Lesson Title: A Critical Look at Haiku and Moorish Poetry

Name: Judith Lambert-Winfield, Dale Williams, Debbie Davis

School: Martin Luther King Middle

Grades taught: 7th /8th grade

Grade appropriate: 7th grade

Discipline taught: Foreign Language

Disciplines appropriate: FLEX and Japanese

Duration: 2 days. Classes meet daily for 45 minutes.

Big idea: Cultural Ambassadors.

MD Content Standard Connection:

English
Students will communicate effectively in a variety of situations with different audiences, purposes and formats.

Social Studies
Students will understand the diversity and commonality, human interdependence and global cooperation of peoples of MD, the US, and the world through a multicultural and historic perspective.

Foreign Language
Standard 4.2: Students demonstrate understanding of the concept of culture through comparisons of the cultures studied and their own.
Standard 3.2: Students acquire information and recognize the distinctive viewpoints that are only available through the foreign language and its cultures

Lesson Objectives: Students will share their observations from the National Arboretum in order to explain the similarities and differences of the flora of the Eastern and Western world. Students will read and discuss Haiku and Moorish poems in order to compare and contrast technical and stylistic devices.

Abstract: Prior to this lesson, students toured the National Arboretum and compared flora from both Eastern and Western cultures. They engaged in observation and reflection in preparation for sharing their findings with their classmates.

Lesson Components:

• Motivation/Warm Up – What do the following items represent /mean to you? Where are they originally from? Rose, Tulip, Carnation
• Modeling – Teacher reminds students of the trip to the Arboretum and their important role as cultural ambassadors to the class. Next, the students view a power point presentation on Bonsai, Knot Garden, Herb Garden, and other floral exhibits.
• Guided Practice – Students will share their thoughts and reflections on their visit to the Arboretum by showing visual aids and making oral presentations to the class.
• Independent Practice – Students will copy a Haiku poem from the Visualizer and will then move to groups of three. Each group will choose a Moorish poem and write it on the same page opposite the Haiku poem. Students will read each poem and draw a picture in the middle of the page to represent both poems.
• Assessment – Students will brainstorm ideas about the similarities and differences between the poems and write them on the bottom of their page. They will also present their findings to the class and place them on the bulletin board.
• Closure/Summary – Students will be asked to name one connection that they have learned about the Eastern and Western world by observing the Arboretum or by discussing the Haiku and Moorish poetry.

Materials/Resources: (Specify if for teacher or student use)

• Ibn Said al-Maghribi. The Banners of the Champions: An Anthology of Medieval Arabic Poetry from Andalucia and Beyond. (Madison: Hispanic Seminary of the Medieval Studies, 1989).
• http://www.usna.usda.gov/
• Student worksheet
• Computer and LCD projector
• Visualizer
• Flowers
• Haiku Poem and Moorish poems

Plans for Lesson Assessment:

• competently share information from their journal about the field trip with the class
• distinguish between a Haiku and Moorish poem by the completion of class
• draw a picture that represents both styles of poems

Keywords: Haiku, Moorish poems, National Arboretum, journal entry, comparative poetry