Composition & Essays

Lord of the Flies

Other Studies

Poetry

Shakespeare

To Kill A Mockingbird

Jennifer Mah

Grade: 12

Poetry

Global Rationale

This unit is designed to introduce and engage students in both the craft of creating poetry and the practice of literary analysis. Exploring language through the context of war and its relevant issues—nationalism, the destruction of a younger generation, political rhetoric—students will be encouraged to participate in all aspects of poetry—from its enjoyment and creation to its analysis and critique.
Poetry offers the ideal forum for exploring issues of war as the personal nature of poetry captures the intensity of emotion that war evokes and its brevity allows explicit demonstration of how language can be manipulated to create certain stylistic effects. In their journey through this unit, students will learn both how to identify and use conventions of language to increase the effectiveness of their writing, as well as develop their critical thinking capacities through thoughtful critiques of poems from a variety of genres—war, as a highly politicized issue, affords much opportunity to do this.