As teachers across the country embark on a new school year, we share a lesson developed by poet and educator Javan Howard, who led a poetry residency for ninth-grade students at Richard R. Green High School of Teaching in New York City. Part of a unit on sonnets and contemporary poets experimenting with the form, Howard’s lesson invites students to write sonnets and share them at a reading with visiting poet Elisa Gonzalez.
The Academy’s high school program is made possible by the generous support of Hawthornden Foundation and the Simon and Eve Colin Foundation.
Reflect on the quote by Laynie Browne: “Form is a container, a direction for words, a frame. Think of form as different ways to direct your lens of vision. Something to try on, walk into, a temporary dwelling, a borrowed manner or means of locomotion.”
The following activities and questions are designed to help your students use their noticing skills to move through the poem and develop their thinking skills so they understand its meaning with confidence, using what they’ve noticed as evidence for their interpretations. Read more about the framework upon which these activities are based.
- Warm-up: Read the following quote by Laynie Browne: “Form is a container, a direction for words, a frame. Think of form as different ways to direct your lens of vision. Something to try on, walk into, a temporary dwelling, a borrowed manner or means of locomotion.” Join with a partner or small group to discuss what stood out to you in the quote. How might this apply to poetry and/or art in general? Share with another pair/small group.
- Before Reading the Poem: Work with a partner or small group to arrange lines from the poem, “American Sonnet for the New Year.” Each line is printed on a sentence strip. As you read the lines, work together to arrange them into a sonnet, a fourteen line poem. As each group shares their poem, what do you notice about the different interpretations? What patterns, if any, did you notice in these arranged poems? Can you make any predictions about the poem we are about to read?
- Reading the Poem: Silently read the poem “American Sonnet for the New Year” by Terrance Hayes. What do you notice about the poem? Note any words or phrases that stand out to you or any questions you might have.
- Listening to the Poem: Enlist two volunteers and listen as the poem is read aloud twice. Write down any additional words and phrases that stand out to you.
- Small Group Discussion: Share what you noticed about the poem with a small group of students. Based on the details you just shared and the resources from the beginning of class, how does the order of the lines in the published poem change your understanding of it? How did the published poem compare to your classmates’ versions at the beginning of class? What might this tell you about sonnets? How is this poem similar to or different from what you know about sonnets?
- Whole Class Discussion: What do you think of the title? What does this poem make you think about the new year or a new school year? Why? Imagine that poetic forms, such as the sonnet, are like containers for the poet’s words and images. Why do you think Hayes chose the sonnet as a container for this poem? How would the poem be different if it were written in paragraph form (without any line breaks) or in couplets?
- Extension for Grades 7-8: Read “A Sonnet” by Jos Charles as an example of another contemporary sonnet. Write a sonnet in which you personify a feeling, inspired by the way Charles personifies misery. Experiment with the formatting and spacing of the lines. Share a line from your poem with the class.
- Extension for Grades 9-12: Pick a poem from the Poetry for Teens page to form into a sonnet, or write your own sonnet. For more examples of sonnets, you can view this collection on Poets.org. Share your poem with the class.
On October 4, 2017, as part of the Academy of American Poets’ 2017 fall season, the esteemed poets who serve on the Academy’s Board of Chancellors gave a reading at the historic 92nd Street Y. Chancellor Terrance Hayes read poems from his book, American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin (Penguin Poets, 2018). Watch Hayes read more of his sonnets.
Sonnet: a fourteen-line poem traditionally written in iambic pentameter, employing one of several rhyme schemes, and adhering to a tightly structured thematic organization. Read more.