Name: Chelsea Courtois Grade: 12 Lesson Focus/Topic: We Real Cool by Gwendolyn Brooks Standards CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12.

1 Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.11-12.1 Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 1112 topics, texts, and issues, building on others ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.11-12.3 Evaluate a speakers point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric, assessing the stance, premises, links among ideas, word choice, points of emphasis, and tone used.
Objectives (What will your students know and be able to do as a result of this lesson?): SWBAT learn to talk about authorial intentions and recognize significance of different speakers/ interpretations when reading any text. SWBAT develop strategies for interacting with the text and in doing so work on developing ideas for persuasive arguments in poetic analysis.

Materials: Copy of We Real Cool text for each student Copies of questions for students to respond to Elmo Pen for markups on Elmo Pencils (students) Whiteboard and dry erase marker

Learner Factors Students will be provided with a graphic organizer, which will serve as a way for students to hold their thinking. Students are provided with thorough written and verbal instruction. For a bit of review of poetry, I put some refresher words at the top of the worksheet so students could have some help when they first start answering their questions and dont feel too overwhelmed. This lesson isnt meant for students to show how much content knowledge they have, but rather for students to recognize the strategies they are using when they are reading their texts. Not only

that, but students arent being measured on how much they mark up or how long responses are, but how much they show they are thinking about their processes. All students, no matter what proficiency, should be able to show the process with aid. This lesson accommodates visual, oral and aural learners. Students will be able to listen to the text, discuss the text, and also have opportunities to read the poem. The different formats for discussion throughout the lesson will allow for the participation of everyone. With time for the whole lesson, most students should have the opportunity to participate. Environmental Factors Students are seated in small groups with students of different academic abilities. Stronger students will be paired with weaker students. Students go from individual, to small group and also large group as far as sharing goes. Students will sit in small groups in case they finish their activities earlier and want to discuss what they saw with their tables. Instructional Activities and Tasks Audio recording-Students will listen to excerpts from a reading Gwendolyn Brooks did. Talking to the text- Students will annotate the text while reading. Small group discussions-reactions to poem Large group discussion- about poem and activity as a whole for wrap up Assessment(s) Formative-SW complete the graphic organizer and mark up the text to show their thinking. The marking on the text will show the teacher and the student that the students are acknowledging the process they are going through while deconstructing the reading. The questions students complete during and after reading the texts will show teacher the processes students have gone through. -SW engage in small and large group discussions

Rationale: I chose the poem We Real Cool by Gwendolyn Brooks because it would fit well into a unit on American poetry. My course is centered around the theme of the American Identity. This poem expresses the views of Gwendolyn Brooks towards the pool players and their apathetic attitudes. It gives students insight to lives outside their own and also exposes them to a different form of poetry from the eyes of a female, African American writer. Students will read this text at the end of the year during senior skip day because this poem is about pool players who were real cool due to the fact that they skipped school. Engaging in this lesson helps students develop metacognitive skills. At this point in their high school career, students will probably be used to evaluating texts and so this activity will give them insight to a different form of poetry. My senior year of high school my AP Literature teacher taught this lesson, but he just read the poem a couple of times. I really enjoyed the poem and found the recording and I thought it would be cool to have students listen to author read the text. As far as the strategy students are using to mark up the texts, I wanted to work with poetry and help students see the way they think about thinking. I had a teacher in 9th grade tell us about metacognition and how to analyze poetry and so I tried to model this lesson loosely after the sort of things he would tell us to look at for reading poetry. I also wanted to do this activity because I like to have a lot of interaction between students and the texts and I think it can be beneficial for students to see the

way their peers annotate the text and also helpful for individual students. The students explaining their annotations are developing insight as to their learning process and therefore bettering it by becoming aware.

Instructional Tasks/Activities What will you be doing? (Before lesson) T will distribute both text and some questions to go along with the text. T will ask students to grab their pencils. T will instruct students to wait to read questions. 8:00 T asks students to listen to Gwendolyn Brooks talking about her rationale for her poem they are about to read and prepare to write about initial reaction. http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID /15433 until :52 8:05 Teacher asks students to write down a reaction to the Brooks recording look over poem themselves after hearing part of the recording. Teacher tells students to prepare to respond.

*Notes objective What will your students be doing? S will be mentally preparing for the hour. S will be obedient and listen to teachers directions.

S will listen to the recording and record their thoughts individually about the recording.

S will write their reactions and look at the poem for the first time and write down their first reactions to the piece.

8:10 Teacher opens up class discussion of thoughts. Teacher records these responses on the chalkboard.

S casually share first impressions in a large group setting.

8:15 Teacher asks students to reread the poem We Real Cool and mark up anything they notice is different from poems they usually read or anything they think they should mark up and are encouraged to write down questions about the text if they have any. Students have been working on interacting with the text and showing how they know what they know.

S are to read the poems, pencils in hands, and markup the text with guidelines presented to them.

8:20Teacher tells students they will be invited to the board to explain what theyve written, after being given a couple of minutes to discuss annotations with group.

S will engage in discussion about poem and specific annotations.

8:25 After about 5 minutes of students marking up the text, the teacher will call the class to attention after making sure students have had sufficient time to mark up the poem and also time for discussing annotations in small group. Teacher asks for volunteers to go up to the Elmo and boards to show what they have chosen to mark up and ask for their rationale.

Once S are done marking up texts they will interact with the class. Students will either volunteer or be chosen by teacher to share their annotations with the classroom.

8:30 T will discuss with the class what has been marked down and address additional questions. It is likely someone will notice the way the punctuation ends mid-line and the first word we ends the lines. Students might also note repetition of we. Students might notice internal rhyming couplets. T will ask S to explain their annotations and allow other students to respond to peers. 8:35 T will ask for a couple student volunteers to read the poem. After the student reads the poem, teacher will ask students to comment on how peer read poem.

S will take turns explaining rationale and responding to each other.

S will be taking turns reading poem and responding to the different ways students read via their question sheet.

S will listen to Gwen Brooks read 8:40-45 her poem and write down After the students have heard their peers responses on question sheet. read the poem, the class will listen to the second half of Gwendolyn Brooks reading her poem and be asked to make comments about how she read the poem.

8:45 T will ask students to engage with their peers in their small groups about their thoughts for Students will share question responses out loud with their peers.

about 5 minutes.

S will respond to other questions regarding poem. 8:50 T and S will discuss the impact playing around with structure of poetry can have on the way a poem reads. Students will be taught about emphasis on certain words, etc. Students will be provided opportunity to share what they think the implications of the poem are and encouraged to share their likes/dislikes about the poem.

S will partake in discussion about poetry and its forms. Students will then respond about how they feel about the poem.

DIRECTIONS: Please mark up the following poem as you read it. Underline
anything you find different from poetry weve been reading so far. Write notes in the blank space on the side of the poem to explain your thinking. A bit about the author... We Real Cool by Gwendolyn Brooks

The Pool Players. Seven at the Golden Shovel. We real cool. We Left school. We Lurk late. We Strike straight. We Sing sin. We Thin gin. We Jazz June. We Die soon.

We Real Cool Questions

Refresher words: denotation, connotation, imagery, tone, speaker POV, couplet, meter, tone, rhyme, rhythm, symbolism, repetition, theme

Please respond to the following questions in complete sentences. 1. What are your first impressions of the poem? (Address two of our refresher words and explain where you find them in the poem and their significance).

2. What information does Brooks recording provide us?

3. What is a question you have about the poem?

4. What aspects of this poem make it unique from other things youve read?

5. What do you notice about the way your peers read the poem?

6. What do you notice about the way Brooks reads the poem?

7. How does this poem by Gwendolyn Brooks aid in developing our class definition of an American Identity?

8. Did you like this poem? Why/ Why not?