Roaches!

Course: English Grade 11 (ENG3U) University Preparation

Duration: 75 Minutes

Classroom Arrangement: Given that students are bright but excitable, the desks will be arranged in a horseshoe or semi-circle formation. This allows for student interaction but at the same time, the instructor retains focal authority.

Prior Knowledge: Prior to this lesson, students will have been exposed to poetry, class work on poems, and introductory topics on poetry including metaphor, simile, verse, and rhyme.

Materials:
-35 pieces of paper with different words on them
-35 copies of blanked out ‘Roaches’
-17 copies of word list for ‘Roaches’
-1 overheard projector
-1 overhead transparency of ‘Roaches’ with blanked out words
-1 overhead transparency of ‘Roaches’

Topic: Diction

Curriculum Expectations:
Overall
Using knowledge of form and style students will draft and revise their writing; students will use a variety of literary, informational, and graphic forms as well as styles appropriate for the purpose and the audience.


Specific
Students learn to use appropriate descriptive and evocative words, phrases, and expressions imaginatively to make their writing clear, vivid, and interesting for their intended audience.

Purpose of Lesson
• To demonstrate to students the importance of diction in the writing process
• To develop literacy skills, including oral communication
• To improve clarity of expression
• To nurture students’ creative faculties

Method:
1) Introduction and Hook (10 mins)
a. Before students arrive, place one piece of paper (with one word on the paper, either an adjective, noun, or verb)
b. Using their one word, students are required to create one or two sentences
c. Four or five of the student sentences will be written on the board.
d. Erase the given word from sentences on the board and have students suggest alternate words, which in turn create new sentences.

The purpose of this hook activity is to get students thinking about and playing with words.
2) The Lesson (20 mins)
a. Define diction
b. Explain the importance of diction and the use of words as a function of oral communication. For example, in court cases.
c. Highlight the importance of diction in poetry and other literary narratives as a means to creating/altering mood, tone, and other elements of text.
d. Engage students by asking them to identify times in their own lives when diction, or the particular use of a word, was critical (ie. creating confusion or clarity in different situations).

3) Activities (40 mins)
a. Independent work
i. Give each student a copy of the poem ‘Roaches’ with certain words blanked out (see attached copy).
ii. Have students fill in blanks with their own words to create a poem.
iii. Using an overhead copy of the poem, take student suggestions and fill in the blanks to create a new poem as a class.
b. In pairs/one group of 3
i. Give each pair/group of 3 a second of the poem with words blanked out.
ii. Give each pair/group of 3 a word list of the original words.
iii. Have students work together to fill in the blanks from the word list of original words (see attached copy).
c. As a class
i. Put the original poem ‘Roaches’ on overhead and ask students what they learned from activities a. and b. with reference to the role of diction.
ii. Questions to use to prompt student response:
- Why did you choose a certain word?
- How did different words change the meaning of the poem?
- How did different words change the mood of the poem? The tone of the poem?
Activity a. was done independently because if students are excitable, then group work would have created possible opportunities to stray from task given that students were free to choose whatever word they wanted. In addition, independent creativity is encouraged and nurtured.
Activity b., given that it had a word list, was more structured than Activity a. so it created an opportunity for students to collaborate and work together with a common focus.

(4) Assign homework (5 mins) - Using a poem that has been studied in class, students are to write a brief paragraph (50 words) explaining how the use of diction was important to the meaning, tone, or structure of that particular poem. Homework will be due the following class and collected by instructor as an assessment of whether or not students understood the role of diction in poetry.

Credit: Jane Mayville, Andrea Di Febo, Joe MacLachlan