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“He went like one that hath been stunn'd, / And is of sense forlorn:
A sadder and a wiser man / He rose the morrow morn.”
Romantics 10 - A Sadder but a Wiser Man - The Rime of the Ancient Mariner Group Work: Now that the students have acted out poem - this lesson has them work in small groups to make even more sense of it. If my mantra throughout the year is literal before figurative - well, in the previous class, while acting out the verse, they have mastered the literal. Now it's time to look at its deeper meaning. I do that by having them look closely at the text (with all of the group members) and putting it all together - including connecting to earlier works that we've studied like Grendel and more recently, Wordsworth's "The World is too Much With Us" and getting them to see - as the Mariner did the importance of love, kindness, and being in the moment. Not a bad lesson for all of us.
Lesson Overview
Lesson Overview
Quiz
Quiz
Unlike the quiz from the last lesson which was a "joke" quiz and designed to give them credit just for being in class and taking part in the acting out of the Ancient Mariner - this is a very real reading quiz. Because they acted out and watched the entire poem in the previous lesson - even if they didn't do the reading (which they should have done before the last lesson), they should still know the answers to the quiz. If they don't, it gives the teacher some input on how closely their students are paying attention to the lesson at hand.
The Group Work
The Group Work
Please see my page on Group Work for more on the how and why. As to the actual questions - well the handout (found below) is the best place for that information, but I will give a brief summary of the questions below. Because this Group Work is so extensive - the students won't be able to finish it by the end of a 45 minute period (but should have no problem if you are on Block Scheduling and have a longer class). With that in mind, the students are instructed to finish 1 to 6 in class - and the rest is homework (very rare for Group Work). The questions 7-10 are decidedly more introspective and it really works out well that they are answering them on their own. Also because the next class has a poem that is read "cold" - there is no other homework.
Here is a brief summary of the questions - please see the actual handout for much more.
VERY IMPORTANT:Why is the Mariner being punished - what did he do? How is he redemed?
What do those final words about he who loves well - prays well mean exactly (in a nonreligious context).
How are the uncharted seas of the Mariner a metaphor for something else - both in the Ancient Mariner's life - but in our lives as well.
Why a hermit? (this sets them up for "Tintern Abbey" at the very end of the year.
Exactly WHY is the Wedding Guest (and presumably "us") sadder but wiser at the end of this?
Comparing Shakespeare's The Tempest to this poem.
You may notice the following questions are more introspective - and more appropriate for the students answering outside the group (on their own).
Bringing in "The Seafarer" a poem they studied at the beginning of the year.
Back to the Wordsworth "Michael" poem from a few lessons earier.
Linking "The Ancient Mariner" with their first big work - Grendel.
How does this poem - given what they know about the Romantic Era - fit into that categorization.
"The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" Group Work
"The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" Group Work
This two-page handout has both the Group Work questions and Wordsworth's "The World is Too Much With Us". It takes up two pages - and questons one to six should be answered in class - in the group, with the rest being answered at home for homework. With that in mind, there should be no additional reading homework given that night.
"The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" Text
"The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" Text
I'm including the text of the poem here - though it should be in your students' text book, and it is readily available online. This is the Master Script (with the complete text) from the previous lesson where the students act out "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner".
Most Recent Quiz
Most Recent Quiz
Unlike the quiz from the last lesson which was a "joke" quiz and designed to give them credit just for being in class and taking part in the acting out of the Ancient Mariner - this is a very real reading quiz. Because they acted out and watched the entire poem in the previous lesson - even if they didn't do the reading (which they should have done before the last lesson), they should still know the answers to the quiz. If they don't, it gives the teacher some input on how closely their students are paying attention to the lesson at hand.
Remote Enhancements
Remote Enhancements
Group Work works great remotely - or it can be done solo or as an offline assignment.
A short - it takes about 20-25 minutes or so - lesson - but it truly packs a strong punch and is different than anything else we did all year. The instructions are fairly simple: The students close their eyes and put their heads down and then the teacher, in their loudest, most dramatic voice reads "Kubla Khan" aloud. When the teacher finishes - the students sit up, and quickly - without speaking - draw on paper as much of the poem as they possibly can in about 5 to 10 minutes. They will start out fast - but as time goes on and they search their memories, they will slow down. The teacher calls time and all pencils go down. This is a "meta-lesson". The same kind of thing happened to Coleridge in his writing of the poem. He had a drug-induced dream, woke up feeling he had a 100 pages story in verse - but then someone knocked at his door and the memory vanished.
WHAT CAME BEFORE:
WHAT CAME BEFORE:
Thoughts on the Lesson
Thoughts on the Lesson
It's great to see - through the quiz and through the Group Work how the students digest a text that we've gone over in class. In this case - the "going over" is the acting that we did in the previous lesson on the same poem. Again - it is this website and my very firm belief that you must first see the literal - before you can tackle the figurative.
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