"What a piece of work is a man, How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty, In form and moving how express and admirable, In action how like an Angel, In apprehension how like a god, The beauty of the world, The paragon of animals." William Shakespeare
As the dragon from Grendel said - no age is really dark than the other. However, perhaps the Renaissance is a little brighter than the rest. There are so many rapid changes that occur in this period - in the world, in science, in exploration - and in the English Language. It is a time of Donne, Raliegh, Marlowe - and of course - Shakespeare. We begin with some historical background, then venture into sonnets (for the first time we will read English with just a little modernization - it is Modern English!). Next, we will take a break from this Unit - and go to the plays of Shakespeare - do a unit on Literary Criticism - and then come back to the Renaissance (Part 2). It truly is a "rebirth"
Not a group work - but a solo work. Students will work on this for the period. It is done as solo work for a reason - a kind of meta-reason. If the Renaissance was about the birth of humanism, and man's inward look at himself - I feel it's important to have students do this on their own. To see what their own feelings about the ideas shown in their text book's intro are about. Of course, I link it with things we have done - and will do. To top it off - while the students are writing - a slide show of important Renaissance paintings is projected in the background and a score of variations on a song from the Renaissance - "Greensleeves" (written by the Renaissance man, Henry VIII) plays in the background.
Not a group work - but a solo work. Students will work on this for the period. It is done as solo work for a reason - a kind of meta-reason. If the Renaissance was about the birth of humanism, and man's inward look at himself - I feel it's important to have students do this on their own. To see what their own feelings about the ideas shown in their text book's intro are about. Of course, I link it with things we have done - and will do. To top it off - while the students are writing - a slide show of important Renaissance paintings is projected in the background and a score of variations on a song from the Renaissance - "Greensleeves" (written by the Renaissance man, Henry VIII) plays in the background.
In one period - the students teach themselves the Elizabethan Country Dance - the Rufty Tufty. They then go out into the lunch room and perform it for their peers. This is a lesson about cooperative learning, confidence, letting-go, taking risks, dancing, music, Elizabethan England and having fun. It is exactly the kind of lesson that build class and individual resiliency.
A VERY, VERY, VERY important lesson - for so many reasons. First, these are the first texts (other than the modern ancillary texts like Grendel) that are written in (early) Modern English. They do not need to be translated. We can talk about the words - their relationship to each other, Stephen Booth moments (more on that in a later lesson), and the students can read these poems, pretty much, as they were written. Another very important reason this lesson is so important has to do with what some of these poems are saying - ideas like "we distract ourselves to not think about the serious things" and the idea of resilience (if you fall you can get up again, stronger).
It makes sense to me, to put this lesson (on the mechanics of poetry) here - at this place and time of the school year. We have just read the first poems in Modern English (Wyatt & Howard) and seen our first sonnets. We've been experiencing poetry for over a month - and I hope that the students have left much of their trepidation of the "What" and "Why" of Poetry behind - and now we can turn one day to the "How" of Poetry. This lesson will cover meter (including metrical feet), rhyme types, rhyme schemes, and basic forms of poetry. Students will also get a chance to practice these new scansion skills with a partner.
Now that students have mastered the mechanics of poetry (I sometimes gave the poetics test on the same day as this group work) it is time to use that skill. I love these poems by Raleigh and Elizabeth - they almost seem to be forming a dialogue - and it is fun for the students (or any reader) to imagine so. I am most concerned with students focusing on the text - what is the writer trying to say - how are they trying to say it. This is especially ironic - given the sentiment of Raleigh's poem to Elizabeth I, which states that they must leave the biggest part of their conversation (love?) unsaid.
If the Wyatt and Howard poems are the first poems written in Modern English to be discussed - today we discuss poems - especially "The Nymph's Reply" that are Masterworks (in my opinion) of English (or any other) Poetry. Sir Walter Raleigh is soooo good - and I believe his poem(s) will strike a chord with nearly every student in the class. Because these are such big, and inevitable events (at least being touched by them) in all of our lives - perhaps this is why these poems strike such powerful chord.
The Group Work uses Spenser's "The Faerie Queen" as an example of how allegory can actually detract from a work. Though I hope I do not preach - I do want to expose them to another point of view. There is also an Illuminated Text that I made of one of my favorite Spenser poems - and a poem that will wonderfully plant some seeds in the students' minds for the Shakespeare Sonnets that are to come soon.
This lesson - when done right - can be a time for wonder and awe for the teacher and for so much of the class. Because I've decided to write detailed notes for the Power Point Slides - it's also the lesson that's taken me the longest to get on this site. I can only do so much each day - the poems - the meanings - the wonder are just so emotional that it drains me (in a very good way). In any case, this lesson has us go through four of Shakespeare's Sonnets - 18, 30, 29, and 116. For the first three of these we go through them pretty much line by line - and then Sonnet 116 is explicated through a very personal story.
This lesson - when done right - can be a time for wonder and awe for the teacher and for so much of the class. Because I've decided to write detailed notes for the Power Point Slides - it's also the lesson that's taken me the longest to get on this site. I can only do so much each day - the poems - the meanings - the wonder are just so emotional that it drains me (in a very good way). In any case, this lesson has us go through four of Shakespeare's Sonnets - 18, 30, 29, and 116. For the first three of these we go through them pretty much line by line - and then Sonnet 116 is explicated through a very personal story.
