Lesson Overview 

Quiz 

I have included a quiz below and it covers both the poems from the students' text book and the background material on John Keats.  The great thing is that they will have read "Ode on a Grecian Urn" for today - though we will not get to it for a few days (after Shelley) - so when we do that all important lesson for "Ode on a Grecian Urn", you won't need to do a quiz - and you will have the entire period for the Ode.

Power Point Presentation

See the notes on the Power Point (or PDF) for much more

The last two years that I taught this lesson - I was moved by Remote Learning to create a Power Point for this lesson.  It's not necessary - but it may help with focus.  That presentation can be found below - both in Power Point and PDF formats.  I have written down for each slide some notes on how I handled the background an poems.  You can easily (and you should) turn the notes off when showing either the Power Point or the PDF.  Questions to ask the students are in BOLD FACE, while the potential student answers are in parenthesis.  Further points on the lines, biography, or the poem in its entirety are in italics.

PLEASE NOTE: Because it was impossible to "act out" "La Belle Dam Sans Merci" while in Remote Learning - the Power Point has an alternative method of looking at the poem: There is an incredible artist who made a Graphic Poem of "La Belle Dame" and we would read through the panels and discuss the poem that way.

Biographical Material

Usually, I just ask - "What can you tell me about John Keats?"  So many students were saddened and empathetic about Keats' death at such a young age (and while taking care of his mother and brother). During remote - and when we switched to horrible Block Scheduling, we read the through the book's intro to Keats (found on the Power Point) and talked about it a little.  The information about him dying of a disease while we were in our own Pandemic - had a strong effect on the students - and it was important for me as the teacher to make sure we handled it sensitively.

The Poems & an old epigraph

I have included below, both a PDF of my notes for discussion, written directly on the student poem handout, and a Power Point (also in pdf form) with the notes  embedded on the Power Point – my take is in italics, the questions are in bold face, and possible (good) answers are in parenthesis.  

As always – for all of the poems – you can either have a student read the entire poem (asking for volunteers) or if you are short on time – just the lines that are up on the screen (if you're doing the Power Point). If a student reads the entire poem first, then the teacher can read these poems when they ask the questions.  What follows is just a short sentence or two on each of the poems covered.

The Epigraph from John Gardner's Grendel.

The first slide after the biographical material has the epigraph from the first novel we covered in this course, John Gardner's Grendel. "And if the Babe is born a Boy / He's given to a Woman old, / Who nails him down upon a rock, / Catches his shrieks in cups of gold."  See the linked lesson for more on how we originally covered it.  For this lesson, it's important and illuminating:  They have just read about John Keats's tragic short life - and the epigraph suggests that the reason he was able to create such "gold" (beautiful verse) has something to do with the tragedy he lived through.

"When I Have Fears that I May Cease to Be"

This naturally follows the epigraph.  Again - see my notes below (in the Power Point and separate) for details on the poem - but suffice it to say that Keats relates his fears that he will die before he experiences either having written greatly (fame) and/or romance.

"La Belle Dame Sans Merci" - Acting out a tale of love and deception

Unless you are teaching remotely (see below) you will want your students to "act out" this poem.  You won't have a lot of time, but the stanzas that the students are acting out are very short - so the students won't need a lot of time to get ready.

Putting Students in Acting Groups

           Quickly - I usually did this by pointing or by rows and it took under a minute - divide the class into Six Groups.  Group 1 gets stanzas 1 & 2;  Group 2 gets stanzas 3 & 4;  Group 3 gets stanzas 5 & 6;  Group 4 gets stanzas 7 & 8;  Group 5 gets stanzas 9 & 10;  Group 6 gets stanzas 11 & 12.

Preparing their Acting out the Poem

           Next, tell the students that they will have 5-8 minutes to prepare their two stanzas for presentation.  Remind them they should all be involved - they can one narrator if they wish and the rest act - but OVER THE TOP is always good.  They want to make their short scene come alive.  They should also touch base with the group that comes after them so that there is a smooth transition.  Because this is close to the end of the year - they will have done this kind of acting out of poems (the first was "The Seafarer" all the way back in the Anglo-Saxon era) many times.  

           Announce when 2 minutes is left to make sure they've planned an interaction with the Group after them.

Acting it Out

           Remind them that they are now (except for those performing) an audience - and all planning and talking is over.  Get the first Group up in the front of the room - and announce that the Group that follows the one performing should be up and ready to go on - it will all go quite fast.  Also tell them to hold their applause until the end and all Groups have performed.

When its Done

           You won't have a lot of time to discuss the performance - but make sure you ask:

• What happens in this poem (Literal before Figurative)

• What happens to the knight - ultimately?

• How can you link it to the previous poem, "When I Have Fears" and to Keats;s life?

"Ode to a Nightingale"

Whole Class Reading & Discussion

   This is how we covered this poem the last few years of my career.  Two years remote - and one year in person.  It is such a beautiful, dark, poem - that given what was happening during the Pandemic, it made sense to make sure that I, the teacher was a part of the discussion - gauging and helping guide the students as we read the poem aloud in class.  It also helped that the periods were longer - we were able to do 1) The Biographical Material   2) The first two poems (when we came back to in person, I switched back to having the students act out "La Belle Dame sans Merci" (see above)  3) Reading aloud - and discussing, as we went, "Ode to a Nightingale".

For the discussion you can use the Power Point (below) for focus - having a student (just go down the rows) read what is up on the screen and then talking about what was just read.  I have included my notes (questions, answers, comments) for each of the "Ode to a Nightingale" slides - and I have also included below my handwritten notes (there's a lot more there) that I wrote directly on the poem.

Group Work

     This is an alternative to doing "Nightingale" as a class read & discussion.  It is one of my best Group Works - but in the end I still believe that I prefer the Discussion outlined above.  This is a different kind of Group Work - it is designed to be used with a "cold reading" of both "When I Have Fears" and "Ode to a Nightingale".  Much like when they worked in small groups for reading aloud parts of Macbeth and Twelfth Night - the students will, within their groups, take turns reading aloud the poem -then stop and answers the questions related to those respective lines.

There are also two extra-credit assignments.  The first is to consider the poem "Bright Star" by John Keats and relate to "When I Have Fears" and "Ode to a Nightingale".  The second is to watch the film "Bright Star" about the life of John Keats and answer a question.