The Nature of Writing and the Writing of Nature

Introduction

Learning Objectives

• Exercise and refine their skills of observation


• Both identify and create images of nature


• Employ creative and descriptive writing skills to communicate their ideas, using Shakespeare's texts as a model


• Develop an understanding of the local environment as a source of imagery for poetry

Estimated Time of Completion

Materials

• A copy of "In Search of Shakespeare" (To order, visit Shop PBS)


• A TV and VCR or DVD player


• Text of "A Midsummer Night's Dream"


• Handout

Procedure

I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine:
There sleeps Titania sometime of the night,
Lull'd in these flowers with dances and delight;
And there the snake throws her enamelled skin,
Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in.

Assessment

• You might create a scoring guide to evaluate the effectiveness of each poem. Peer evaluation can be incorporate through the sharing of poems.


• The poems might be displayed along with pictures of the sites they describe. If your students have written about a place near your school, you might consider reading the poems aloud to an audience at the site.

Extension Activities

Online Resources

Standards

NCTE and IRA:

Standard 1: Students read a wide range of print and nonprint texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works.

Standard 2: Students read a wide range of literature from many periods in many genres to build an understanding of the many dimensions (philosophical, ethical, aesthetic) of human experience.

Standard 3: Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).

Standard 5: Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.

Standard 6: Students apply knowledge of language structure, language conventions (e.g., spelling and punctuation), media techniques, figurative language, and genre to create, critique, and discuss print and nonprint texts.

Standard 8: Students use a variety of technological and informational resources (libraries, databases, computer networks, video) to gather and synthesize information and to create and communicate knowledge.

Standard 11: Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities.

Standard 12: Students use spoken, written and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information.

McREL:

Standard 1: Uses the general skills and strategies of the writing process.

Standard 2. Uses the stylistic and rhetorical aspects of writing

Standard 3: Uses grammatical and mechanical conventions in written compositions

Standard 4: Gathers and uses information for research purposes.

Standard 5: Uses the general skills and strategies of the reading process

Standard 6: Uses reading skills and strategies to understand and interpret a variety of literary texts

About the Author

Handout