Yeats Poem Presentation Group Project

With a group of 5-6 people (six total groups), you will become an expert on one of Yeats’ poems and you will present a ten to fifteen-minute oral commentary about the poem and two to three discussion questions relevant to your poem. Students will discuss the poem after you present for the rest of your assigned class period.

Instructions: In your group, develop an IOC lesson for your assigned poem. Using PowerPoint or Prezi, your lesson will include the following elements:

  1. Read the poem aloud to the whole class. Matheny will have copies of your poem for everyone on the day of your presentation.
  2. Allow the class five quiet minutes to make sense of the poem independently before you start your presentation.
  1. For ten to fifteen minutes, present your group IOC, participating equally: Students should aim to identify and explore all significant aspects of the extract. These include:
  2. Situating the extract as precisely as possible in the context of the poem from which it has been taken (or in the body of work, in the case of a complete poem)
  3. Commenting on the effectiveness of the writer’s techniques, including the use of stylistic devices and their effect(s) on the reader.
  4. The commentary should focus on the extract itself, relating it to the whole poem (or body of work when a complete poem is used). It should not be used as a springboard for a discussion of everything the student knows about the work in question.
  5. A commentary should be sustained and well organized. It should neither be delivered as a series of unconnected points nor take the form of a narration or a line-by-line paraphrase of the passage or poem.
  1. Now bring your classmates into a discussion of the poem: Develop 3 – 5 discussion questions for the class. Questions should be open-ended and allow for varying interpretations backed by evidence. Consider questions about conventions the author uses, questions involving puzzling aspects of the text, and questions asking for comparison.
  1. For the last five minutes of class, have your students complete an Exit Slip giving you feedback on your lesson or asking them to answer a question about the poem.

Make your PPT/Prezi creative & interesting and AVOID doing the following:

  1. Reading from the PP/Prezi (use notes/notecards). Most of your teaching should be verbal…the PP/Prezi should act only as a visual aid to enhance what you are saying.
  2. Too much text
  3. Few or no images
  4. Text that is too small for the class and teacher to read

Timeline:

  • Thursday 11/3 and Friday 11/4: Assign groups and poems.
  • Friday 11/4 and Monday 11/7: You will have time to collaborate for both of these class periods to prepare your presentations.
  • Tuesday 11/8: Presentation on “Leda and the Swan” (1924)
  • Wednesday, 11/9 Presentation on “The Song of Wandering Aengus” (1897)
  • Thursday 11/10: Presentation on “Adams’ Curse” (1902)
  • Friday 11/11: No school: Veterans Day
  • Monday 11/14: Presentation on “Long-legged Fly” (1939)
  • Tuesday, 11/15: Presentation on “The Wild Swans at Coole” (1917)
  • Wednesday 11/16: Presentation on “Meditations on a time of Civil War: I—Ancestral Houses” (1923)

Rubric and Scoring Guide:

Group Members’ Names:______

Duration: IOC 10 to 15 minutes (total time: ______) Discussion (total time: ______)

  1. PowerPoint/Prezi: Appropriately-sized text; Not a lot of text; Images and words; Effort; Creativity; works cited page included: 10 points possible score: ______
  1. Quality of IOC: 30 pts possible—scored on rubric above score: ______
  2. Quality of discussion questions: 10 points possible score: ______
  3. Presentation: Placement in room (spread out across “stage”; 1 person at computer); No reading from the PowerPoint or Prezi; Loud voices; All group members actively participated; Effort; Knowledge / understanding; Prepared/rehearsed; Engaging 10 points possible score: ______

Total score: ______/ 60 process points

Teacher notes: