This lesson will require one 90-minute instructional block or two 45-minute instructional blocks to complete with time for sufficient class discussion. If you plan to include the optional extension activity, I would recommend scheduling that for a separate class block, after the full discussion and reflection process has been completed.

Step 1: Provide students with a printed copy of Elizabeth Bishop's poem, "One Art."  A link to the poem on the Poetry Foundation's website is provided below:

 One Art

Step 2: Read the poem aloud one time at a normal pace while students follow along on their copy. Do not ask students to do anything during this first reading. Their only job is to listen to and absorb the general content of the poem. Provide them with a minute or two after the reading to reflect silently on the poem.

Step 3: Re-read the poem, pausing slightly at each line. During this second read, students are to select one line, and one line only, to annotate. In the margins of their paper, they can write their thoughts, analysis, or questions they may have about that one particular line.  Provide students with several minutes to think and write after you finish this second reading. During this time, circulate around the room to ensure that every student has responded to one line of the poem. Do not move on to Step 4 until you have confirmed 100% participation.

Step 4: Re-read the poem one final time. This time, pause completely after each line. Ask students to raise their hand if they responded to the line you just read. When students raise their hands, allow them to read out what they wrote on their papers and to expand upon their notes as needed to clarify their thoughts. Some lines will generate more responses than others and that is okay. Just make sure that everyone has a chance to respond to their line.

Where appropriate, pause to discuss their findings in greater detail. For example, if one student's response seems to build upon or challenge an earlier response, open that up for class discussion. If students have observed a poetic shift (in tone, punctuation, topic, etc.), point that out, using the term "shift" in your discussion. With this particular poem, students tend to comment on several types of shifts including punctuation (in the final stanza) and shift in severity of the items discussed (from more trivial to more serious). As students identify these shifts, be sure to point out that all of these discussion points fall under the category of "shift" and can be valuable observations for analysis. 

The goal with the line-by-line discussion during Step 4 is to ensure that students are capturing *all* of the details of the poem (or as many as a class of students can capture) while also introducing them to the foundations of poetry analysis: speaker, tone, diction, shifts, title, form, etc.  Allow the student observations to drive the conversation, but be sure to weave in elements of poetry, close-reading, and analysis as the discussion continues.  By permitting students to steer the conversation, they build their confidence and discover their own strengths, allowing them to be more receptive to a more structured instruction on poetry analysis in upcoming classes. For example, if students have observed multiple "shifts" during today's lesson, when you instruct them to analyze poetry by looking for "shifts" in upcoming classes, they will have a concrete example to draw upon and will already recognize that "shifts" can take a multitude of formats.