Description
Looking for a powerful addition to your growth mindset unit?
“Invictus” by William Ernest Henley and “The Writer” by Richard Wilbur are great poems to explore the concept of growth mindset.
“The Writer” tells a story of a father listening to his daughter write in her room; by comparing her experience writing a story to that of a ship traveling over the sea as well as to a bird that the speaker and his daughter watched struggle to break free one day, the speaker discusses themes of persistence, pain, struggle, and of the journey of life. (The text of “The Writer” has not been included in this packet because of copyright.)
In “Invictus,” the speaker tells of his struggles with the darkness and brutality of circumstance and speaks of the power that he has to decide his own fate no matter what comes his way.
When you teach a unit on these powerful poems you will:
- Start your class periods with bellringer freewrite prompts that will help students to focus, get ready to work, and begin to explore the essential questions of the text.
- Strengthen your students’ close reading skills by taking them through a close reading of the poems with the no-prep questions and handouts.
- Easily review the questions using the extensive answer keys which quote the important passages, so there is no guessing on your part as to which parts of the text are most important.
- Easily teach the unit with Google Classroom using the ready-to-go instructions, links, handouts, and forms.
- Add rigor to your lesson plans when your students analyze the poets' use of enjambment, diction, imagery, figurative language, and extended metaphor with the structured and focused questions.
- Help your classes to better understand their own views on struggle, success, and hard work.
Pairings: These poems would pair well with any texts that deal with themes of struggle, hardship, fate, journeys, or perseverance. Suggestions include Hamlet, Macbeth, Julius Caesar, The Odyssey, The Iliad, Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, The Color Purple, The Scarlet Letter, Things Fall Apart, and 1984.
Highlights
Description
Looking for a powerful addition to your growth mindset unit?
“Invictus” by William Ernest Henley and “The Writer” by Richard Wilbur are great poems to explore the concept of growth mindset.
“The Writer” tells a story of a father listening to his daughter write in her room; by comparing her experience writing a story to that of a ship traveling over the sea as well as to a bird that the speaker and his daughter watched struggle to break free one day, the speaker discusses themes of persistence, pain, struggle, and of the journey of life. (The text of “The Writer” has not been included in this packet because of copyright.)
In “Invictus,” the speaker tells of his struggles with the darkness and brutality of circumstance and speaks of the power that he has to decide his own fate no matter what comes his way.
When you teach a unit on these powerful poems you will:
- Start your class periods with bellringer freewrite prompts that will help students to focus, get ready to work, and begin to explore the essential questions of the text.
- Strengthen your students’ close reading skills by taking them through a close reading of the poems with the no-prep questions and handouts.
- Easily review the questions using the extensive answer keys which quote the important passages, so there is no guessing on your part as to which parts of the text are most important.
- Easily teach the unit with Google Classroom using the ready-to-go instructions, links, handouts, and forms.
- Add rigor to your lesson plans when your students analyze the poets' use of enjambment, diction, imagery, figurative language, and extended metaphor with the structured and focused questions.
- Help your classes to better understand their own views on struggle, success, and hard work.
Pairings: These poems would pair well with any texts that deal with themes of struggle, hardship, fate, journeys, or perseverance. Suggestions include Hamlet, Macbeth, Julius Caesar, The Odyssey, The Iliad, Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, The Color Purple, The Scarlet Letter, Things Fall Apart, and 1984.
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