Lesson Overview 

No Quiz today

No quiz.   It's crucial that the students haven't read this poem before today's lesson.  Everything is self-contained within the 20 or so minutes that this lesson takes.  Perhaps the student drawing (see below) can be considered as the quiz.  I know that the lesson was important enough that if a student missed the day - I asked them to come in before or after school so that we could recreate it.  As always I never wanted them missing out on what the others got.

Getting Ready

When the students come in - I already have a single blank sheet of paper on each desk.  I then ask them to get out a pen or pencil - whichever they draw better with.  Then I tell them they are going to be listening for a while.  They will be putting their heads down - but no falling asleep - there will be a test (a sure way to get them to listen) on what they listened to.  

Now that I've got them all on edge - it's time to get them to relax and focus  in order to get the most out of this activity.  Most times I did this - I would now give them a short lesson on meditation.  

• Have them put their heads down and close their eyes.

•  Ask them to breathe in - then out.  In then out.  They should concentrate on their breathing trying to block everything else out of this mind.  Call out the breaths and do this for about a minute.
  
  

Reading the Poem

Now it's the teacher's turn.  In your most dramatic voice read the poem loudly and clearly.  Make it dramatic - make it thrilling.  It is such an image rich poem and it's important that you do this yourself (rather than an audio).  They need the presence of the reader in the room.

Move around the room so your voice (and the poem) changes as you move. MAKE IT BIG!

When you get to the last three lines - slow down - quiet down - so the final line "And drunk the milk of Paradise" is almost a spoken whisper.

Drawing and Remembering

As soon as you finish - announce: "Everyone now sit up and DRAW what you heard - draw it quickly without stopping!"  Tell them to DRAW not THINK.  They need to be animated and they need to continuously draw without stopping.

After about 5-10 minutes, you will notice they will start slowing down.  You need to guage this.  Announce: "You only have a few more minutes - get as much down as you can."   

After a few more minutes - announce: "Everyone put your pens/pencils down."

Ride the excitement & sharing

Your students should all be quite excited by this process (I know mine were).  Now, your about to get a big groan.  Ask your students to share what they drew.  They don't need to put their name on their drawings - just pass them around.  Everyone should get a chance to see what everyone else drew.  There will be a lot of ooohs and ahhhhs and a lot of laughter.  Make sure no one's feelings get hurt and I never allowed open criticism of anyone's drawing technique.  This should take about 5 minutes.

Discussing the Poem

After they are done sharing - ask the students to describe the drawing process.  Every single time I did this - the most common thread in their answers was that as time went on - it became harder and hard to remember the specifics of the poem.  Ahhhh

Dandelions and a Visitor from Porlock

I then read to them a short background on Coleridge's writing of the poem (you can find it below, and on the Power Point in this lesson):

After taking laudanum and falling asleep in a drug-induced stupor – Colerdige found himself: “On awakening he appeared to himself to have a distinct recollection of the whole, and taking his pen, ink, and paper, instantly and eagerly wrote down the lines that are here preserved. At this moment he was unfortunately called out by a person on business from Porlock, and detained by him above an hour, and on his return to his room, found, to his no small surprise and mortification, that though he still retained some vague and dim recollection of the general purport of the vision, yet, with the exception of some eight or ten scattered lines and images, all the rest had passed away like the images on the surface of a stream into which a stone has been cast, but, alas! without the after restoration of the latter!”

After I finish reading - I usually pulled a dried dandelion from behind my back and blew it so the seeds flew around the room.  I leave it up to the students to put the activity, Coleridge's experience, and the dandelion seeds together.