Critical Learning

In this lesson, students will explore the performative nature of poetry and will demonstrate an understanding of how meaning in text can be heightened through the use of movement and voice. Critical learning will focus on individual and group interpretations of source texts to allow students to experience a variety of possible approaches and meanings.

Guiding Questions

  • How can poetry be performed?
  • How can a text's meaning be explored using performance?
  • How can a variety of performance styles allow an audience to experience different meanings and interpretations of a poem?

Questions directrices

  • Comment la poésie peut-elle être jouée ?
  • Comment le sens d'un texte peut-il être exploré par le biais de la performance ?
  • Comment une variété de styles de représentation peut-elle permettre à un public de découvrir différentes significations et interprétations d'un poème ?

Learning Goals

At the end of this lesson, students will be able to:

  • Use voice techniques to add meaning to a piece of poetry
  • Use the performance space to add meaning to the performance of a piece of writing
  • Use tableau and movement to add meaning to a piece of poetry
  • Experience a variety of interpretations of a piece of poetry
  • Identify how choices in the performances highlight a variety of meanings in the piece of poetry

Buts d'apprentissage

A la fin de cette leçon, les élèves seront capables :

  • d'utiliser des techniques vocales pour ajouter du sens à un morceau de poésie
  • d'utiliser l'espace de représentation pour donner un sens à la représentation d'un texte écrit
  • d'utiliser le tableau et le mouvement pour donner du sens à un poème
  • de faire l'expérience d'une variété d'interprétations d'un morceau de poésie
  • d'identifier comment les choix dans les représentations soulignent une variété de significations dans le morceau de poésie.

Instructional Components

Readiness

Refer to lesson two exit cards to establish student levels of comfort with the topic. Look for concerns with movement, poetry, and group dynamics before moving onto lesson three. 

Terminology

  • Tableaux // Tableaux
  • Choral reading // Le chant oral
  • Movement // Mouvement
  • Echo // Echo

Materials

  • Copies of source poem (teacher selected poem) with emotional depth. Use discretion when selecting a poem, noting where it may not be appropriate for students to take "authorship" of a poem's meaning, and where it might be essential for your students to experience poetry written by authors with similar identities to their own. Poem suggestions: 
  • Journals or paper for journal writing.
Approximately 10 minutes

Minds On // Esprit en marche

Pause and Ponder

Whole Class > Think-Pair-Share //
Classe entière > Réfléchir-Parler-Partager

Divide students into pairs and ask them to discuss the following:

  • What should we consider when we are performing material written by another artist?
  • Is it important to communicate our own ideas or the idea of the author?
  • Who gets the final say? The author? The director? The performers?

Répartissez les élèves par groupes de deux et demandez-leur de discuter de ce qui suit :

  • De quoi devons-nous tenir compte lorsque nous interprétons un texte écrit par un autre artiste ?
  • Est-il important de communiquer nos propres idées ou celles de l'auteur ?
  • Qui a le dernier mot ? L'auteur ? Le metteur en scène ? Les interprètes ?

Invite students to share their thoughts with the class. Engage students in the topic, explaining that the next activity will put the responsibility of working with a published piece of poetry in their hands. Provide biographical and contextual information about the poet and poem to be used in Action! below.
Assessment for Learning (AfL)

Through brainstorming, dialogue with the class the challenges of working with a source text. Determine student comfort level with working with a source text. Allow students to voice concerns and opportunities this type of work provides. 

Assess student knowledge of contextual information for the source poem selected. Provide sufficient background and contextual information as required.

Assessment as Learning (AaL)

Guide learning through formative feedback in brainstorming. Allow students to challenge the ideas of their peers with positive, constructive debate.

Provide reinforcement and feedback throughout the group reading to ensure comfort levels with the use of chorus and echo. Allow students to consider the work of their peers and use reflection throughout the reading process to highlight the effect of using these conventions.

Differentiation (DI)

Utilize a variety of poems from the same author and vary the poem for each small group. Consider the author's common themes and style in discussions throughout the creative process.

Focus on direction by allowing individual students to take on the role of director and opt-out of the performance side of the work. Engage students with the relationship of director/actor through reflective discussion and writing.

Utilize non-English authors and poems to further explore how language and meaning can be communicated.

With guidance, allow students to make their own groups and choose their own poems.

Quick Tip

Scaffold by connecting with the writing from students in English classes throughout the school. Connect dramatic performance to the creative work of others throughout the school to increase cross-curricular connections. Perform poems related to war and present to History classes.

Link and Layer

Link back to the student-created poems. Remind students of the importance of working with the language they are given. Allow groups to layer each element of vocal work into the creation step by step.
Approximately 55 minutes

Action!

Whole Class > Group Reading and Voices

Distribute one copy of the source poem to each student.

  1. Invite students to stand around the room in a space of their own while you read the poem aloud to them. Ask students to listen to the words during this first reading.
  2. Repeat the reading and ask students to now consider meaning and the emotions that are being created for them. Ask students to select a few lines or words that have particular meaning for them.
  3. Repeat the reading a third time, encourage students to join in and say with you the lines or words they identified in the last step. Encourage students to listen to the lines and words that other students select as important to them. Remind the students that having more than one voice saying the same word is called chorus.
  4. Repeat the reading a fourth time encouraging students to use echo and a variety of volumes to further expand the activity. 

Distribuez un exemplaire du poème source à chaque élève.

  1. Invitez les élèves à se placer dans la salle, dans un espace qui leur est propre, pendant que vous leur lisez le poème à haute voix. Demandez-leur d'écouter les mots pendant cette première lecture.
  2. Répétez la lecture et demandez aux élèves de réfléchir au sens du poème et aux émotions qu'il suscite chez eux. Demandez-leur de sélectionner quelques lignes ou mots qui ont une signification particulière pour eux.
  3. Répétez la lecture une troisième fois, encouragez les élèves à se joindre à vous et à dire avec vous les lignes ou les mots qu'iels ont identifiés à la dernière étape. Encouragez les élèves à écouter les lignes et les mots que les autres élèves considèrent comme importants pour eux. Rappelez aux élèves que le fait que plusieurs voix disent le même mot s'appelle un refrain.
  4. Répétez la lecture une quatrième fois en encourageant les élèves à utiliser l'écho et une variété de volumes pour développer l'activité.

Whole Class > Discussion > Choice and affect

Engage the class in a critical discussion of the activity.

Key Questions for Discussion:
  • Why did you select the lines or words you did?
  • What was the effect of hearing others say the lines in chorus?
  • What was the effect of hearing others use echo?
  • How can reading a poem like this help us understand the emotions and ideas the author has created?
Questions clés pour la discussion :
  • Pourquoi avez-vous choisi les lignes ou les mots que vous avez choisis ?
  • Quel effet cela a-t-il eu d'entendre d'autres personnes dire les vers en chœur ?
  • Quel effet cela a-t-il eu d'entendre les autres utiliser l'écho ?
  • Comment la lecture d'un tel poème peut-elle nous aider à comprendre les émotions et les idées créées par l'auteur ?

Small Group > Creating a Performance

Divide students into groups of approximately 8 or 9. Instruct students to use the source poem to create a staged-reading of the piece, similar in style to the work done in lesson two. Remind students how space, movement, volume, chorus, and echo can affect the meanings communicated. Remind groups to start and end in tableaux. Provide students with time to rehearse.

Small Groups > Performance

Ask groups to perform one after another with no breaks between performances and no applause; each performance moving into the next. Instruct students to remain silent as they move to get their journals, thinking of the experience they have just been a part of.
Approximately 5 minutes

Consolidation

Individual > Journal Reflection #2 //
Individuel > Journal de réflexion n°2

Instruct students to respond to the following journal questions for sharing at the start of the next lesson:

  • How did the different performances of the same poem add to your experience with the piece?
  • Did you find new interpretations you hadn't considered?
  • What is one thing you experienced in the performances that added to your enjoyment of the poem?

Demandez aux élèves de répondre aux questions suivantes dans leur journal afin de les partager au début de la prochaine leçon :

  • Comment les différentes interprétations du même poème ont-elles enrichi votre expérience de l'œuvre ?
  • Avez-vous découvert de nouvelles interprétations que vous n'aviez pas envisagées ?
  • Quelle est la chose que vous avez ressentie lors des représentations et qui vous a permis d'apprécier davantage le poème ?