John Donne Lessons for the Classroom

Lessons on John Donne by teachers for use in the classroom.

No Man is An Island - Dr. Matthew

Submitted by scotese on Thu, 2006-09-28 05:41

This is a multi-faceted assignment that combines group work, computer research, and digital imaging. The assignment begins with students working on a group work on John Donne's Meditation 17. As they work on this, a list is created in the classroom where students name people that they feel have lived and died on the earth, and have made the world a better place for having lived in it. The diverse list that has been created over the past three years has included Dr. Martin Luther King, Jim Henson, Gahndi, and over 200 other names (the list grows every year). While the students work on their cooperative assignment, the teacher googles the names he has been given and copies images of these people into a folder on the computer.

About three quarters of the way through the class period, the teacher plays a recording about Dr. Matthew Lukwiya:

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A Valediction forbidding Mourning by John Donne

Submitted by scotese on Sat, 2006-09-30 15:56

The poem along with a picture of a compass.  This poem and its in class discussion usually gets one of the biggest "ah ha" moments from students.  Especially when I show the over-sized chalk board compass and create a circle on the blackboard -- illustrating the last lines of the poem.  As of late, the past few years, I have actually been leaving the picture of the compass off of the handout - as I like them to be as surprised at the end.  I have also gone over the poem that past two years without them having read it the night before - which also leads to a different discussion.  There is an audio of the class discussion available on the website.

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All Part of the same Continent - Adding your pictures to our collage of those "who have made a difference."

Submitted by scotese on Thu, 2008-03-27 12:24

Matthew Lukwiya - as an islandIf there is someone that you feel has, personally, made the world a better place for having lived and died on it - we would like their picture.  We are making a photocollage of those people as a way to illustrate John Donne's Meditation 117 - to paraphrase Donne, when someone dies a part of us dies as well.  If you have a picture and can save it (and upload it to our website) as a jpeg (jpg), we will enter that picturein our database that and the picture will be used in our photo collage (lots of smalll pictures that are used to make up a bigger picture). 

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Nine poems by John Donne - handout

Submitted by Lisa_D on Wed, 2009-11-04 12:31
Teaching Level: 
High School

This is not a lesson but, rather, a compilation of poems chosen for their broad representation of perspective and subject matter.  The handout contains nine John Donne poems, each with a facing column space for note-taking.  (Students accumulate several of these handouts, on various poets, over the course of time and keep them as study tools.) [I have since adapted Ms. Danforth's method of presenting poetry with the space for notes - for all of my own poetry handouts. JRS]

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Three poems and responses to "loss"

Submitted by Lisa_D on Wed, 2010-02-17 19:25
Teaching Level: 
High School

When studying A Valediction Forbidding Mourning by John Donne, we take a side journey and look at responses to "loss" in this poem and in two others (Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night and Dirge Without Music).  The students work with partners and answer a set of questions that explore the ideas of resistance, resilience and release (the alliteration was unintentional).  I recently added a section, inspired by part 3 of the Macbeth Made Easy lesson on this site, that highlights word connections in one of the poems.

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Four Elizabethan Poems (Donne, Marlowe, Shakespeare)

Submitted by scotese on Fri, 2010-02-26 07:08

After Literary Criticism, I thought it would be a good idea to get back to looking at some poems devoid of the type of analysis that the students have been doing the past 2 weeks.  Though we will probably sneak some Stephen Booth moments into our discussion, now that they know what those are.  The poems are by Donne, Marlowe, and Shakespeare.  The first two poems are lifted direclly from Lisa Danforth's lesson on John Donne poems (thank you!)   I have also attached the Power Point presentation that I use for discussing these poems.

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Welcome to Metaphysical Poetry!

Submitted by ajmayes on Sun, 2010-04-04 15:21
Teaching Level: 
High School

Here is a simple yet effective way to introduce metaphyiscal poetry.  The lesson includes objectives, terms, and specific reading assignments on Johnne Donne.  I use the McDougal Littel textbook, but any book that has the poems "A Valediction: Forbidden Morning" and "Meditation 17"  will work.  The objectives of the lesson include analyzingmetaphysical conceits, exploring the key idea of mortality, interpreting ideas in paradoxes. 

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Meditation 17 John Donne

Submitted by Veronica Crawford on Thu, 2012-01-05 13:02
Teaching Level: 
High School

This lesson guides students through a symbolic/metaphorical reading of John Donne's "Meditation 17". Then, student use the chart of symbols and information to construct the outline format provided. This form is a logical formula for organizing data to write the essay. This is a quick and easy way for students to read, interpret, and write an analytical essay.

Full text, downloads, and audio for ALL lessons are made visible and available to users who have earned 50 points.  An uploaded original lesson is one way to earn 2 - 50 points.