Reading Experience

Brenna Crawford
Unit Working Title: Love and Loss and The Written Word
Unit Big Idea (Concept/Theme): Writing and Reading are ways to express and explore
love and loss in the human experience.
Unit Primary Skill focus:
Week 2 of 3; Plan # 5 of 9; [90 mins.]
Plan type: Full-Detail
Content Requirement Satisfied:
Reading Experience
Unit Learning Objectives (numbered) [from my Backwards Design Unit Document],
followed by Specific lesson objectives (lettered) being taught in this lesson:
SWBAT:
Cognitive (know/understand):
-1. Students will know that there are many ways to express love through written words
-2. Students will know that there are many different types/forms of love
Affective (feel/value) and/or Non-Cognitive:
-1. Students will know the importance of respecting others in discussion.
-2. Students will know non-pugnacious ways to reply and to respectfully challenge opinions that
they disagree with
Performance (do):
-1. Students will read and annotate a poem alone and then in large group.
-2. Students will be able to talk about controversial topics in a respectful manner.
-3. Students will compare and contrast love poems and love letters
-4. Students will question how a type of writing has categories (such as love poetry), and what
standards govern what texts are included in such categories.
SOLs: [List with numbers portrayed in the SOL document]
8.5 The student will read and analyze a variety of fictional texts, narrative nonfiction, and
poetry.
a) Explain the use of symbols and figurative language.
b) Make inferences and draw conclusions based on explicit and implied information
using evidence from text as support.
c) Explain how authors use characters, conflict, point of view, voice, and tone to
create meaning.
g) Identify and ask questions that clarify various viewpoints.
l) Use prior and background knowledge as a context for new learning.
m) Use reading strategies to monitor comprehension throughout the reading process.
CCSs: [List with numbers portrayed in the CCS document]

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.8.1.C

Pose questions that connect the ideas of several speakers and respond to others'
questions and comments with relevant evidence, observations, and ideas.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.8.1.D

Acknowledge new information expressed by others, and, when warranted, qualify or

justify their own views in light of the evidence presented.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.8.4

Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including
figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on
meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts.

Methods of Assessment:
[How will you know if the intended learning occurred?] List all methods of assessment used in
this lesson or which are related to this lesson and come in a future lesson. After each assessment,
indicate in brackets the number(s) and letter(s) of the unit objective and the related lesson
objectives that the assessment is evaluating.
Diagnostic
I will have a students do a Do
Now with the topic of Love
Poetry. It will ask What
makes a poem a Love
Poem? In your opinion,
what does a poem need to
have in it for you to
categorize it as a love
poem? It will also ask
students to give a few
examples of love poems that
you have heard and
remember.
[D4]

Formative
Students will annotate the
poems on their own,
demonstrating their ability to
draw ideas and conclusions
from the authors word choice
and allusions that are present
in the poem. The teacher will
be observing these
annotations, and she will
collect the annotated copies to
look over the marks and
comments that the students
made about the poem.
Students will also participate
in the class discussions
regarding the annotation of the
poem and the subject matter of
the poem.
[D1, D2, D3, C1, C2, A1, A2,
CCS 8.1 C and 8.1 D and CCS
8.4, SOL 8.5 a, b, c, g, l, m]

Summative
A week from when this lesson
is taught, students will be
creating a five-piece portfolio
as their performance
assessment for the unit. They
will be writing multi-genre
works that center around the
topic of Love and Loss.
Students will be writing
statements about each piece,
and they will be required to
discuss many of their authorial
choices.
[C1, D4, CCS 8.4, SOL 8.5 a,
c]

Procedures/Instructional Strategies
[Note: Any words that represent what I would say directly to students appear in italics.]
Beginning Room Arrangement:
Students will be sitting in desks arranged in 5 rows of 3 desks each.

1. [ 1 min.] Bridge/Hook/Opening to lesson:

Good Morning, Remember about how in last class we discussed Love Letters and the mechanics
of crafting a letter? Today we are going to take a close look at one of my favorite love poems. I
want this class period to act as a microscope focused view on love poems that will prepare us to
write a love poem of our own for the Love and Loss Portfolio that you will be presenting at the
end of the unit.
2. [ 45 mins.]
I want you to read the poem silently to yourself. Then I will read it aloud. As you are reading
it, please begin marking up the page/annotating with questions, thoughts, comments, and
connections you have regarding the poem. Really think about words or phrases that pop out
to you.
Students Read the Poem Silently [5 minutes]
Teacher Reads the Poem Aloud [3 minutes]
I want you to take the next 10 minutes to annotate the poem by yourself. Feel free to read it
over as many times as you want before you start to feel comfortable with it. I will be walking
around the room if you have any questions.
Students Annotate Silently [10 minutes] (Teacher walks around the room and observes and
answers any questions)
Okay, now we are going to project the poem on the board and annotate it together. Please
say whatever you have in your mind, as there are no wrong answers when it comes to
marking up/annotating a poem.
[20 mins] The poem is projected on the board, and students will say what they have written
down/circled/etc. and I will add those comments onto the projected class copy. I will ask the
following questions to guide the activity if things begin to slow down at any point:

Is this poem different from the Love Letters we looked at? If so, how?
What allusions can you find in the poem?
Which line is most striking to you, why?
Is this a poem of Loss? How so? Do you think the addressee is dead, or just gone?
What is the tone of this poem?
How does it make you feel?

We will talk though any words or sections that are confusing for any of the students [5 mins]
3. [ 35 mins.]
After the poem has been read and annotated by all of us together,

I will ask how do you feel about the poem? Do you like it? Why? What emotions does this poem
evoke within you?
Not all forms are universally accepted by all, and that there may be forms of expressing love that
are against your personal belief system, or the belief system into which you were raised. You may
also feel strongly that all forms of love are valid and deserve to be recognized. This poem is
written by Andrea Gibson and addresses a girlfriend whom she once loved and is no longer with.
I will show them the video of Gibson performing this poem as Spoken Word.
They will then have time to discuss in the class if they were surprised by the fact that the speaker
is a woman and that she wrote this poem about a woman whom she had loved.
I want you to be reminded that this class is a safe place to talk about our opinions, but that they
must be presented respectfully.
I want you to share your opinions, even if they do not match up with the opinions of your peers,
but the key is to question ideas in a respectful and non-condescending way. Give reasons for
your opinions and speak in a manner that is not aggressive or threatening.
How do you feel about the poem now?
Has your opinion about the poem changed?
Why do you think that is?
What aspects of this poem, if any would you want to work from in your own love poems.
Does it feel differently to read the poem than it does to watch Gibson perform it?
How does the background music change the poem? Do you like or dislike this addition?
Thank you for your thoughts and your respectful discussion. I think that you all did a marvelous
job.
4. [ 9 mins] Closure:
In your journals, I want you to take the last few minutes of class to write a short reflection about
the poem or the class discussion.

Differentiated Instruction to accommodate one or more of my profiled students:

(This is where you identify specific aspects of this lesson which have been differentiated in order
to address the needs of one or more of your profiled studentsidentify them by name)

For Grace, I would take a few moments before the lesson (during Do Now time) to discuss with
her some of the allusions in the poem that might not make sense to her at first. I will talk to her
about ET and show her a picture of the bicycle with the basket and his glowing fingertips. I will
also explain batting cages and show her some pictures of baseball pitching machines. I will make
sure that she knows she can talk to me after class about anything that confused her if she doesnt
feel comfortable bringing them up in front of the other students.
Materials Needed (list):
Printed Copies of Maybe I Need You
Projector
Document Camera
Youtube Video of Maybe I Need You performance/spoken word
Materials Appendix: (e.g., supplementary texts, Ppts, overheads, graphic organizers,
handouts, etc.)

Maybe I Need You

Andrea Gibson
The winter I told you I think icicles are magic,
you stole an enormous icicle from a neighbors shingle
and gave it to me as a gift
I kept it in my freezer for seven months
until the day I hurt my foot
and needed something to reduce the swelling
Love isnt always magic
sometimes its just melting
or its black and blue
where it hurts the most
Last night I saw your ghost
pedaling a bicycle with a basket
towards a moon as full as my heavy head
and I wanted nothing more than to be sitting in that basket
like ET with my glowing heart glowing right through my chest
and my glowing finger pointing in the direction of our home
Two years ago I said I never want to write our break up poem;
you built me a time capsule full of big league chew
and promised to never burst my bubble
I loved you from our first date at the batting cages
when I missed 23 balls in a row
and you looked at me
like I was a home run in the ninth inning of the world series
Now every time I hear the word, love, I think going, going
The first week you were gone,
I kept seeing your hand wave goodbye
like a windshield wiper in a flooding car
in the last real moment I believed the hurricane would let me out alive

Yesterday I carved your name into the surface of an ice cube

then held it against my chest til it melted into my aching pores
Today I cried so hard the neighbors knocked on my door
and asked if I wanted to borrow some sugar
I told them I left my sweet tooth in your belly button
Love isnt always magic
but if I offered my life to the magician
if I told her to cut me in half
So tonight I could come to you whole
and ask for you back
would you listen
for this dark alley love song
For the winter we heated our home from the steam off our own bodies?
I wrote you too many poems in a language I did not yet know how to speak
But I know now it doesnt matter how well I say grace
if I am sitting at a table where I am offering no bread to eat
So this is my wheat field;
you can have every acre, Love
This is my garden song
This is my fist fight
with that bitter frost
Tonight I begged another stage light to become that back alley street lamp
that we danced beneath
the night your warm mouth fell on my timid cheek
as I sang, maybe I need you
off key
but in tune
Maybe I need you the way that big moon needs that open sea
Maybe I didnt even know was here til I saw you holding me
Give me one room to come home to
give me the palm of your hand
Every strand of my hair is a kite string
and I have been blue in the face with your sky
crying a flood over Iowa so you mother can wake to Venice
Lover, I smashed my glass slipper to build a stained glass window for every
wall inside my chest
Now my heart is a pressed flower and a tattered Bible
It is the one verse you can trust
So Im putting all of my words in your collection plate
I am setting the table with bread and grace
My knees are bent
like the corner of a page
I am saving your place
https://youtu.be/MXc8Ct7qezY