The+Road+Not+Taken+by+Robert+Frost

The Road Not Taken Poetry Lesson

To start off class, I would hand out a copy of the poem to the students. I would give them 5 minutes to read over the poem themselves, and also have them pick what they think is the most meaningful part of the poem out.

Model poem:

The Road Not Taken
 Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim

Because it was grassy and wanted wear,

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I marked the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

**Robert Frost**

After the 5 minutes, I would then read the poem aloud to the class. Once I was done reading, we would go over the poem together as a class stanza by stanza. After we had analyzed the poem, I would then ask for students to volunteer which part of the poem really spoke to them and that they found meaningful.

Introduction to Assignment and Pre-writing Activity: I would tell the students that using this poem as their model, they were going to create their own poem. They would now take the time to write down during a brainstorming activity a list of times where they have had to make a choice, and even better, choices that included risk. If the students did not have any personal stories to draw from, they could come up with scenarios that they think would require this type of decision.

During the brainstorming activity, I would circulate around the room helping any students who needed it, and clarifying anything for those that may need it as well. After students had their list, I would go by each student and help them pick (if they hadn't already) which idea would be best to write about. Once every student had their decision to write about, I would explain how they would mimic the model poem in their own. I would have them look at the language and layout in each line and stanza and have them recreate that in their own way for their poem.

For the remainder of class, students would work on writing their poems.

My example poem, modeled after the original: