Produced for K-12 educators, Teach This Poem features one poem a week from our online poetry collection, accompanied by interdisciplinary resources and activities designed to help teachers quickly and easily bring poetry into the classroom. The series is written by our Educator in Residence, Dr. Madeleine Fuchs Holzer, and is available for free via email.
Featured Poem
Sow and Five Piglets
This image is in the public domain.
Classroom Activities
- Ask your students what they know about Saint Francis. Make sure they have a complete enough understanding to read this poem. Also, ask them if they know the meaning of the word sow. Fill in, again, as necessary.
- Project the image “Sow and Five Piglets” so all your students can see it. Ask them to write down what they see and their reaction to it. Go quickly around the room and ask each person to share something they saw and how they reacted.
- Project Galway Kinnell’s poem and ask your students to read it twice silently. The first time, they should simply read the poem. The second time, they should write down the words and phrases that jump out at them. (Caveat: Some less mature students might start giggling when they get toward the end of the poem. Ask them to write down the phrases that make them giggle, so they can be discussed.)
- Ask one student to read the poem aloud while the listening students add words and phrases to their lists. Repeat the process with a second student reading out loud.
- Small-group discussions: Share the words and phrases that jump out at you in the poem. What does Saint Francis do in the poem?
- Whole-class discussion: How does the speaker in the poem feel about the sow at the end? What does he do in the poem to help us reach that conclusion? (Make sure your students use what they noticed in the poem as evidence.) What point do your students think the speaker is trying to make? (Again, give evidence.)
