Introduction

= Introduction & Rationale =

This poetry anthology has been designed for a year 11 Advanced English class. Although these students are all in Advanced, it is anticipated that as many as 25% will drop to the Standard English course for year 12. The class comprises males and females, and is at a comprehensive high school on the lower north shore. The students enjoy studying texts that are considered 'pop culture', and this is why the theme of ‘Emo Poetry’ has been selected.

‘Emo’ started as a musical genre, and the one set of song lyrics included, Linkin Park's //Numb,// exemplifies what ‘emo’ is. The music is considered emotional, reflective and usually on the depressing side. Emo music, poetry and literature often focus on themes of isolation, [teen] angst, death, being misunderstood and sometimes include a sense of the supernatural. There is usually a pervading tone of melancholy, nostalgia and regret. Further details are included in the Unit Introduction which would be the front page viewable by students.

When compiling the anthology, the aim was to provide significance for the students by connecting themes and ideas to the students' prior knowledge and culture, and build on this knowledge with more sophisticated texts.[1] The anthology has a selection of both contemporary and 'cannon' poems. The unit starts with the previously mentioned song the contemporary poems Lightning, The rider, Wishing and Memory. Three of these contemporary poems are Australian, thus linking in with the student's cultural knowledge. The next lot of poems are only marginally older. There are two poems from Robert Frost, The Most Of It and The Road Not Taken. However, these poems were written 30 years apart and as such examining the similarities and contrasts between them makes for an interesting investigation. Also included in this time frame is a poem from WWI, Rain by Edward Thomas. At this point the texts begin to get more challenging, and will require more time and analysis - however it is expected that by this time the students are quite comfortable with the themes and techniques. Charles Swinburnen's A Forsaken Garden is the first of the pre-twentieth century poems to be included, with its pervading sense of despair and loneliness. This is followed by Edgar Allan Poe's Alone from approximately the same period, which has a focus of introspection, angst and isolation. This work perhaps ties in most neatly with the contemporary idea of 'Emo' and as such is one of the poems used in the Prezi resource. The final two poems in the anthology are much older - a Shakespearian sonnet and an even older rhyme (or Rime) from Petrarch. The poem to be used alongside Alone in the resource is Lightning, as they both use natural imagery to convey the feelings of angst and turmoil.

The Prezi format has been chosen for the resource as it allows images, sound, video and text to all be included on the one page. The Prezi will help students to visualise the poem, identify techniques used by the composers, and understand the effect that these techniques have. They are very easy to create and as such a follow on activity for students has been set; creating a Prezi for A Forsaken Garden.

[1] NSW DET Quality Teaching Framework.

This wiki was created for the purposes of assessment in 2011. Information regarding the 'class' is hypothetical.