaker’s and his horse’s; the owner of the woods with the speaker’s own attitude, the speaker’s attitude in the first stanza compared to the last stanza)

Stanza One / Stanzas Two-Three / Stanza Four
Character
Attitude

a. Make use of ONE of the Thinking Skills we’ve studied. Write about 40-50 words.

The Thinking Skill I chose:______

Answer:

……………………………………………………………………………………………………….…

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………….……………………

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Content__/16 points

Language:___/4 points

b. Explain why you chose that particular thinking skill to answer question 1

………………………………………………………………………………………………

Content=__/4 points

Language:__/1 point

Literary Device: Personification

1.Why does the horse “think it queer to stop”? Why do you think the speaker mentions what the horse “thinks”? (Personification to elicit the speaker’s conflict)

______

Literary Device: Genre
This poem has aspects that are similar to a poem and a short story and so it is called a narrative poem.
Poem:a composition in verse written in certain measures, whether in blank verse or in rhyme, and characterized by imagination/imagery, and poetic diction.
A Short Story: provides the reader with a “slice of life”, which has been compressed into the smallest amount of space possible, without excluding any essential elements of the story: structure, such as point of view (mode of narration), setting, plot, characterization and motivation; readers have to become aware of how these elements work together to create a variety of narrative effects.
A Narrative Poem: A poem that tells a story. It may be short or long, and the story it relates to may be simple or complex. It is usually non-dramatic, with objective verse and regular rhyme scheme and meter.

Narrative Poetry of Robert Frost: What do the stories they tell reveal about the character and motives of the poems' speakers? In a poem such as "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening," Frost's readers must fill in the gaps in the narrative, inventing motives and explanations for a speaker's action or inaction when no motives or explanations are given. The stories told by Frost's speakers work almost as rumors do: they encourage the imagination of readers by dropping veiled and not-so-veiled hints about unseen events and persons, and they reveal to us, by what they leave in or omit from their narratives, as much about the character and motives of the speaker as they do about the objects and events he is describing.

List the characteristic features of this narrative poem

Worksheet 5 Spiraling Literary Devices

Think of how the following literary devices enhance your understanding and appreciation of the poem. Find an example of each of the following in the poem.

Imagery- words used in images in poetry that use our 5 senses: sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touching

______

Metaphor: describing one thing in terms of something else

______

Theme- Usually we can find the theme of a literarywork by answering the question: “What is this work about?” Theme looks at the message or general idea of the work.

______

Worksheet 6 Bridging Text and Context

1. Can you see a connection between the author’s background and the poem you read? Explain.

(If you don’t have relevant information, revisit the sites with Frost’s biography.)

______

Worksheet 7 Post-Reading Activity

1. And now, rather than impose my interpretation of the poem, I want you to discover your own interpretation. To find issues in the poem that concern you, to read the poem from the standpoint of your own problems, values and beliefs.Connect your life experiences (HOTS of Making Connections) to your interpretation of the poem by answering the questions.

How well do you know the man in the village who owns the woods? Why or Why not?
Why are you traveling on the darkest evening of the year?
Why have you stopped?
Who or what is your “horse”?
What are the promises that you have to keep?
How would you re-title the poem?

2. It’s not enough, however, that you read literature from your own point of view, it’s essential that you look at the poem through the eyes of the “other”-someone who is different from you according to his/her social, ethnic, age, religion, gender group, or even due to his/her spiritual or philosophical point of view. I want each of you to answer the above questions but this time from perspective of the “other”:

e,g., the young, the old, a religious/ secular person, A Christian/a Jew/ A Hassid/A Moslem, housewives, the rich/the poor, the unemployed/the homeless

2. Choose one of the following:

Compare the poem to the “Road Not Taken” (Use atable to present the comparisons you are making graphically):*the speaker’s perspective on what is happening in the poem *the narrative structure of the poem *the theme *literary devices * message
Compare the way you identify with the messages in both poems.

Can you compare the situations in this poem to something that happened in YOUR life? Explain in a paragraph of at least 100 words.

Worksheet # 7 Reflection

Look though all of the work you have done in this unit and answer the following questions:

Did you like the poem? Explain your answer in at least two sentences.
______

As part of this unit of work you were taught the higher-order thinking skill ofCompare and Contrast and reviewed the HOTS of Making Connections

The HOTS of Compare and Contrast / The HOTS of Making Connections
How did the teacher teach it?
How could you use it in your life?
How did the HOTS help you better understand the poem?