Differentiation Blog

Disclaimer: I am not at all sure I really understand what I'm doing here just yet. 

So, thinking of the English/ Language Arts content area, and specifically in the area of creative writing (since that is kind of my passion), I was thinking about when I will teach formal poetry. If I want to get really specific, Sonnets.

To start off, I would "pretest" or have students fill out the K & W sections of a KWL on sonnets, turning it in for me to look over before beginning instruction. If, by some chance there is a student who, like me in high school, was already able to compose an iambic pentameter Shakespearean sonnet (yeah, I'm a dork, so sue me) then I might provide that student with an alternative assignment, giving instructional materials and format for more advanced formal poetry, such as a Villanelle or Sestina. For students who know a sonnet is a poem, and who know the basics of poetry such as rhyme and a basic idea of meter, but little else about it (which I anticipate will be the majority of them at that point in the year) I will be giving direct instruction, on the number of lines, the meter, the rhyme schemes and topical generalities, which may include handouts, modeling via whiteboard/projector/etc how to identify rhyme/meter/form, jigsaw groups in which one group finds the rhymes, one group looks at the meter, one group looks at format (Shakespearean/Italian), then explains to each other the elements they found in the sonnets provided, then finally having students compose a sonnet or two on their own as summative assessment for the unit. For students who have no idea what a sonnet is, what rhyme schemes are, etc, I will provide scaffolding by way of modules, handouts, side instruction, or peer mentoring. However, I plan to address these elements in an earlier unit, so I hope to avoid this problem. However, there could always be a circumstance where a student was absent for that week or two, or even transferred to the school, and would need scaffolding to get caught up. So the materials from earlier in the unit would be made available as well.