Reading and Writing Workshop

The Art of Poetry: An AP Literature Reading & Writing Workshop
Exploring Voice, Form, and Meaning through Canonical and Contemporary Poets
This workshop is aligned with the College Board’s framework and incorporates poems most frequently cited or suggested by the AP Literature Exam and Course Description.  It follows the previous Reading & Writing Workshop model — balancing close reading, literary analysis, creative imitation, and reflection — while helping students master poetic analysis for AP-style FRQs and build their own poetic craft.
Overview
Purpose:
 To build analytical and creative fluency with poetry through the AP Lit lens — emphasizing tone, diction, imagery, figurative language, structure, and meaning.
 Structure: Read → Discuss → Write → Share → Reflect
 Focus Skills:
  • AP Skill Category 4: Literary Argumentation
  • AP Skill Category 3: Textual Analysis (form, imagery, tone, etc.)
  • Poetry FRQ writing (line-by-line explication, theme thesis, evidence integration)
Week 1 — Tone & Speaker Week 2 — Sound & Structure Week 3 — Imagery & Figurative Language Week 4 — Time, Memory, Mortality Week 5 — Society, Self, Conflict Week 6 — Synthesis & Performance


Week 1 — Reading the Poet’s Voice: Tone and Speaker
AP Focus Skill: Identifying and interpreting tone and point of view.
 Key Terms: Speaker, tone, diction, connotation, mood, imagery.
Mentor Poets & Texts: Workshop Flow
  • Engage: Students hear each poem read aloud; identify the speaker’s perspective and tone.
  • Read & Discuss: Annotate diction, punctuation, and imagery that reveal attitude.
  • Write: Prompt — “Write a dramatic monologue poem from an unreliable speaker.”
  • Share: Pairs exchange drafts and discuss tone control.
  • Reflect: Journal — “How does word choice shape emotional honesty?
Week 2 — Sound and Structure: How Poems Move
AP Focus Skill: Analyzing sound, rhythm, and form.
 Key Terms: Meter, rhyme, enjambment, caesura, free verse, sonnet, volta.
Mentor Poets & Texts:
  • William Shakespeare – Sonnet 130 (“My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun”)
  • Gerard Manley Hopkins – “Pied Beauty”
  • Elizabeth Bishop – “One Art”
Workshop Flow
  • Engage: Students clap or tap the rhythm of each line. Discuss how meter builds meaning.
  • Read & Discuss: Identify formal shifts and how structure mirrors emotion.
  • Write: Prompt — “Write a poem using a repeated pattern or form (villanelle, sonnet, or refrain).”
  • Share: Peer workshop on how rhythm and pattern shape tone.
  • Reflect: Write — “How does form help control feeling?
Week 3 — Imagery and Figurative Language: The Poem as Painting
AP Focus Skill: Analyzing figurative language and imagery to interpret theme.
 Key Terms: Simile, metaphor, personification, symbol, synesthesia, conceit.
Mentor Poets & Texts:
  • William Wordsworth – “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”
  • Langston Hughes – “Harlem”
  • Seamus Heaney – “Digging”
Workshop Flow
  • Engage: Students close their eyes during first reading; describe the images they “see.”
  • Read & Discuss: Identify central images and metaphors; connect them to emotional meaning.
  • Write: Prompt — “Write a poem using one sustained image or metaphor to reveal an idea.”
  • Share: Students explain the symbolic logic of their chosen image.
  • Reflect: Journal — “How does image clarify or complicate meaning?
Week 4 — Time, Memory, and Mortality
AP Focus Skill: Analyzing theme and human experience.
 Key Terms: Theme, motif, allusion, juxtaposition, elegy, carpe diem.
Mentor Poets & Texts:
  • John Keats – “When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be”
  • Dylan Thomas – “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night”
  • Rita Dove – “Daystar"
Workshop Flow
  • Engage: Discussion — “Can poetry preserve the fleeting?”
  • Read & Discuss: Identify tone shifts and imagery of time and mortality.
  • Write: Prompt — “Write a poem about something that has passed but still lingers.”
  • Share: Students annotate one another’s use of imagery and sound.
  • Reflect: Write — “How does poetry challenge or accept mortality?
Week 5 — Society, Self, and Conflict
AP Focus Skill: Interpreting how poets critique society and reveal identity.
 Key Terms: Irony, juxtaposition, cultural voice, persona, satire.
Mentor Poets & Texts:
  • Claude McKay – “America”
  • Adrienne Rich – “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers”
  • Gwendolyn Brooks – “We Real Cool”
Workshop Flow
  • Engage: Students brainstorm social pressures they’ve experienced or observed.
  • Read & Discuss: Examine how structure, tone, and imagery critique power or conformity.
  • Write: Prompt — “Write a persona poem that speaks from or against society’s expectations.”
  • Share: Peer readings; discuss subtlety and irony in tone.
  • Reflect: Journal — “How can a poem be both personal and political?”
Week 6 — Synthesis and Performance: The Poem as Argument
AP Focus Skill: Writing literary arguments supported by textual evidence.
 Key Terms: Thesis, evidence, commentary, structure, cohesion.
Mentor Poets & Texts:
  • T.S. Eliot – “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”
  • Natasha Trethewey – “History Lesson”
Workshop Flow
  • Engage: Students select one poem studied so far to analyze through a mini AP FRQ.
  • Read & Discuss: Practice identifying thesis and line-level evidence.
  • Write:
    • Option 1: AP Poetry FRQ-style literary argument.
    • Option 2: Original poem as “argument” — use imagery and tone to make a claim about human nature.
  • Share: Final class performance or poetry reading.
  • Reflect: Self-assessment — “How has my understanding of poetry evolved?
Culminating Task — Poet-Analyst Portfolio
Students compile a mini portfolio including:
  1. Three original poems, each imitating a specific style or device studied.
  2. Two short explications (150–200 words each) analyzing selected AP-level poems.
  3. One reflection essay — “What makes a poem endure?” (connects to Romantic → Modern progression).
Supplementary Activities
  • Poetic Device Gallery: Students post examples of tone, form, and imagery from different poems.
  • Explication Relay: Group challenge to annotate one poem in 10 minutes and present findings.
  • Imitation Notebook: Students mimic one poem each week for stylistic practice.
Timed FRQ Practice: Practice full-length AP Poetry essay with scoring guide reflection.
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