7 Food for Bonding & Resistance – Lesson Plan Activities
Authors: Mary Beth Cancienne, Hayes Davis, Teri Ellen Cross Davis, Brian Hannon, T.J. Hendrix
Target Group: Middle School (7th-8th grade)
Originally from Food for Bonding, Food for Resistance Unit Plan
Poems: “My Resistance is Black” by DéLana R.A. Dameron (Furious Flower, 2019, p. 187), “Bread Pudding Grandmamma” by Darrel Alejandro Holnes (Furious Flower, 2019 pp. 47-48)
Instruct the students to take out the two poems we’ve read in the previous two lessons. Display the following two questions on the board:
What do these two poems have in common?
What is different about these two poems?
Provide each student with two sticky notes and instruct them to write their responses on each sticky note separately. Have them post their completed responses to two different designated areas (this could be a t-chart drawn on the whiteboard or two larger post-it notes).
Review the students’ responses and discuss them as a whole group. Review the notes the two larger groups prepared the day before and discuss the structure and other poetic elements the students listed during the whole group exercise.
Ask students how they feel about writing a poem in either style. What style would they like to try? Tell them to turn and talk to their elbow partners to share their responses.
Explain to the group that they will now write a poem in the style of one of the two poems they read this week. They will have the rest of the class period to write. They can choose between the two poetic styles that were presented to them. Their poems must include:
- Imagery/sensory language
- Repetition
- Similar structural style to one of the poems
Drafting the Poem: During this step, the students will be in a writer’s workshop. They will have time to draft, edit, and revise. This step may overlap multiple days.
Closure/Formative Assessment: After students have finished writing their poems, they can voluntarily share them with the class. Ask the author or the audience (peers) to identify one example of poetic style or device used in the poem.
Options for Differentiation
- Student Interviews
- Peer Review and Peer Editing
