New York University
Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, & Human Development
The Department of Teaching & Learning
THE READING OF POETRY: ENGED –UE 193 - 001
M & W 2 – 3:40
Dr. Rebecca Packer
SPRING 2015
Bldg: Silver - RM: 518
[email protected]
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: All students are responsible for understanding and complying with the NYU
Steinhardt Statement on Academic Integrity. SEE --http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/academics/affairs/faq/key_elements
STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES: Students with physical or learning disabilities are required to register with the
Moses Center for Students with Disabilities, 726 Broadway, 2nd Floor, (212-998-4980) and are required to present a
letter from the Center to the instructor at the start of the semester in order to be considered for appropriate
accommodation.
GOALS
To create an inclusive & fair environment in which to take risks learning.
To be responsible for our own and others’ learning in a supportive community.
To make meaning from poetry & to find/support reasons for your readings.
To explore tension between reader-responses and authorial/poetic intentions
To examine effect of poetic elements - visual & aural – on yourself & others.
To consider how poetic elements/devices convey meaning.
To discover new perspectives through negotiation, exchange and re-reading texts.
To imagine how you might teach in the future by examining your learning process.
TEXTS
Ferguson, Salter & Stallworthy, eds. The Norton Anthology of Poetry (5th shorter ed.)
New York. London: W.H. Norton & Co., 2005 (at NYU bookstore)
Selected Readings – to be handed out.
ASSESSMENT - Based on 4 areas of participation:
Class Participation: Attendance/Discussion/Teaching & Creative Projects/Presentations – 40%
Writing Essays & Journals (including poems) – 50%
Self-assessment – 10%
OVERVIEW OF ASSIGNMENTS
Weekly
Reading poems
Teaching poems – in teams after Spring Break.
Journal Writing: both reader-responses and poems (approx. 3/4 typed pages weekly)
Long Term & Written Assignments: typed & double-spaced with standard margins.
1 Analysis of Poetic Elements/Reader Response Paper: approx. 5 pages
1 Anthology edited by you with written introduction: 8 – 10 pages.
Poems – 1 sonnet as well as poems in other forms.
Creative Project in Response to Poem(s) – in any genre or medium.
DATES DUE: WRITTEN & ORAL ASSIGNMENTS
Mon – February 24: JOURNALS/POEMS #1 - 6
Wed – March 12 ESSAY #1: Reader-response - Analyzing How Poetic Elements Convey Meaning
Wed - April 23 & Mon - April 28 -- CREATIVE RESPONSE PROJECT in PAIRS
Wed – April 30: JOURNALS/POEMS #7 - 12
Mon – May 5: ESSAY #2 – ANTHOLOGY – Everyone’s due.
Mon – May 12: SELF-ASSESSMENT JOURNAL #13
POETRY SYLLABUS CONTINUED . . .
PAGE 2
M 1/26 Introduction: Syllabus/Goals/Info Cards/ Explore assorted poems.
Discuss attitudes toward poetry. Read Western Wind & snippets.
Card: 1-name, 2-age, 3-major, 4-e-mail, 5-tele #, 6-what you want to learn, 7-color
W 1/28 Purchase: Norton Anthology & Journal for reflections on reading.
REREAD: Western Wind: speculate on textual clues for journal:
J#1: Who is speaking? Who/Where might s/he be? What does s/he wish for?
Be sure to cite/quote words or phrases to suggest logic of your answers.
BRING: 15 copies – (part of) your favorite poem/lyric – no longer than 1 side.
PREPARE:
Include title, poet’s name & your name on sheet.
To read your poem or extract aloud
To share when & why you discovered it
To explain why it has meaning for you
M 2/02 READ: Xeroxed poems in packet.
ILLUSTRATE/COLOR just one of the poems based on its textual impact.
WRITE metaphors/similes/words/phrases in all margins to respond to images.
In Class: Discuss Ecphrasis. Write group poem in response to one picture.
W 2/04 BRING: Norton Anthology
READ: I Have a Gentle… (xerox), Lord Randal (89), The Wreck . . . (Xerox),
Bonnie… (93), Where Have All. . . (1152), Suzanne (Xerox).
J#2: Respond to I Have a Gentle… What do you think it’s about?
What’s being described and why? Who could be speaking?
REFLECT: What issues or situations do ballads tend to reflect. How?
In Class: Further discuss link between pictures/symbols & words.
Share journals/discuss rhythm/listen to ballads: The Wreck & Suzanne
M 2/09 READ: Fairy Tale Poems (packet)
J#3: Respond to any 1 fairy tale poem & reflect on its (new) meaning as well as
its significance for you -- why does it affect you?
OR write your own poem updating a favorite fairy tale (extra credit for both).
In Class: Share some journals & poems.
W 2/11 READ: Tichborne’s Elegy (120), The Death of … (981), Do Not Go… (991),
#340 (723), #591 (727), Funeral Blues (938), Mid-Term Break (Xerox).
J#4: Respond to either Tichborne’s Elegy OR Mid-Term Break.
What does poem do to convey a sense of loss? Cite examples.
OR: Write an entry/poem to reflect on your reactions to an early death;
refer to personal experience, using images to convey your feelings.
M 2/16 HAPPY HOLIDAY – Read Poems listed for Wednesday/Get Journals Ready
W 2/18 READ: Delight … (226), The Author… (285), The Red… (829-30), Ars… (885)
Paradoxes & Oxymorons (1083), Poetry (856-7), Digging (1179)
J#5: What -- if anything -- do these poems have in common? Respond to one.
IN CLASS: Continue discussion of Elegies & Fairy Tale Poems
POETRY SYLLABUS CONTINUED . . .
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M 2/23 DUE J #1-6
RE-READ: Delight … (226), The Author… (285), The Red… (829), Ars… (885)
Paradoxes & Oxymorons (1083), Poetry (856-7), Digging (1179)
READ: Poems in Packet on Writing & Language & Words
Explore connection between WHAT poem says and HOW it says it.
J#6: Write a poem: your feelings about your writing, poems, or words
We may read some of your poems aloud. Option: a reflective Para on the same.
.
W 2/25 Continue disc. of poems from Mon. 2/23 & last chance -- SUBMIT J #1-6
M 3/02 READ the following Renaissance PASTORAL & Modern POEMS:
Sonnets 18, 29, 73, 116, 130, 138 (170-178), Anne Hathaway (xerox),
In Paris with You (1216), Separation (1086), Permanently (xerox), Talking in Bed (1031).
REFLECT: questions on sheet to explore pairs of poems.
READ: Instructions for Essay #1 and look for poem to analyze.
DUE: Bring Xerox copy of poem for Essay #1
WRITE: Articulate an opinion or question that you intend to explore for Essay.
(No poem beyond page 812)
W 3/04 READ: Reread sonnets/modern love poems to continue discussion
DUE: Keep working on Essay #1
J#7: Type out accurately any 1 sonnet & write 1 full page on precisely what you
discovered by doing so. Do quote some lines from which you made meaning.
M 3/09 READ the following METAPHYSICAL POEMS:
Elegy X1X… (203), Come My Celia #1 (214), To the Virgins… (228),
To His Coy Mistress (293), The Nymph’s Reply to . . . (121)
REFLECT: What might be the poets’ relationship between sex & death?
Is this relationship today different from the past? How so? Or not?
W 3/11 READ: A Valediction of (197), Valediction Forbidding Mourning (198 & Xerox of Rich)
REFLECT: What extended metaphors/conceits are used? Find them.
IN CLASS: Guidance for Anthology (#2)/Plan visit/Teaching Dates/Lesson Plans.
DUE: ESSAY #1
M 3/16 HAPPY SPRING BREAK!
W 3/18 HAPPY SPRING BREAK!
M 3/23 READ: Echoes (xerox), Woman to Man (992), Warming … (1242),
Have You Ever… (Xerox), Poem to My Penis, & Poem to My Uterus (Xerox)
& Sonnet 135 (xerox)
DUE: J #8 – Write a Sonnet: ode to a beloved or despised person or body part!
DUE: J#9 - Write a response to one of assigned poems.
How does this poem either reflect or differ from your vision of relationships?
OR How does this relate to your sense of your body?
Cite evidence from your own life and quote from poem.
DISCUSS: Guidance for Anthology (Essay #2)
DISCUSS: Explore themes relating to gender and relationships with others/self.
POETRY SYLLABUS CONTINUED .
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W 3/25 READ: Continue Discussion of Poems from Monday.
TEAM #1 _________________& ________________
READ/FOCUS: __________________________________________
PLAN: Discuss Anthology, Nuyorican Café Date (Friday 4/10 or 4/17 or 4/24)
M 3/30 READ: The Lamb (441), A Divine…(442 & 444), Tyger (446), Poison Tree (446),
London (448), First Snow in Alsace (1020), Persimmons (1243), A Martian . . . (1207)
DUE: J #10: Write a Poem! Capture your innocence or a time
when your innocence was lost, a revelation or life lesson which made you
experienced. What didn’t you know? What did you learn? Use images.
TEAM #2 __________________ & ___________________
READ/FOCUS:_________________________________________________
W 4/01 READ: Ode to a Nightingale (582), This Living Hand (940-41)
Stanzas…(541), Ozymandias (541), The Second Coming (774)
REFLECT: Why do you think Shelley & Keats are described as Romantic poets?
What end-of-the-world scenarios have religion, myths & science envisioned?
How does the poet’s sense of time passing or of the future affect these poems?
TEAM #3:
_______________ & __________________
READ/FOCUS:___________________________________________________
M 4/06 DUE: Bring TWO sets of 7-10 poems that you’ve selected for anthology.
Underline the few lines/images in EACH poem that attract you most.
E-Mail Partners will conference in class. Start reading poems due Wed 4/08
W 4/08 READ: Self-Portrait (xerox), This Is a Photo . . . (xerox), From the House (1157),
We Real Cool (999), Song of Myself (679-684), I Am (566)
TEAM #4: ____________________ & ___________________
READ/FOCUS:____________________________________________________
TEAM #5: ____________________ & __________________
READ/FOCUS: ___________________________________________________
DUE: J#11: WRITE a Song/Poem -- a verbal self-portrait or snapshot!
Mirror your spirit or sense of self, your looks or your role in life/in the family/universe.
M 4/13 TEAM #6 __________________ & ____________________
READ/FOCUS: ___________________________________________________
TEAM #7 __________________ & ________________ & ________________
READ/FOCUS: _______________________________________
W 4/15 READ – Sympathy (795), Howl (1061) & Tenebrae (1044-45)
POETRY SYLLABUS CONTINUED .
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M 4/20 READ: Daddy (1145), Piano (840), My Papa’s Waltz (955), Those Winter Sundays
(968), This Be . . . (1033), Arioso Dolente (1151), Letters & Other Worlds (1201)
REFLECT: What is poet (Plath) howling about? Why is our past important?
DUE: J#12: WRITE a poem to HOWL ABOUT or ABOUT FAMILY –
RECALL anything. This can be personal or political, from your past or present!
W 4/22 DUE: CREATIVE PROJECTS: 4 pairs (8 students)
1__________________& ________________
2__________________& ________________
3__________________& ________________
4__________________&_________________
M 4/27 DUE: CREATIVE PROJECTS: 3 pairs (6 students)
5__________________& __________________
6__________________& __________________
7__________________& __________________
W 4/29 IN CLASS: Reading Our Own Poems!
DUE: JOURNALS #7 -12 (Do NOT staple – only clip poems together)
All poems titled with your name
All poems typed neatly on only 1 side of paper (format*)
All poems revised with spelling checked.
Underline the title of 2 poems that you are willing to PUBLISH.
Option – one reader response journal may be substituted for any one poem.
J#7 – Typed sonnet & paragraph on meanings you discovered.
J#8 – Your Sonnet (with partner’s response)
J#9 - Reflection on one poem from reading due 3/18
J#10 -Your Poem - Time of Innocence or Experience (with partner’s response)
J#11 -Your Poem –Song of Yourself
or Ode to a Body Part (your own) that you like/dislike.
J#12 -Your Poem –Something to HOWL About!!!!! (with partner’s response)
M 5/04 CELEBRATE & SHARE ANTHOLOGIES (7 students)
DUE: ALL ANTHOLOGIES (ESSAY/PAPER #2)
W 5/06 CELEBRATE & SHARE ANTHOLOGIES (7 students)
M 5/11 CELEBRATE & SHARE ANTHOLOGIES (? students) & READ OUR POEMS
----- Hand Out Student Poetry Anthology ---DUE: J #13 SELF-ASSESSMENT LETTER – approx. 2 pages:
Give specific examples to reflect on the following:
What challenges and/or victories did you experience this term?
in making meaning while reading, writing, and talking together? Illustrate with
concrete examples.
What did you observe in class about the way that others made sense/meaning of
poems? Again, give examples to illustrate.
What did you learn about yourself and/or poetry by creating Anthology?
What grade do you believe that you earned & Why? Explain by referring to your
achievements as well as your struggles over the term.