Carolyn Kohli, a New York City secondary school teacher, has crafted a study unit for high school grades 10-12 for teaching about the poetry of women.
The Academy of American Poets’ web site features Carolyn Kohli’s teaching unit called “Women in Poetry.” Poet Carol Conroy from Teachers & Writers Collaborative in New York City helped Kohli create and implement the unit.
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Beginning with Assumptions and Questions
The first week of study begins with the following questions: “What things do we expect women to be concerned with? What do we consider "feminine"? Do we expect poems to be written by women to be "feminine" by our definition?” Themes include "Entering the Darkness Out of Childhood," "Voices of the Mothers," "The Body Electric," and "Ars Poetica."
Students are introduced to poetic vocabulary through creative as well as critical writing exercises. They are also taught to use the Internet for research. The students practice writing with Microsoft Word, as they search for information about the poets and poetry.
Learning Objectives
There are eighteen learning objectives that the students are expected to have achieved by the end of the unit; the first three include: 1. Describe the traditional roles of women/received cultural stereotypes and find them expressed in poetry by women. 2. Describe the ways women poets belie stereotypes in their poetry and voice. 3. Recognize and describe voice and tone in a variety of poems by women.
They will also be required to write a 300-500-word essay comparing two poets: Emily Dickinson and Gwendolyn Brooks. Plus they will “Learn and practice techniques for creating a web page, including copying and pasting photographs and art, creating hyperlinks, researching poets' lives and works on the Internet.” And for their final project, they are required to create a web page.
Six Weeks
The unit lasts six weeks and each week focuses on a specific theme:
- Week 1: What Do Women Poets Write About, Anyway?
- Week 2: Entering the Darkness Out of Childhood.
- Week 3: Voices of the Mothers: Dickinson and Brooks.
- Week 4: The Body Electric.
- Week 5: Whose Story?
- Week 6: Ars Poetica
A goal is set for each week’s installment, and the specific activities are clearly spelled out in order for the students to achieve the goal.
