Summary
In this lesson, students will explore metaphors in poetry, learn about the Golden Shovel form of poetry, and use this knowledge to create their own Golden Shovel poem.
Essential Question(s)
How do authors use metaphors and poetic forms to convey meaning?
Snapshot
Engage
Students compare and connect images and concepts through a Magnetic Statements activity.
Explore
Students read a poem and consider what certain phrases might represent.
Explain
Students formalize their understanding of metaphors and the purpose of metaphors in writing.
Extend
Students analyze a Golden Shovel poem using their understanding of metaphors.
Evaluate
Students apply their understanding of metaphors to create their own Golden Shovel poem.
Materials
Lesson Slides (attached)
Situation Signs (attached; one set; print one-sided)
We Wear the Mask handout (attached; one per student; print one-sided)
Vocabulary Cards (attached; one set per group; print one-sided)
Note Catcher handout (attached; one per student; print one-sided)
Jabari Unmasked handout (attached; one per student; print two-sided)
Highlighters (one per student)
CommonLit account (optional; for teacher use)
Preparation
Explain Card Matching Preparation:
During the Explain phase of the lesson, small groups of 2–4 students will complete a card matching activity. Before you begin, print the attached Vocabulary Cards (one copy per small group of students in your class). Consider printing on cardstock paper, especially if you plan to reuse these cards.
Once printed, cut out the cards. All of these cards are the same size for easy cutting.
Handout Preparation:
This lesson has students read two poems. To conserve paper usage, the two poems have been slightly reformatted. These reformatted versions are available in the attached We Wear the Mask and Jabari Unmasked handouts. You may print the handouts or the originals to give to students or keep as a class set, or you may share these digitally with your students using your Learning Management System (LMS).
To access the original poems, visit CommonLit.org and log in or sign up for a free account. Then, click the following links to access each story:
“We Wear the Mask” by Paul Laurence Dunbar
“Jabari Unmasked” by Nikki Grimes
Select “Download PDF” and follow the directions to print each short story for your students.
For students whose first language is not English, CommonLit.org can provide translations. You must first create a CommonLit.org class in order for them to have access to a translated version of the poem. The CommonLit tech tool can assist you with this. Once you have created a class, you can make the class code available to students who wish to read it in Spanish.
Engage
10 Minute(s)
Introduce the lesson using the attached Lesson Slides. Share the lesson’s essential question on slide 3 and then the learning objectives on slide 4. Review each of these with your class to the extent you feel necessary.
Show slide 5 and preview the Situation Signs activity with the class. Explain that they will be shown a picture and asked to use the Magnetic Statements strategy to select a poster that shows a situation that feels most like the image to them. To help them grasp the concept more easily, prompt students to think in these terms: “This [situation] makes me feel like this [image].”
Display slide 6 and have students go to the poster that they feel best represents the image on the slide (someone wearing a Venetian carnival mask) or to the poster that represents how that image makes them feel.
Once students are at their selected posters, have them discuss among themselves why this comparison makes the most sense to them. After a couple of minutes, once groups have had time to discuss, ask one or two from each group to share their thinking with the class.
Repeat this process using slides 7–11.
Explore
20 Minute(s)
Display slide 12 and give each student a copy of the attached We Wear the Mask handout. Have students individually read through the poem silently. Ask students to underline any words or phrases that they do not understand, as they read.
After a couple of minutes, ask for a volunteer to read the poem aloud. You can read the poem if there are not any volunteers. Poetry is generally meant to be read aloud.
Ask students to share what they underlined; clarify as much as you can.
Form students into groups of 2–4. Show slide 13 and give each student a highlighter. Direct students to highlight the following phrases in the poem:
“the mask” of line 1
“torn and bleeding hearts” of line 4
“let the world dream” of line 14
Introduce the Without Words instructional strategy and direct students to select one of the highlighted phrases to illustrate. Have students draw what they think the phrase is trying to get them to imagine. Transition to slide 14 to give students an example of the task.
Once students are done with their nonlinguistic representation, display slide 15. Below their illustration, have students write what idea they think the author is trying to get them to understand from that highlighted phrase.
Move to slide 16 and have groups create a theme statement for the poem using the guidelines on the slide. They can write this on one of their group member’s poem handouts. Then, begin the 3-minute timer.
After the timer has expired and students have finished, direct groups to discuss how one of the comparisons they highlighted helps to support their theme statement and write their reasoning down as at least one complete sentence.
Explain
20 Minute(s)
Show slide 17 and introduce the Card Matching instructional strategy. Give each group a set of the attached Vocabulary Cards.
Once students begin the Card Matching activity, give each student a copy of the attached Note Catcher handout. Transition through slides 18–19 for students to check their work. Direct students to write the definitions on their handout.
Display slide 20. Explain to students that they are going to watch a video about metaphors. Tell them that they are expected to write examples of each vocabulary word on their Note Catcher handout while they watch the video.
Move to slide 21 and play The Art of the Metaphor video. Once the video has ended, ask for volunteers to share examples from the video for each vocabulary word.
Extend
30 Minute(s)
Have students work individually for the remainder of the lesson. Display slide 22 and play the Teen Tuesday: Golden Shovel Poetry video, which introduces the Golden Shovel form of poetry. In this poetic form, the poet takes a meaningful line from a poem and uses words from that line or stanza in a new poem. The line then appears, word for word, at the end of the lines in the new poem.
Give each student a copy of the attached Jabari Unmasked handout and a highlighter, if they do not still have one from before. Show slide 23. Inform students that this poem is an example of a Golden Shovel poem that was built around the lines of the first stanza of “We Wear the Mask.”
As before, have students read through the poem silently and underline any words or phrases that they have a hard time understanding. After a couple of minutes, ask for a volunteer to read the poem aloud. Ask students to share what they underlined and guide the class in decoding any parts that are difficult to understand.
Move to slide 24 and have students use the Why-Lighting strategy to identify metaphors. Direct students to highlight five different metaphors in the poem. For each metaphor they highlight, have students write in the margin what is being compared.
Display slide 25 and have students respond to the prompts on the back of their handout:
Choose one metaphor from “Jabari Unmasked” that you think is especially effective. In multiple complete sentences, explain what is being compared in this metaphor and how the comparison helps you understand the poem better.
Golden Shovel poems often respond to the ideas of the original poem they use. What is an idea from “We Wear the Mask” that “Jabari Unmasked” deals with? What does the speaker of “Jabari Unmasked” have to say about that idea?
Move to slide 26 and have students create a theme statement for the poem using the guidelines on the slide. Then, begin the 3-minute timer.
Collect students’ handouts to use as a formative assessment.
Evaluate
45 Minute(s)
Move to slide 27 and explain to students that they will now create their own Golden Shovel poem using what they have learned about metaphors and the Golden Shovel format. Students can complete their poems either on notebook paper or digitally. Review the following expectations with your students:
Their poems should be at least ten lines long and include at least two metaphors.
Have students bold the last word of each line. If students write their poems on paper, they should go over the letters of the last word with a darker pen or marker but make sure the words are still legible. Alternatively, they could underline the word.
Have students circle their metaphors.
Display slide 28 and guide students through the process by having them find a poem or song lyric then choose the section from it that they want to use in their poem. Remind students that each word from that selection will become the end of each of their lines of poetry. Also, remind students that the end of the line of poetry does not have to be an end to a sentence. If students are not sure of a poem or song, you can offer the following as options:
“The Rose that Grew from Concrete” by Tupac Shakur
“Dreams” by Langston Hughes
“Underface” by Shel Silverstein
“We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks
Show slide 29 and share with students how to title their poem: “Poem Title,” after “Original Poem or Song Title by Original Author,” by “Your Name.” The example from the previous video is “Trust,” after “Perfect” by Bo Burnham, by Asta Geil.
Display slide 30 while students work. Give students approximately 35 minutes to create their Golden Shovel poem.
As students are finishing their poems, transition to slide 31. On the back of their poems (or on the second page of a digital version), have students answer the following questions for each of two metaphors from their poems:
What type of metaphor is it?
What two things is it comparing?
What do you want your reader to understand from this metaphor?
If time allows, invite students to share what they wrote with the class. Have students submit their poems.
Resources
Brooks, G. (1960). We real cool. CommonLit. https://www.commonlit.org/en/texts/we-real-cool
Dunbar, P. L. (1896). We wear the mask. CommonLit. https://www.commonlit.org/en/texts/we-wear-the-mask
Grimes, N. (2017). Jabari unmasked. CommonLit. https://www.commonlit.org/en/texts/jabari-unmasked
Hughes, L. (1941). Dreams. CommonLit. https://www.commonlit.org/en/texts/dreams-2
K20 Center. (n.d.). Card matching. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/1837
K20 Center. (n.d.). Magnetic statements. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/166
K20 Center. (n.d.) Why-lighting. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/128
K20 Center. (n.d.) Without words. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/4845
K20 Center. (2021, September 21). K20 Center 3-minute timer. [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iISP02KPau0
North Vancouver City Library (2020, April 28). Teen Tuesday: Golden Shovel poetry [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBvLj5reRmI
Shakur, T. (1989). The rose that grew from concrete. CommonLit. https://www.commonlit.org/en/texts/the-rose-that-grew-from-concrete
Silverstein, S. (2011). Underface. CommonLit. https://www.commonlit.org/en/texts/underface
TED-Ed. (2012, September 24). The art of the metaphor [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0edKgL9EgM