Context/Objectives: I developed this lesson for an Honors Intro to Poetry course at Queens College in Spring, 2015. This course had 18 students, but this lesson could work with 25 or more. Students had previously read Adrienne Rich’s “Diving into the Wreck” and were about to discuss her poem, “North American Time.” I hoped this exercise would help students become more attune to the kinds of extra-poetical rhetoric Rich used which would in turn help them to pay closer attention to the language of the poem.Materials: In addition, to help provide context into Rich’s activist-teacher work at CUNY, and to help students also develop a picture of late 60s into early 70s activism specific to CUNY, I photocopied a section of the Rich chapbook starting from, “When you come out of here, who will you be?” (25-8). (After reading poetry by Rich, students then read a few poems/texts by Audre Lorde. Once all the L&F chapbooks are done, we can teach a CUNY poets class!).Time Frame: 45 min or half of a one hour and fifteen min class periodLesson: After distributing the handouts, we did a choral read where everyone goes around in a circle and reads aloud one of the mini-paragraphs in Rich’s text (my classroom is always U shaped). I also participated in this.After reading aloud as a group, I asked students to respond in writing for 3 minutes, jotting down their reactions, thoughts, questions, etc. This worked as a structured or focused free write. Students then shared their reactions to Rich’s text in partner share (3-4 min) and then aloud to the class.Next, I asked students to create a “found poem” out of this text working in partners. The guidelines for the found poem assignment are: Use at least 10 words from the Rich document. Your poem must be at least 8 lines and find an interesting, creative way to play with, respond to, and transform these “found” words. I gave them 12-15 minutes in class with which to work on this.After completing a draft of their poems, we went around the room and shared. Students turned these into me for participation credit, although there are a number of ways in which you can deepen or continue this assignment. Students could continue to work on and revise poems; they could post their collaborative poems to the class blog; partner groups could swap poems for further feedback (peer-review), etc.Note: Although an Intro to Poetry class, this small introduction to CUNY’s history, one that Rich participated in, helped build students’ understanding of this time period a bit further (‘68-’74). My students didn’t realize that CUNY was free or open, and they had many things to say both positive and critical of Rich’s text. Since “North American Time” is a poem that questions American roots, having encountered this document from the Lost&Found chapbook helped students continue to respond to her poem analytically and emotionally.CUNYRichFoundPoemLessonContributed by: Wendy Tronrud
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