Ozymandias

When I was an intern, I sat with a teacher who was conducting a lesson on “Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley.

She was attempting to draw the infamous "vast and trunkless legs" on the white board for her students. They began laughing hysterically because her drawing did not look like legs, but rather two examples of something very inappropriate.

This was a complete accident on her part and she was mortified. Because I was a witness to this event, I choose to draw jeans instead of legs for my students that need the visual aid to understand the meaning of trunkless.

I have no talent for visual arts, which is apparent with my drawing. My students laughed at me and make jokes about the owner of the pants buying them at warehouse sales or only doing work out for one leg. I had to laugh because those are the most lopsided pants in the history of SmartBoard art.

I do love my SmartBoard. It is the best thing that every happened to me as a teacher.

Prior to using any piece of poetry, including musical lyrics, I have my students begin with a TP-CASTT  graphic organizer.

While working on reinforcing annotated reading (marking the text), I thought this would also be a good opportunity to reintroduce the Petrarchan sonnet. English teachers spend so much time with Shakespeare, that other pieces of literature often get ignored.

For this part of annotation, I have the students:

1. Number the lines
2. Label the Rhyme Scheme
3. Divide and label the stanzas.
4. Highlight words with which the students are unfamilar.

I normally have the students make the intial lines to determine the metrical line (rhythm), but in this case, the students identified iambic pentameter rather easily.  

This is an example of how the students interacted with the poem

Here is where it really starts to get messy and fun. 

After the students paraphrase the poem and identify new vocabulary to enhance understanding, we begin to evaluate and analyze the text. In this case, we focused on poetic and other literary devices. 

Although I am able to discuss some interesting things about Pharoah Rameses II and Percy Bysshe Shelley, I am limited due to appropriate discussions in a school setting. The kids will have to talk to their parents or wait for college to get into the nitty-gritty. 

Of course, they have Google. 

Until Next Time, 



LEARN LOUDLY!!!
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