Tusculum College Lesson Plan Template

Summer 2013
Name: Sheila Morton
Subject/Grade: English Literature, Junior
Estimated Time Frame: 90 minutes for this lesson; this is the introductory lesson to a unit that should span 3 weeks
on Romantic Poetry
Standard(s):
Literature Strand, Standard 2:
Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the
text, including how they interact and build on one another to produce a complex account; provide an objective
summary of the text.
Literature Strand, Standard 5:
Analyze how an authors choices concerning how to structure specific parts of a contribute to its overall structure
and meaning as well as its aesthetic impact.
Literature Strand, Standard 9:
Demonstrate knowledge of eighteenth-, nineteenth-, and early-twentieth-century foundational works of American
[and British?] literature, including how two or more texts from the same period treat similar themes or topics.
Big Idea(s)/Essential Question(s): Understand some of the key themes of Romantic Poetry and be able to
identify ways in which those themes are explored in the poetry of two important writers of the same period,
William Blake and William Wordsworth.
New
Learning:

Vocabulary Romanticism; Lyric Poetry; Laissez Faire; Augustan; Regency

Concepts Romantic Poetry; Lyrical Poetry
Skills

Name some of the key features of Romantic Poetry.

Explain why the Romantics wrote poetry in this way.
Identify these features in some poems by William Wordsworth and William Blake.
Compare the way that Romanticism functions in the writing of these two very different
poets.

Note: Verbs taken from Blooms Taxonomy. I tried to make sure that I was helping
students develop skills at various levels of thinking.
Applications - Romanticism is a key movement in literature; in fact, many would argue that we are
still in the Romantic era. Its important for students to recognize the impact of this movement and
its historical importance.
This lesson also helps them develop critical reading skills as they carefully analyze and compare
the writings of two poets.
Learning Target(s)/Objective(s):
Students will be able to name some key features of Romantic poetry. Students will be able to explain why
Romantic poets wrote with these features. Students will be able to identify these features in the poetry of Blake
and Wordsworth. Students will successfully compare how Blake and Wordsworths poetry manifests ideals of
Romanticism.
Summative Assessment:
At the end of this lesson there is an activity in which students, working in pairs, identify which poems were
written by which poet by identifying features of their poetry. This is the summative assessment for this single
lesson.
The summative assessment for the unit would be a unit exam.
Instructional Strategies/Activities:

Goal Setting
Previewing
Lecture
Read alouds
Partner-work/ game

Whole-class discussion

Materials and Resources:

Slides for the presentation of unit goals and for the lecture
Goal slips for students
Handouts containing poems by Blake and Wordsworth
A small prize for the winners of the game

INSTRUCTIONAL STEPS
BEGINNING
Assessment

Anticipated Learning
Difficulties/Misunderstandings
and Strategies to Address
Them

I will begin by putting up a slide of the learning goals

for this unit as described above. According to
Marzano, students deserve to know what the goals of
the unit are before we begin (with which I heartily
agree, though Id never thought of this before).
Goal slips
I will then pass out goals slips. These goal slips will
simply say, As we begin studying the Romantic
Poets, I am most interested to learn about
____________________________________.
Next, I will preview the material with students. I will
ask them, What do you think about when I say the
word romantic? I will give them time to talk. I will
also ask, Are any of you familiar with romantic
poetry? I anticipate that they will (as my college

I anticipate that most

students wont have
heard of romantic poetry,
so they will have some
common misconceptions
about what it means,
namely, that it is
synonymous with love.

students always do) think that Im talking about

love poetry. This then gives me a segueway into my
lecture about what Romantic poetry really means.

The lecture and activity is

designed to address this.

MIDDLE

Anticipated Learning
Difficulties/Misunderstandings
and Strategies to Address
Them

Assessment

Content Input ( I do activities):

I will then commence the lesson with a 20-minute
lecture on the roots of Romanticism and some of its
defining characteristics. This lecture will conclude
with a brief history of William Blake and William
Wordsworth and what distinguishes their poetry from
each other and from other Romantics. This is an
example of a critical input experience as described by
Marzano.

Formative
Assessment will
be requiring that
students take
notes in their
notebooks, an
ungraded
assessment
activity.

This content will be new

to most of the students,
so this poses a potential
for difficulties and
misunderstandings. I am
keeping the lecture short
and basic, and asking
them to take notes to help
alleviate this. As the unit
progresses, we will get
more detailed.

Guided Practice (We do):

Having students
read aloud lets
me know how
comfortable they
are with the
readings and
with poetry in
general, so this
is, itself, a kind
of formative
assessment.

Some students are very

uncomfortable reading in
front of the whole class.
Consequently, no one will
be forced to read aloud,
though everyone will be
encouraged to do so,
even if only a few lines.

The students
identification of

Possible difficulties: Some

students dont work well

I will then hand out copies of poems, some by Blake,

some by Wordsworth. The poets names are not
identified next to these poems.
I will ask students to read the poems aloud. To help
them develop some bravery, I will begin by reading
one of the poems. Ill then call on my strongest
reader to go next. I will then take volunteers.
Independent Practice (You do; may include
Homework):
After weve read the poems out loud, I will allow

students to choose their own partners. Marzano

explains that partner-teaching is one of the most wellfounded methods for successful integrating
knowledge, so I will try to utilize group- and partnerwork often in my lessons. Each partnership will try to
identify which poet wrote which poem. They will then
write this information down, along with a brief
explanation about why they made this identification
(which will force them to use the knowledge delivered
in the lecture about the features of Romantic poetry
and about the features, particularly, of Blakes and
Wordsworths poetry). This will allow me to combine
both oral and written methods of engagement.
The partnership who identifies the most poems
correct will win a small prize (as per Marzano, we
celebrate student success through praise and
reward).

the poets and

their explanation
of why they
made these
choices will serve
as the final, nongraded formative
assessment for
this lesson. This,
more than any
other, lets me
know how well
they understood
the concepts of
the lesson and
what I might
need to go over
more thoroughly
the following day.

in groups. However, by
allowing students to
choose their own
partners, hopefully this
will help them feel
ownership of the activity
and group work will go
smoothly. This is usually a
fun activity for students
and Ive not had any
problems with it in the
past.

We will then go over the poems as a class, identifying

features of each and why those features help us to
see who the poet-author is.

END
Homework: Because we will be turning our attention to two more of the Romantic poets in the following lesson, I
would hand out some poems by these new poets and ask students to read the poems, noting in their notebooks
some of the features we discussed today that characterize Romantic poetry.