Lesson Plan for Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken

[angrysoba]

I have been asked to teach a high school class the poem, The Road Not Taken, by Robert Frost in a 50-minute lesson. I have never taught poetry before and I am really not sure what to do. The idea is to "engage students in the poem by ensuring a thorough understanding and appreciation of its message, its meaning and the literary devices used by the poet". I also have to set some homework and give my evaluation criteria. The course aims to improve students' speaking, listening, reading and writing and most students are probably not native speakers but have advanced English levels.

So, here's what I was planning to do, but I was wondering if anyone could critique it. Is it lacking in any aspect of poetry appreciation? Are there any useful techniques that other people might employ that I haven't included? Is it too boring? Too mechanical? Too vague?

Anyway:

Lead-in: Tell Ss they will have a choice of going to Hawaii or a trip to the Amazon jungle. Which would you prefer and why? Ss can work in pairs and then report their partners' answers to the class. (5-10 minutes)

Present the poem: Hand out the poem, The Road Not Taken to the class and have the Ss read it silently for 5 minutes. Set a "global question" such as "What is the central metaphor of the poem?"

Focus on vocabulary: activity to match vocabulary with definitions (diverged, undergrowth, claim, equally, trodden, doubted, sigh, ages). 5 minutes.

Focus on rhyming pattern: In pairs Ss should mark the stressed syllables in each line of the poem, and practice reading aloud together. 10 minutes.

Focus on metaphor: Find some examples of metaphor in the poem in pairs. 5 minutes.

Put Ss in groups of four to discuss the central meaning of the poem for 5 minutes. Ask the Ss what they know about the two paths in the poem. Why does the author sigh when talking about the decision he made? What is different about his retelling of the story in the fourth stanza to his telling of the story in the first three stanzas? What is the purpose of the repetition of "I" in the fourth stanza?

Discuss the meaning to Frost's poem. What is Frost trying to tell us in the poem?

Homework: Write about a time you had to make a difficult decision in your life. How did the choice you made affect your life?

 

[Slowvehicle]

I have been asked to teach a high school class the poem, The Road Not Taken, by Robert Frost in a 50-minute lesson. I have never taught poetry before and I am really not sure what to do. The idea is to "engage students in the poem by ensuring a thorough understanding and appreciation of its message, its meaning and the literary devices used by the poet". I also have to set some homework and give my evaluation criteria. The course aims to improve students' speaking, listening, reading and writing and most students are probably not native speakers but have advanced English levels.

So, here's what I was planning to do, but I was wondering if anyone could critique it. Is it lacking in any aspect of poetry appreciation? Are there any useful techniques that other people might employ that I haven't included? Is it too boring? Too mechanical? Too vague?

Anyway:

Lead-in: Tell Ss they will have a choice of going to Hawaii or a trip to the Amazon jungle. Which would you prefer and why? Ss can work in pairs and then report their partners' answers to the class. (5-10 minutes)

Present the poem: Hand out the poem, The Road Not Taken to the class and have the Ss read it silently for 5 minutes. Set a "global question" such as "What is the central metaphor of the poem?"

Focus on vocabulary: activity to match vocabulary with definitions (diverged, undergrowth, claim, equally, trodden, doubted, sigh, ages). 5 minutes.

Focus on rhyming pattern: In pairs Ss should mark the stressed syllables in each line of the poem, and practice reading aloud together. 10 minutes.

Focus on metaphor: Find some examples of metaphor in the poem in pairs. 5 minutes.

Put Ss in groups of four to discuss the central meaning of the poem for 5 minutes. Ask the Ss what they know about the two paths in the poem. Why does the author sigh when talking about the decision he made? What is different about his retelling of the story in the fourth stanza to his telling of the story in the first three stanzas? What is the purpose of the repetition of "I" in the fourth stanza?

Discuss the meaning to Frost's poem. What is Frost trying to tell us in the poem?

Homework: Write about a time you had to make a difficult decision in your life. How did the choice you made affect your life?

My only suggestion would be to replace this: "What is the central metaphor of the poem?" with this: "What is Frost trying to tell us in the poem?", or even, "What does Frost's poem say to you?". (I think we spend a little too much time looking for what a poem "really means".)

Nice lesson!

 

[LibraryLady]

You might want to take a look at this from the American Academy of Poets. You might also want to cite some famous people who have taken the more difficult road, such as Pat Tillman.

 

[Magyar]

You might want to take a look at this from the American Academy of Poets. You might also want to cite some famous people who have taken the more difficult road, such as Pat Tillman.

This suggestion is great. Also I guess it depends on just how brave you are but I think the Hawaii vs amazon is a pretty weak comparison.

How about something more relevant and on point.

For example using current issues about. Lgbt issues or bullying.

Something along the lines of. This story

http://gma.yahoo.com/homecoming-surprise-tennessee-teen-200343676--abc-news-topstories.html. Or the boy in TX. Vs. allowing bullies to pick on and make fun of other kids like how the kids from collimbine wee treated. And how some kindness and acceptance of people different can lead to one set of results.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Sparknotes analysis of the poem is a great resource but it may be material you already know since you are teaching the same.

 

[angrysoba]

My only suggestion would be to replace this: "What is the central metaphor of the poem?" with this: "What is Frost trying to tell us in the poem?", or even, "What does Frost's poem say to you?". (I think we spend a little too much time looking for what a poem "really means".)

Nice lesson!

Thanks! Nice suggestion. I'll try to make it more explicit that I want to know the students' interpretation rather than the One True Meaning, which is apparently disputed.

You might want to take a look at this from the American Academy of Poets. You might also want to cite some famous people who have taken the more difficult road, such as Pat Tillman.

Thanks for the website. I think it might be a good illustration to show people who have made choices, but I thought it be more interesting for the students to give examples from their own lives.

This suggestion is great. Also I guess it depends on just how brave you are but I think the Hawaii vs amazon is a pretty weak comparison.

How about something more relevant and on point.

For example using current issues about. Lgbt issues or bullying.

Something along the lines of. This story

http://gma.yahoo.com/homecoming-surprise-tennessee-teen-200343676--abc-news-topstories.html. Or the boy in TX. Vs. allowing bullies to pick on and make fun of other kids like how the kids from collimbine wee treated. And how some kindness and acceptance of people different can lead to one set of results.

It's a nice idea, although this is a class I have never met before and it is to be observed so as lame as the warm-up activity is, I would rather play it safe.

Sparknotes analysis of the poem is a great resource but it may be material you already know since you are teaching the same.

Thanks for that. Yes, I looked through it and I may have taken some ideas from there already, but good resources are always welcome.

Cheers everyone!

 

[Slowvehicle]

Thanks! Nice suggestion. I'll try to make it more explicit that I want to know the students' interpretation rather than the One True Meaning, which is apparently disputed.



Thanks for the website. I think it might be a good illustration to show people who have made choices, but I thought it be more interesting for the students to give examples from their own lives.



It's a nice idea, although this is a class I have never met before and it is to be observed so as lame as the warm-up activity is, I would rather play it safe.




Thanks for that. Yes, I looked through it and I may have taken some ideas from there already, but good resources are always welcome.

Cheers everyone!

Let us know how it goes!

 

[Spektator]

In one of his lectures at the University of Georgia, Frost makes a passing reference to what he considered the point of the poem--it's useless to look back on one's life and either regret or celebrate any particular decision, because in point of fact we have no way of knowing what might have happened had we taken a different path. Could be worse, could be better, who knows, get on with your life.

 

[angrysoba]

In one of his lectures at the University of Georgia, Frost makes a passing reference to what he considered the point of the poem--it's useless to look back on one's life and either regret or celebrate any particular decision, because in point of fact we have no way of knowing what might have happened had we taken a different path. Could be worse, could be better, who knows, get on with your life.

Yeah, and in fact the first three stanzas (or at least two and three) suggest that neither path is any less travelled than the other.

 

[marplots]

I'd want to say something about Frost himself and play the recording (it's online somewhere) of him reading the poem. How does his version differ from what you heard in your head when you read it?

There's something about hearing him read it aloud that changed the way I perceive the poem now.

I'd also want to throw in the idea of a "third road" - being in the position of not choosing at all, or not actively choosing. Isn't that what we really do so much of the time, just letting life choose our path for us? I like this point because it might be more relevant to that age group.

 

[angrysoba]

I'd want to say something about Frost himself and play the recording (it's online somewhere) of him reading the poem. How does his version differ from what you heard in your head when you read it?

There's something about hearing him read it aloud that changed the way I perceive the poem now.

I'd also want to throw in the idea of a "third road" - being in the position of not choosing at all, or not actively choosing. Isn't that what we really do so much of the time, just letting life choose our path for us? I like this point because it might be more relevant to that age group.

I found the recording you were talking about:





I also found a nice analysis of the poem here:



He's doing this lecture style which is a no-no for my purposes, but I think his analysis is correct in that the poem is not some hokey cliche about free-spiritedness and boldness, but more of uncertainty and rationalization of choices.

Although some of the You Tubers are upset by his take:

I enjoy this poem. Analyzing it is silly

typical academic of the "debunking school"

Leave it to a college professor to try and ruin a good poem!

I still read it the traditional way. This guy and my english prof tell me different, but why ruin a good poem just to "read it correctly?"

I also like the fact that he gives a bit of biographical information here which, again, I can't afford to put in.

 

[marplots]

Let us know how it goes.

 

[Guybrush Threepwood]

You might want to take a look at this from the American Academy of Poets. You might also want to cite some famous people who have taken the more difficult road, such as Pat Tillman.

This suggestion is great. Also I guess it depends on just how brave you are but I think the Hawaii vs amazon is a pretty weak comparison.

How about something more relevant and on point.

For example using current issues about. Lgbt issues or bullying.

Something along the lines of. This story

http://gma.yahoo.com/homecoming-surprise-tennessee-teen-200343676--abc-news-topstories.html. Or the boy in TX. Vs. allowing bullies to pick on and make fun of other kids like how the kids from collimbine wee treated. And how some kindness and acceptance of people different can lead to one set of results.

Slight derail, but how do you get the idea that Frost is talking about taking the hard but moral road as opposed to going down the primrose path of dalliance from the poem? As far as I can see there is no implication in the poem that one path is better than the other.

 

[angrysoba]

D'oh!

Sorry, I am so late back to this thread. I wasn't sure what to say, but the short story is that I never got to teach the class in the end.

The class would have been taught as part of an interview process for a new job and the first hurdle was to write a lesson plan and submit it and then only those whose lesson plans they liked would make it to the next stage.

I got binned, and such was the confusion in my email account that I didn't discover this until a day or two ago when I was trying to contact the potential employers and discovered that they had replied to me some time ago to tell me that I had not been selected.



Thanks again to everyone for their helpful suggestions. In the end I taught a version of it to a group of elderly Japanese who like to read this kind of thing as a hobby. Their level is really a bit too low for this but after their initial bafflement, they began to grasp what it was about and it ended up fairly successful. Next time I might trial lessons like that on this group, as they enjoyed it and it would have given me ideas about how to write a plan from a bit of experience.

 

[Dr. Keith]

Sorry you didn't get the opportunity to show them your skills in front of a class.

In the end I taught a version of it to a group of elderly Japanese who like to read this kind of thing as a hobby. Their level is really a bit too low for this but after their initial bafflement, they began to grasp what it was about and it ended up fairly successful. Next time I might trial lessons like that on this group, as they enjoyed it and it would have given me ideas about how to write a plan from a bit of experience.

One of the many joys of having kids is re-reading classics like this to discuss them with your own children. It is amazing how a poem can change over time. I imagine the two audiences would take very different meanings from this work, and that is part of what makes it great.

 

[Galois]

Frost described The Road Not Taken as "Tricky, very tricky." It is usually read as a "follow your star" poem, but as some of the comments suggest, it isn't. The speaker is clueless about whether his choice was any good: he denies his initial judgment that the road actually was less traveled: each path seems pretty much the same. The sigh he plans on sighing in the future could express sadness or content; and not all 'different' outcomes are good ones.