I am just going to TOWN with freebies now that a wonderful lovely superwoman teacher, blog tutor extraordinaire, and new friend has taught me to provide freebies (Kristy Bearfield, I salute you!). You the reader of course benefit, and you can follow me on Bloglovin' so there's always that to get excited about.
WHY We Are Really Here - The Sonnet!
Today we are coming to the PerfettoWritingRoom(c) to discuss the benefits of introductions in general, the history of form and the history of the sonnet in particular!
First of all, the benefits of introductions, history lessons, backgrounds, or fun Power Points:
- Interest - In the typical English classroom or language arts, the current lingo for creating interest about a topic, and, the first part of a lesson plan, is the anticipatory set. To start a unit on sonnets, or really ANY poetic form, it creates interest to talk about its origin.
- Groundwork and Foundation - in order to teach rhyme, meter, form, and themes, eventually you may face a problem. You will end up having to go back. Back WHERE ask? Well, to the beginning. Perhaps not to Giacomo Da Lentini, but at least to Petrarch and his conventions. . . right? Why not save yourself and your students the trouble by doing a formal introduction, hmmm?
- Counter-intuitively, it may save you some time. Sure it will take a day or two to start from the 13th century. Once you are analyzing Shakespeare, and the students are finding the theme or the conventions and the rhyme scheme, it just might go faster, and you'll make up the time!
- Retention and a deeper learning experience. There is nothing like understanding the background and history of a form to provide a sense of respect for the subject matter at hand. Students are more likely to retain information about the sonnet when that information is WHOLE. Its beginning and its story, its structure, and then, some examples. Teachers are always busy and have to make tough decisions about what is valuable. It doesn't take a lot of time to review the history of the sonnet, but it will make the iambic pentameter that follows a whole lot more enjoyable.
The following is one page of the notes overview - a compilation from the Power Point - but I think it is fun and helpful. I have seen some of the wondrous K-8 freebies - my material is for high school all the way up to college (sometimes!), so it is never as cute. Sorry about that.
This FREEBIE is the first page of the Sonnet history.
This FREEBIE is the first page of the Sonnet history.
The definition doesn't include the rhyme scheme, the volta or turn - I leave that for the SECOND part - the teaching of form, which I am currently working on.
but it is complete in the Petrarchan Conventions, which is very cool, and a great bargain. YOU CAN'T beat FREE!
I hope you enjoy it!!!
Keep learning, living, working and playing,
PerfettoWritingRoom(c)
- Gina
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