Lesson Plan: Sex, Food, & Poetry • Class 1 • 90 minutes
Materials:
- In class: students will read Baca’s “Green Chile” and Sally Croft’s “Home-Baked Bread”
Two objectives:
- Students will open their exploration of this unit on sexuality and poetry (and this course on literature and sexuality) with some tamer readings, and explore connections between food, sensuality, and sexuality
- Students will prepare to write their own food (and/or sex) poetry
Procedure:
I. Stand Up/Sit Down! Icebreaker game. (3-5 minutes)
II. Freewrite: Students will write down how “Green Chile” made them feel: how they reacted to it, what they think it’s about. (5 minutes)
III. Focused group work: students will break into groups and identify (and write down) words and phrases in the poem that illustrate sensuality: touch, smell, taste, feel, consumption, sight, sound. Students should also make notes of any words, phrases, or ideas that seem strange to them. (10 minutes)
IV. Focused discussion: students will share their words or phrases using ‘pointing.’ I will facilitate another discussion, this time using more focused questions and providing helpful context for the poem. We’ll discuss symbolism and sensuality and make connections. (20 minutes)
V. Poetry workshop: using Sheridan Blau’s “An Experiment in Reading Poetry” workshop (36-59), students will close-read and discuss “Home-Baked Bread” by Sally Croft, and then discuss similarities and differences between the two poems. (30 minutes)
VI. Brainstorm for at-home poetry writing assignment: we’ll list our favorite foods and/or foods that have some meaning to us, then adjectives that describe these foods, and finally words for the emotions we feel when we eat or prepare them. We’ll take these lists home to write our own food poetry as an assignment. Students should feel free to dive right into the sensual or sexual aspect of food, or not, according to their comfort level. (20 minutes)
Assessment:
- class participation
- reviewing freewriting
- at-home writing assignment: students will complete assignment described above. Poetry will be judged on how closely it adheres to the assignment, not on its ‘quality.’
- these poems will be options for the unit’s larger assignment
Lesson Plan: Getting Edgier: Contemporary Poets on Sexuality • Class 2 • 90 minutes
Materials:
- At home, students will have read Sexton’s “The Ballad of the Lonely Masturbator,” Isherwood’s “On His Queerness”, Lord’s “Love Poem” and “Recreation,” Gunn’s “In Time of Plague”
Two objectives:
- Students will discover different perspectives on love and sexuality from the messages they are used to in the media, and explore art and the media’s role in representing sexuality
- Students will attempt to understand and define modern sexuality and sexual expression
Procedure:
I. Freewrite: Did anything in the readings make you uncomfortable? If so, what and why? (5 minutes)
II. Cultural anthropology: it’s far in the future, and an anthropologist is examining a few relics of our civilization: copies of Cosmopolitan and Maxim magazines. Using one magazine per group of 3-4, identify and write down conclusions such an anthropologist could make about men, women, and sexuality in our culture. (10-15 minutes)
III. Group discussion: Each group will present their findings, and then the class as a whole will discuss whether these conclusions seem reasonable. (10-15 minutes)
IV. Freewrite: Did the poems we read or the exercise we just did make you more uncomfortable? Why? (5 minutes)
V. Students share freewrite responses, beginning a conversation on media and art and how they represent sexuality. Questions: is it offensive to frankly address sex? Masturbation? Why or why not? Is it offensive to sell products using sex? What responsibility do poets have to represent sex and sexuality? What about the media and advertising? (15-20 minutes)
VI. Scaffolding exercise: I will model interpretation using Audre Lord’s “Recreation,” discussing on what the poem might mean and its importance. (10 minutes)
VII. Group work: class will break into four groups to discuss the interpretation of the remaining four poems, and present their findings. (15-20 minutes)
Assessment:
- class participation
- reviewing freewriting
- at-home writing assignment: students will complete assignment described above. Poetry will be judged on how closely it adheres to the assignment.
- these poems will be options for the unit’s larger assignment
Lesson Plan: Sex in Harlem • Class 3 • 90 minutes
Materials:
- At home, students will have read Bennett’s “To A Dark Girl,” Hughes’ “Café: 3 A.M.,” “To F.S.,” “Juke Box Love Song”
- In class, students will watch Josephine Baker’s “Banana Dance,” listen to Bessie Smith’s “Empty Bed Blues,” Lucille Bogan’s “Shave ‘Em Dry,” and Ma Rainey’s “Sissy Blues”
Two objectives:
- Students will understand the historical period known as the Harlem Renaissance, and receive an alternative perspective on the writings from that time
- Students will explore representations of African-American sexuality, and place them in a broader context – including the context of modern hip-hop music
Procedure:
I. Stand up/sit down (I’d like to figure out how much students know about the Harlem Renaissance) (3-5 minutes)
II. Freewrite: Were you surprised by anything in the readings for class? Why? (5 minutes)
III. Free discussion: students share their responses. (5-10 minutes)
IV. Focused discussion: what does this poetry mean? What is the significance of celebrating the beauty and sexuality of African-Americans at this time? (15-20 minutes)
V. Providing context: students will watch a short video of Josephine Baker performing her “banana dance,” and listen to Bessie Smith’s “Empty Bed Blues,” Lucille Bogan’s “Shave ‘Em Dry,” and Ma Rainey’s “Sissy Blues” (20 minutes)
VI. Freewrite: respond to the songs you just heard. What are the differences and similarities between their depiction of African-American sexuality, and the depictions you encounter today in hip-hop/rap music? (If you aren’t familiar with modern hip-hop music, pair up with someone who is, and write and discuss together.) (10 minutes)
VII. Focused discussion: students share their responses, and discuss what is similar and different. How do these blues songs tie into the poetry you read? How is expressing sexuality empowering for a disenfranchised population? Is there artistic value in a song like “Shave ‘Em Dry”? Why do people like songs about sex? (15-20 minutes)
Assessment:
- class participation/reviewing freewriting
- at-home writing assignment: provide line-by-line commentary on one of the stanzas of Bennett’s “To a Dark Girl” (students will be assigned one of the three)
- these poems will be options for the unit’s larger assignment
Lesson Plan: Sex in the Jazz Age • Class 4 • 90 minutes
Materials:
- At home, students will have read Parker’s “Unfortunate Coincidence,” “General Review of the Sex Situation,” and Millay’s “Oh You Will Be Sorry,” “I Shall Forget You Presently, My Dear,” "O Think Not I Am Faithful," “How Innocent We Lie Among,” and “I, Being Born a Woman and Distressed”
Two objectives:
- Between this lesson and Lesson 3, students will learn the historical context for modern feminism, and modern expression of female sexual agency
- Students will learn about the form of the sonnet through studying one of its masters, and prepare to write one of their own
Procedure:
I. Freewrite on one of the two Parker poems. Do you agree with it? Why or why not? (3-5 minutes)
II. Students share their responses and discuss their opinions of Parker’s poetry, with context provided as needed (10-15 minutes)
III. Quick history lesson on the U.S. in the 1920’s: the Harlem Renaissance, the Jazz Age, industrialization, feminism, women’s suffrage, World War I, and the Great Depression, including appended YouTube video and handout (10 minutes)
IV. Focused content- and context-themed discussion of St. Vincent Millay’s poetry: does the context in which Millay wrote affect your judgment of her poetry? How do you think she was received in her time? (20 minutes)
V. Scaffolding intro to sonnet lesson: I start with one of the Millay poems, and note the form-related attributes of the poem, marking down rhyme scheme, syllables per line, stresses, number of lines, etc. (10 minutes)
VI. Sonnet lesson: break class into small groups. Each group is assigned one of the remaining four Millay sonnets, and will note the form-related attributes of the poem, using this site if possible. (15-20 minutes)
VII. Class shares findings; I present sonnet assignment. (10 minutes)
Assessment:
- class participation/reviewing freewriting
- write a sonnet on any topic/theme, using the appended fill-in-your-own-sonnet handout (from here)
- these poems will be options for the unit’s larger assignment
Extra credit: Students seeking extra credit may volunteer to research Victorian morality in the United Kingdom and in the U.S. – including laws on private and public expressions of sexuality. Students can write up a few bullet points summarizing the most important information they learned, and present their findings for the next class.
Lesson Plan: Gay As We Know It • Class 5 • 90 minutes
Materials:
- At home, students will have read Thoreau’s “I Knew a Man By Sight,” Whitman’s “We Two Boys,” Housman’s “The Street Sounds to the Soldiers’ Tread,” Douglas’ “Two Loves”
- In class, students will read Dickinson’s “Wild Nights!”
Two objectives:
- Students will understand the evolution of homosexuality as it is discussed and understood today
- Students will prepare for less familiar future encounters with seemingly gay texts
Procedure:
I. Freewrite: Do you think that sexual expression should be kept in the private sphere? How much sexual expression is okay in public? Who should make and enforce rules on such expression? (5-10 minutes)
II. Extra credit-seeking students present on their findings (10 minutes)
III. Guided discussion: What do these poems reveal about their authors? I’ll write down what students say, grouping comments by author, and we’ll discuss what we know about their lives. Are these poems ‘gay’? What does ‘gay’ mean today? What do these poems tell us ‘gay’ meant then? (30-40 minutes)
IV. Popcorn reading of “Wild Nights!” – two or three times. (5-7 minutes)
V. Focused discussion on “Wild Nights!”, incorporating freewrite responses on expression and repression. Does art suffer when expression is limited? Is it more fun to find hidden meanings than to understand sexual connotations upfront? (10-15 minutes)
VI. Review of sonnet assignment – due next class. (5-10 minutes)
Assessment:
- class participation/reviewing freewriting
- these poems will be options for the unit’s larger assignment
- progress on sonnet assignment
Lesson Plan: Rose and Dick and Don Juan • Class 6 • 90 minutes
Materials:
- At home, students will have read Blake’s, “The Sick Rose,” and “The Question Answered,” Byron “Don Juan” (Canto IX), “Remember Thee!”, and “We’ll No More Go A’Roving,” and Prior’s “A True Maid”
Two objectives:
- Students will share and assess their own sonnets
- Students will receive a quick survey of some of the poets writing about sexuality from the early 19th century to the mid-17th century
Procedure:
I. Stand up/sit down (3-5 minutes)
II. Sonnet workshop: students will pair off and read each other their sonnets. Each student will use this site if possible to parse out the rhyme scheme and structure of their partner’s sonnet. Then we’ll reconvene as a larger group and discuss how the formal structure of the poem affected their expression – especially as compared to the food poetry they wrote after Class 1. Sonnets, along with their partner evaluations, will then be turned in. (30-40 minutes)
III. Freewrite: which of the assigned poems was your favorite to read, and why? (3-5 minutes)
IV. Free discussion: students share responses (10 minutes)
V. Focused discussion: what worldviews do these poems present? What gender roles? How do they contradict each other? Together, students will place each poem into a Venn diagram of gender roles and worldviews. (20 minutes)
VI. Snowball activity: students will write down any questions they have about the reading, the class in general, or the upcoming lessons, and then crumple up and throw the paper somewhere else for someone else to read aloud and answer. (10 minutes)
Assessment:
- class participation/reviewing freewriting
- these poems will be options for the unit’s larger assignment
- completion of sonnet/evaluation assignment
Dirty Old Men and Women I • Class 7 • 90 minutes
Materials:
- At home: students will have read Herrick’s “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time;” Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress;” and Campion’s “I Care Not for These Ladies”
- In class: students will read Donne’s “The Flea”
Two objectives:
- Students will participate in a facilitated discussion of the similarities and differences of the readings and develop opinions on what the poems indicate about sexuality in the 17th century
- Students will understand the “carpe diem” trope, and its variations
Procedure:
VIII. Freewrite: students will write on the cheesiest pick-up line they’ve ever personally delivered, heard, or heard of. What are the goals of these lines? Do they ever work? (5-10 minutes)
IX. Free discussion: students will discuss what they wrote and then informally discuss how today’s pick-up lines relate to the poetry they read for homework. (5-10 minutes)
X. Variation on Blau’s ‘Goldilocks’ assignment: students will break into small groups (3-4) to pick the poem among the three assigned that was most difficult for them to understand. They will identify the hardest lines and discuss them in their groups, trying to come up with interpretations and writing down lingering questions. (15 minutes)
XI. Larger Goldilocks discussion: groups will present their findings. I will write down questions that are presented. (10 minutes)
XII. Context: from this discussion, I will provide historical, cultural, and linguistic context for the poems, attempting to strike a balance between what students can grasp themselves and what they could not know without more information. (10 minutes)
XIII. Poetry workshop: students will close-read and discuss John Donne’s “The Flea,” and place it thematically with one of the three poems they read for homework. (25-35 minutes)
Assessment:
- Class participation
- Reviewing freewriting
- These poems will be options for the unit’s larger assignment
Extra credit: Read Richard Wilbur’s “A Late Aubade,” and write a paragraph on how you think this poem, written in 1968, relates to Marvell and/or Herrick’s poems.