7.3: Activities-Truth Telling In Poetry
- Page ID
- 386508
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\(\newcommand{\avec}{\mathbf a}\) \(\newcommand{\bvec}{\mathbf b}\) \(\newcommand{\cvec}{\mathbf c}\) \(\newcommand{\dvec}{\mathbf d}\) \(\newcommand{\dtil}{\widetilde{\mathbf d}}\) \(\newcommand{\evec}{\mathbf e}\) \(\newcommand{\fvec}{\mathbf f}\) \(\newcommand{\nvec}{\mathbf n}\) \(\newcommand{\pvec}{\mathbf p}\) \(\newcommand{\qvec}{\mathbf q}\) \(\newcommand{\svec}{\mathbf s}\) \(\newcommand{\tvec}{\mathbf t}\) \(\newcommand{\uvec}{\mathbf u}\) \(\newcommand{\vvec}{\mathbf v}\) \(\newcommand{\wvec}{\mathbf w}\) \(\newcommand{\xvec}{\mathbf x}\) \(\newcommand{\yvec}{\mathbf y}\) \(\newcommand{\zvec}{\mathbf z}\) \(\newcommand{\rvec}{\mathbf r}\) \(\newcommand{\mvec}{\mathbf m}\) \(\newcommand{\zerovec}{\mathbf 0}\) \(\newcommand{\onevec}{\mathbf 1}\) \(\newcommand{\real}{\mathbb R}\) \(\newcommand{\twovec}[2]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\ctwovec}[2]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\threevec}[3]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\cthreevec}[3]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\fourvec}[4]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\cfourvec}[4]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\fivevec}[5]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \\ #5 \\ \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\cfivevec}[5]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \\ #5 \\ \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\mattwo}[4]{\left[\begin{array}{rr}#1 \amp #2 \\ #3 \amp #4 \\ \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\laspan}[1]{\text{Span}\{#1\}}\) \(\newcommand{\bcal}{\cal B}\) \(\newcommand{\ccal}{\cal C}\) \(\newcommand{\scal}{\cal S}\) \(\newcommand{\wcal}{\cal W}\) \(\newcommand{\ecal}{\cal E}\) \(\newcommand{\coords}[2]{\left\{#1\right\}_{#2}}\) \(\newcommand{\gray}[1]{\color{gray}{#1}}\) \(\newcommand{\lgray}[1]{\color{lightgray}{#1}}\) \(\newcommand{\rank}{\operatorname{rank}}\) \(\newcommand{\row}{\text{Row}}\) \(\newcommand{\col}{\text{Col}}\) \(\renewcommand{\row}{\text{Row}}\) \(\newcommand{\nul}{\text{Nul}}\) \(\newcommand{\var}{\text{Var}}\) \(\newcommand{\corr}{\text{corr}}\) \(\newcommand{\len}[1]{\left|#1\right|}\) \(\newcommand{\bbar}{\overline{\bvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\bhat}{\widehat{\bvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\bperp}{\bvec^\perp}\) \(\newcommand{\xhat}{\widehat{\xvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\vhat}{\widehat{\vvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\uhat}{\widehat{\uvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\what}{\widehat{\wvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\Sighat}{\widehat{\Sigma}}\) \(\newcommand{\lt}{<}\) \(\newcommand{\gt}{>}\) \(\newcommand{\amp}{&}\) \(\definecolor{fillinmathshade}{gray}{0.9}\)Truth Telling in Poetry By Illinois Humanities
Essential Questions:
1. How does a poet develop theme through a series of details?
2. How can young people develop a theme in their own poetry?
This lesson uses Gwendolyn Brooks’ poem “Boy Breaking Glass” and a student poem to help students write their own poetry. Through conversation about layers of detail, students will determine the truth that the poets intended to convey. Then, they will write their own poems, with a focus on truth-telling.
Gwendolyn Brooks is the first Black Poet Laureate of Illinois and the first Black Pulitzer Prize winner. She was deeply invested in her neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago and used that social, cultural, and political context to create poetry that resonated within her community and beyond it. Her work inspires students to pay close attention to their own communities, cultures, interests, and needs and to use their own experiences to develop themes in poetry writing.
Watch the YouTube video of Boy Breaking Glass posted Illinois Humanities
YouTube Boy Breaking Glass [youtube.com]
Ask students: “What do you think the poet means by the line ‘Whose broken window is a cry of art’?” Confirm that the boy breaking a window sees his action as art or a way or speaking out.
Draw students’ attention to the three quotations in the poem where the boy is speaking directly.
Invite students to turn and talk with a partner about what this boy might be experiencing by rereading those quotations. Ask them to share out.
Confirm students’ interpretations including the boy feeling that the only opportunity he’s offered is the opportunity to break something. He feels like he is walking a plank, that nobody knows or cares where he is. People are throwing away his name, which is the only thing he feels he owns.
Ask: “Reflecting on all of these details, what do you think is the theme of this poem?” Confirm students’ ideas, including the theme: when faced with erasure, people may use destruction in the same way they use art – to make themselves known.
Play the reading of the student poem “jesus to blk boys.”
An Illinois Humanities staff member reads the poem "jesus to blk boys" by Kae Osei as part of the poetry lesson plans offered to teachers through our Gwendolyn Brooks Youth Poetry Awards. YouTube Jesus to blk boys [youtu.be]
Invite students to notice and share out as many different things as they can about this poem. They may share details about form (line breaks, punctuation, font choices), word choice (imperative verbs, unusual hyphenations), and allusions (to Christianity, pop culture, chattel slavery).
Ask: “How do these layers of details build on one another to create the theme?”
Ask: “What is similar about the truth-telling in this poem and the first poem, Boy Breaking Glass? What is different?”
Tell students that building poetry using clear themes and strong details can help them deepen the truth-telling in their poems.
Attributions: Illinois Humanities is a statewide nonprofit organization that activates the humanities through free public programs, grants, and educational opportunities that spark conversation, foster reflection, build community, and strengthen civic engagement for everyone in Illinois. Illinois humanities.org