Reading Walt Whitman 6/20/19

Content Standards

READING WALT
◦ This lecture is meant to expose students to a new author of poetry for this unit.
◦ This lecture will teach students how to actively read poetry for a specific author.
◦ Content Standards:

WHITMAN CCSS for ELA - Content Standards (CA Dept of Education)

5. Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and

Learning How to Actively Read Poetry
nuances in word meanings. Interpret figures of speech (e.g., euphemism,
9 t h -10 t h Grade English
oxymoron) in context and analyze their role in the text.
Jaymee Fuller Analyze nuances in the meaning of words with similar denotations.

9. Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection,

and research.

Who is Walt Whitman? Walt Whitman

◦ Walt Whitman was an American poet, essayist,
◦ Have you heard of Walt Whitman before? and journalist

◦ Born May 31, 1819

◦ Do do you know any of his poems?
◦ Died March 26, 1892

◦ Whitman is regarded as one of America’s most

significant 19th-century poets and influenced
many later poets

Educational Hook - Interpersonal

Visual Aid

Jaymee Fuller 1
Reading Walt Whitman 6/20/19

Literary Devices to Look For O Captain! My Captain!

◦ One of Whitman’s most famous poems is, “O Captain! My Captain!”
Rhyme Scheme Alliteration Symbolism ◦ Here is an excerpt:

• The ordered • The occurrence • Symbolic

pattern of of the same meaning
rhymes at the letter or sound at attributed to
ends of the lines the beginning of natural objects
of a poem or adjacent or or facts
verse closely
connected
words

SmartArt

Analyzing – You Try! “O Captain! My Captain!” - Dead Poet’s Society

◦ Find the rhyme scheme of this stanza

◦ Identify one example of alliteration

◦ What do you think Whitman is implying when he says,

“For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths” in line 3?

Visual Aid
Dual-Coding Technique
Culminating Activity

Jaymee Fuller 2
Reading Walt Whitman 6/20/19

Literary Devices to Look For Beat! Beat! Drums!

◦ Another one of Whitman’s famous poems is “Beat! Beat! Drums!
Alliteration Repetition ◦ Here is an excerpt:

• The occurrence of • Repeating the same

the same letter or words or phrases a
sound at the few times to make an
beginning of idea clearer and
adjacent or closely more memorable
connected words

SmartArt

Analyzing – You Try! Listening Closely

◦ Find one example of alliteration ◦ Sometimes hearing a poem read out loud makes it easier to hear the literary devices
and where the poem should be stressed and emphasized

◦ Find the use of repetition – What is the meaning of the repetition?

◦ Here is “Beat! Beat! Drums!”

https://youtu.be/O6ETXumCqg4

Culminating Activity Dual-Coding Technique

Jaymee Fuller 3
Reading Walt Whitman 6/20/19

Do You Understand? Write Your Own!

◦ Do you understand what alliteration is? ◦ Try writing your own line of poetry that includes at least one example of alliteration
◦ Share with 2 classmates
◦ Did you find it in the poems?

In ”O Captain! My Captain!” the alliteration is in line 2: “for you the flag is flung”

In “Beat! Beat! Drums!” the alliteration is in line 1: “Beat! beat! drums! -- blow!
bugles! blow!” and line 4: “bargainers’ bargains by day”

Progress Monitoring/Question Culminating Activity

Literary Devices to Look For To a Locomotive in Winter

◦ Here is another one of Whitman’s
Imagery Personification poems titled, “To a Locomotive in Winter”

•Elements in a poem that •The attribution of a

spark off the senses personal nature or
human characteristics to
something nonhuman,
or the representation of
an abstract quality in
human form

SmartArt
Visual Aid

Jaymee Fuller 4
Reading Walt Whitman 6/20/19

Analyzing – You Try! Do You Understand?

◦ Find two phrases that include imagery ◦ Did you identify the personification in this poem?

◦ Find one example of personification It can be found in the line “Thy metrical, now swelling pant and roar, now tapering in the
distance”

Culminating Activity Progress Monitoring/Question

Write Your Own! Final Activity-Writing in Groups

◦ Try writing your own line of poetry that includes at least one example of personification ◦ Get into groups of 3
◦ Share with 2 classmates

◦ Together you will write a poem that includes at least 3 different literary devices that we
discussed in this lecture

◦ You can either each write 2-3 lines of the poem, or you can write the entire poem
together

Culminating Activity Culminating Activity

Jaymee Fuller 5