Ocean Poetry

Unit Topic: The Galapagos Islands

Grade Level: Middle School

Basic Concepts: Word pictures of oceans, the power of poetry, value of another culture

Content Areas: Language Arts, Art, and Foreign Language

Time: 1 1/2 hours

Objectives

• Students will gain an appreciation of culture and poetry, through analyzing a poem about the Ocean, written by Pablo Neruda.
  
  
• Students will have the opportunity to express their feelings about the ocean, by writing their own poem.

Activity

Materials:

• Various pictures of ocean scenes from magazines, nature books, vacations
  
  
• Large chart paper to brainstorm adjectives about the ocean
  
  
• Poem "Oceano", by Pablo Neruda (see handout)

Phase 1: Discuss with the class historical information about the life of Pablo Neruda to give them a vivid picture of the author. The author was from Chile, also a country in South America. Bring out the value of other cultures, and how they contribute to the world. A great Website of basic information is:

http://www.uchile.cl/actividades_c...s_nobel/neruda/Vida_Nerudaing.html

Read the poem "Oceano," written by Pablo Neruda. (Find someone who can read it in its pure Spanish version, and then in English). Have a class discussion.

1. What was the student's first impression of the poem?
   
   
2. Did Neruda succeed in capturing the essence of the ocean in his brief poem?

Phase 2: The students should be given time to look at the pictures of ocean scenes and to discuss what they think about oceans. As a class, fill up a huge poster with adjectives that the students brainstorm to describe oceans. Give the students time to create their own poems about oceans. These poems should be free verse, the student can make them short, long, rhyming, haiku, cinquain, etc.

Reference:

Neruda, Pablo. (1962). Plenos poderes. Seix Barral: Barcelona, Espana.

Extensions:

• The students can draw or paint a picture that would capture and explain the personality of their poem.
  
  
• The Spanish words in the poem can be added to the class Spanish dictionary.

Assessment: The students will receive the Poetry Rubric so that they know what is expected of them. The students can ask for feedback from other students and from the teacher about their poems. As a class, there will be a class discussion about the activity and what they learned.

Evaluation: The teacher will use the Poetry Rubric when evaluating the students' poems. The student must have achieved a minimum of 11 points in order to succeed on this project.