What is Free Verse?
Free Verse poetry is rhymed or unrhymed poetry without attention paid to conventional meter. It saw a popularity rise in the 19th century, taking root first in France. Strictly speaking, Free Verse poetry is poetry that has an irregular cadence and/or the recurrances of various phrases, imagery, and syntactical pattern.
The Free Verse unit of measurement is the line, rather than the foot or meter, as it is in more conventional poetry. The Early 20th century had wide spread use of such poetry, and it remains a popular type of poetry today. One of the most well known Free Verse Poets was Walt Whitman (pictured to the right). Free Verse is also sometimes referred to as Blank Verse or as vers libre.
Reherse Your Verse
Materials: in Just- E.E. Cummings (Adventures for Readers, pp. 439); Poetry Journals; Notes on Free Verse;
Note: This lesson may be a day or two long.
Objectives:
1. Introduce the students to free verse poetry
2. Introduce the students to the concepts of rhyme, meter and feet
3. Help the students understand the poetry transcends words
Standards, Benchmarks, and GLCEs (grade level content expectations)
3.8, 4.5, 5.1, 8.4, 8.5, 10.1
R.WS.08.06; R.WS.08.07; R.CM.08.01; L.RP.08.02
Bell Work
“Write a Poem about something that you did the other day, in whatever style that you choose.”
Lesson steps:
Ask the students if they’d like to share their poems. After the bell work, introduce the students free verse poetry via lecture and the note supplied below. This is about a 5-10 minute activity. Make sure to stop and answer any questions that the students may have. .
Have the students look at the poem by E.E. Cummings, and then ask them to write on their bellwork what they think of the poem before reading it. Explain to them that poetry is more than words on a paper; that poetry paints pictures, regardless what type it is. Read the poem by E.E. Cummings “in Just-” on page 439. The reading technique used will be Choral Reading (the teacher reads a stanza of poetry, and the students read it back to the teacher). Have the students then write on the same paper what they think of the poem that they’ve read it.
After reading the poem, hand out the “Free Verse Pictury” worksheet and rubric. Students are to do this in-class; note that it may take a few days to finish. Once done, students are to put it in their Poetry Notebook and turn it in.
Homework:
The Students are to go home and find a free verse poem that relates to them, and explain in a short paper why it relates to them. This poem, and their explanation why it relates to them, will be stored in their poetry journal for the end of class. Students who don’t finish the ‘pictury worksheet’ can finish it on their own time. Both of these are to be put inside of the poetry notebook.
Extensions and Differentiated instruction:
Feet to Feet (Mini-Lesson) [Body-Kinesthetic]:
The students stand up and stomp their feet to each stressed syllable in the following sentence: “I want you to stomp out a meter.” It may take some time at first, but the goal is to show the students the difference between a stressed and unstressed syllable (required concepts to understand Meter and Feet).
Lesson Assessment:
Direct: before the students leave, have them write out what they think of free verse poetry and what they learned about free verse.
Note: This lesson may be a day or two long.
Objectives:
1. Introduce the students to free verse poetry
2. Introduce the students to the concepts of rhyme, meter and feet
3. Help the students understand the poetry transcends words
Standards, Benchmarks, and GLCEs (grade level content expectations)
3.8, 4.5, 5.1, 8.4, 8.5, 10.1
R.WS.08.06; R.WS.08.07; R.CM.08.01; L.RP.08.02
Bell Work
“Write a Poem about something that you did the other day, in whatever style that you choose.”
Lesson steps:
Ask the students if they’d like to share their poems. After the bell work, introduce the students free verse poetry via lecture and the note supplied below. This is about a 5-10 minute activity. Make sure to stop and answer any questions that the students may have. .
Have the students look at the poem by E.E. Cummings, and then ask them to write on their bellwork what they think of the poem before reading it. Explain to them that poetry is more than words on a paper; that poetry paints pictures, regardless what type it is. Read the poem by E.E. Cummings “in Just-” on page 439. The reading technique used will be Choral Reading (the teacher reads a stanza of poetry, and the students read it back to the teacher). Have the students then write on the same paper what they think of the poem that they’ve read it.
After reading the poem, hand out the “Free Verse Pictury” worksheet and rubric. Students are to do this in-class; note that it may take a few days to finish. Once done, students are to put it in their Poetry Notebook and turn it in.
Homework:
The Students are to go home and find a free verse poem that relates to them, and explain in a short paper why it relates to them. This poem, and their explanation why it relates to them, will be stored in their poetry journal for the end of class. Students who don’t finish the ‘pictury worksheet’ can finish it on their own time. Both of these are to be put inside of the poetry notebook.
Extensions and Differentiated instruction:
Feet to Feet (Mini-Lesson) [Body-Kinesthetic]:
The students stand up and stomp their feet to each stressed syllable in the following sentence: “I want you to stomp out a meter.” It may take some time at first, but the goal is to show the students the difference between a stressed and unstressed syllable (required concepts to understand Meter and Feet).
Lesson Assessment:
Direct: before the students leave, have them write out what they think of free verse poetry and what they learned about free verse.
| free_verse_pictury_assignment.pdf |
