Watch this short animated film by Sophie Koko Gate, featuring an excerpt from “Song of Myself” by Walt Whitman.
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.
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Warm-up: (freewrite) Write the next line after “I celebrate myself, and sing myself.” Share your writing with a small group. What do you like about your line? How did it feel to respond?
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Before Reading the Poem: Watch this short animated film by Sophie Koko Gate, featuring an excerpt from “Song of Myself” by Walt Whitman. What stood out to you in the film? Why?
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Reading the Poem: Silently read the poem “Song of Myself, 1 [I celebrate myself]” by Walt Whitman. What do you notice about the poem? Note any words or phrases that stand out to you or any questions you might have.
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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.
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Small Group Discussion: Share what you noticed about the poem with a small group. How are your observations similar to or different from what you noticed earlier? What does it mean to sing a song of yourself? How does the speaker do this? How does this compare to the lines you wrote?
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Whole Class Discussion: What imagery stands out to you in the poem? Why? What is the speaker’s relationship to the natural world? What is your relationship to the natural world today?
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Extension for Grades 7-8: Think back to the line that you wrote at the beginning of class. Using “I celebrate myself, and sing myself,” continue writing a song of yourself. Share your writing with the class. Then, work together to create one long poem that includes everyone’s song. As a group, decide which sections go best together and why. After, read the new poem in its entirety. How does this long poem celebrate you personally and your community?
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Extension for Grades 9-12: Each day over the next week, read another section of “Song of Myself” and respond to anything that strikes you, questions that come up, or new ideas you have. At the end of the week, share your writing and/or discuss what this experience has taught you about yourself.
Walt Whitman innovated a uniquely American poetry. Find a selection of his poems, prose, and ephemera, essays about his life and work, lesson plans and other educator resources, and poems in dialogue with his legacy, all collected in celebration of his two hundredth birthday in 2019.
Free verse: poetry not dictated by an established form or meter and often influenced by the rhythms of speech.