Grade Level 10th – 12th Grade
Subject English/Language Arts
Course A.P. Literature and Composition, American Literature, Composition, Creative Writing
Time Frame 1-2 class period(s)
Duration 60 minutes
Spiders, Spiders, Everywhere
Poetry Analysis: Theme and Metaphor
K20 Center, Randi Maloy
Published by K20 Center
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons CC BY-SA 4.0 License
Essential Question
How much should you try before you give up?
Summary
Metaphors and theme are difficult, yet integral, parts of literature. In this poetry analysis lesson, students
will read "A Noiseless Patient Spider" by Walt Whitman. To begin the lesson, students will personally connect
with the narrator of the poem by correlating the idea of fortitude and chance to their own lives. After
reading the poem, students will identify metaphors and use the metaphors to develop an understanding of
theme. Once metaphor and theme are practiced, students will develop an interpretation of the poem and
defend their interpretation using the C.E.R strategy. While this lesson is currently aligned only to 11th grade
standards, it would be appropriate to teach in grades 10 through 12, adjusting standards as needed.
Snapshot
Engage
Students create a Quick Write to begin their thoughts about their own fortitude and personally connect
to the poem.
Explore
Students will do a Card Sort activity to familiarize themselves with advanced vocabulary within the piece
to support deeper analysis of the poem later in the lesson.
Explain
Students read "A Noiseless Patient Spider" and describe some of the terms/phrases from the poem they
can relate to, in order to recognize metaphor within the poem.
Extend
In small groups, students complete a 4-2-1 of the themes they recognized within the text.
Evaluate
Students will develop an interpretation of the poem's theme and support their interpretation with a C.E.R
strategy.
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Standards
Oklahoma Academic Standards: English Language Arts (Grade 10)
10.3.R.3: Evaluate how literary elements impact theme, mood, and/or tone, using textual evidence:
setting
plot structure (e.g., foreshadowing, flashback, in media res)
conflict (i.e., internal, external)
characters (e.g., protagonist, antagonist)
characterization (i.e., direct, indirect)
point of view (e.g., narrator reliability)
archetypes
10.3.R.4: Evaluate how literary devices impact theme, mood, and/or tone, using textual evidence:
figurative language (i.e., simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, imagery, symbolism)
sound devices (i.e., onomatopoeia, alliteration, assonance)
irony (i.e., verbal, situational, dramatic)
10.3.R.7: Analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics, using textual evidence to
support their claims and inferences.
Attachments
CER Template_Poetry - Spanish.docx
CER Template_Poetry - Spanish.pdf
CER Template_Poetry.docx
CER Template_Poetry.pdf
NOISELESS PATIENT SPIDER VOCAB - Spanish.docx
NOISELESS PATIENT SPIDER VOCAB - Spanish.pdf
NOISELESS PATIENT SPIDER VOCAB.docx
NOISELESS PATIENT SPIDER VOCAB.pdf
Noiseless Patient Spider_Whitman - Spanish.docx
Noiseless Patient Spider_Whitman - Spanish.pdf
Noiseless Patient Spider_Whitman.docx
Noiseless Patient Spider_Whitman.pdf
Materials
Paper, pencil, text version or online version of "A Noiseless Patient Spider"
Copy of the Poem
Poem Vocab Card Sorts
CER Template
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Engage
Students will begin the lesson by completing a 2 minute Quick Write. A Quick Write is a brief brain storm
where students can unload any and all ideas about the subject. Students dump their thoughts onto the
page without worrying about grammar and spelling, focusing only on their ideas.
Use the following prompt for the Quick Write: Tell about a something you attempted; something that you
may, or may not, have accomplished.
After completing the Quick Write, allow students to get with an elbow partner to share their personal story
of something they had to attempt multiple times before they did, or did not, succeed. An elbow partner is
someone close to them that they can quickly turn to meet.
Teacher's Note
Encourage students to complete all of the exercises/activities on the same sheet of paper for this
lesson. By doing this, when completed, they will have a detailed analysis of the poem and their personal
relationship to its concepts.
Once students have shared their personal stories of fortitude, inform them that they are going to be
reading a poem with similar issues. The ultimate goal is to be able to place themselves in the position of the
spider.
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Explore
Before students can dive into poetry analysis, it is helpful to support their understanding of the poem by
allowing them to explore potentially difficult vocabulary. To help familiarize the students with the more
advanced vocabulary within the piece, they will perform a Card Sort activity. The Card Sort strategy will allow
students to explore vocabulary by activity engaging with the words. Before the Card Sorts activity, you will
need to print the vocabulary words and cut them out into cards. If you have 5 groups doing Card Sorts, you
will need 5 sets of cards.
The terms chosen for the poem may depend on the needs of your classroom. However, the following terms
have been chosen for this lesson and already created in the handout titled Noiseless Patient Spider Vocab:
promontory, isolated, vacant, vast, filament, unreeling, detached, ceaselessly, musing, ductile, gossamer.
Use prepared cards provided with 1 word and 1 definition already printed on each. (For added rigor, give
the students blank cards to look up the definitions of each word on their own.) Then, split the students into
teams of 3 to sort the terms. Students can choose their own 3 categories in which to arrange the cards. Give
students 3-5 minutes to arrange the terms into their designated categories. Then, share out the categories
they created and why the words went in each category. After this activity, teacher should write the terms
and definitions on the board for the students easy reference while reading the poem.
Teacher's Note
Some examples of categories students might create for the Card Sort: 1- Things that are found in the
military; 2 - Words you might see in a video game title; 3- Words I've heard in song lyrics; 4 - Things I've
heard my grandparents say
Card Sort explained
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Explain
In this portion of the lesson, allow for students to briefly describe their thoughts or ideas of the definition of
a metaphor. Ask them to share their understanding of metaphors with the class. Teacher should confirm
there is a general consensus of the idea.
Next, have one or two students read the poem aloud. After hearing the poem aloud, each students should
read it again silently to themselves. Then, have each student write down at least 2 words or phrases from
the poem they believe are a metaphor. Allow about 7-10 minutes for this and have a few students share out
what they chose and why. With each of the examples provided, the teacher will be able to expound the
concept of metaphor and help assist the students to recognize them within the piece.
For ELL and SPED students, this could allow for additional scaffolding by using sentence frames such as: I
think the spider could be the same as ________________________. I know this because ___________________.
Teacher's Note
This poem is made up of two stanzas of five lines each. The separation of stanzas in this poem
represents a shift from literal (the speaker watching the spider make its web on the rock) to figurative
(the speaker addressing his soul's attempts to make connections in the world). The aim of the poem is
to draw the comparison between the speaker's soul and the spider, which is why the two stanzas
mirror each other in size and structure. In the first stanza, the speaker vividly describes the experience
of watching the spider weave its web, allowing the reader to share his fascination. In the second stanza,
he elevates these images into metaphors for his soul's figurative desires. In this poem, the spider and
the speaker's soul both face a similar plight. They must use their skills to build connections, searching
for meaningful and effective bonds.
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Extend
Before students begin the Extend section, connect the idea of metaphors to theme. Remind students that
the theme of a piece can be found by examining things like word choice, symbolism, structure, etc...
Metaphors are one way to gain an understanding of a theme. If all the metaphors symbolize uniqueness,
the theme might be something like "It's okay to be different".
Students will now explore possible themes of the poem by engaging in a 4-2-1 strategy. This activity allows
students to collaboratively share their thoughts with their peers and narrow down the groups’ thoughts
through evaluation.
First, allow students to get into small groups. The group should create 4 possible themes of the poem.
These themes should be based upon the metaphors in the poem. Next, the partners will narrow down their
4 themes to just 2. These should be the 2 strongest of the 4 discussed originally. Encourage the groups to
choose the 2 themes that could be best supported by the metaphors in the text. Last, the groups will have
to debate which of the 2 remaining themes is the absolute strongest and most significant in the poem. They
will need to choose just 1 theme as their final answer.
4-2-1 Activity explained
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Evaluate
The last 10 minutes of class will be a discussion of the students' various interpretations of the themes in the
poem. Allow students to briefly share out the 1 theme they all agreed upon in their group and why they felt
this was the major theme.
Next, students will complete a C.E.R. paragraph arguing their idea of the poem's metaphor/s. In a C.E.R.
paragraph the "C" stands for claim, the "E" stands for evidence, and the "R" stands for reasoning. The C.E.R.
instructional strategy assist students in identifying a claim, evidence to support the claim, and reasoning for
the evidence. This will allow for students to showcase their understanding of metaphor and theme while
also writing a well-developed expository paragraph. Additionally, this will give the opportunity to allow for
any additional guided explanation of the content/concepts needed.
Inform students that they should first write down their stance on the overall theme. This is the theme they
discussed and finalized in their small groups during the 4-2-1. Next, they should discuss the metaphors that
support this theme. Last, the students will provide reasoning for how the metaphors support that theme.
The reasoning section of the paragraph is essentially the commentary of the students- their own thoughts
on how the metaphors connect to the overall theme of the poem. (Distribute the C.E.R Template, attached
to this lesson, if students need additional support for writing the paragraph. This C.E.R. template will assist
students in building their paragraph.)
Students will then turn in their completed sheet with all of the following: their initial free write, 4-2-1
exercise, and final literary analysis C.E.R. paragraph.
For added rigor: Have students circle back to the initial EQ "How much should you try before you give up?",
give a brief personal answer and then connect their personal experiences to those of the spider in the
poem.
C.E.R. explained
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