This lesson was focused on poetry in an AP Literature classroom.
I gave small groups of students an envelope with 19 slips of paper in it. The slips were individual lines of the poem The Death of a Toad by Richard Wilbur--plus the title.
Then, based on what we had learned about poetry in terms of syntax, rhyme scheme, structure, point of view, & more, students were to fit the "puzzle" of the poem together. (NOTE: I did NOT cut the papers such that the students could actually fit the lines together puzzle-style...and I told them this.)
This year, my students were so thoughtful about their approach to solving the puzzle, that I just had to share it with you.
Here are some direct quotes from their conversations:
- After reading over the poem "let's organize it before & after his death." (Focusing on PLOT & STRUCTURE)
- "Let's look at all of the periods so then we can figure out how full sentences fit together" (Focusing on SYNTAX & STRUCTURE)
- "How does the rhyme scheme work? Is it AA BB or is it AB AB...?" (Focusing on RHYME SCHEME & STRUCTURE)
There were more, but these were the few I jotted down as they worked. I was so impressed with them--pulling together all the things they knew and had learned about poetry in order to figure out how this poem "worked."
