Author Spotlight: Teaching Resources for K-12 of Roberto Carlos García's [Elegies]

Donated poetry collections by Roberto Carlos García: Melancolía, black / Maybe: An Afro Lyric, and [Elegies] are available at the CUNY Dominican Studies Institute Library.

Dominican poet, storyteller, and essayist Roberto Carlos García shared a set of lesson plans based on his third poetry collection [Elegies] through the Dominican Writers Association. The detailed curriculum prepared by the Grow Society includes essential questions, assessments of student learning, a section for materials, Common Core State Standards, Next Generation Learning Standards, to name a few of the critical components these lesson plans offer.

The lesson plans are arranged as followed:

• Lesson 1, pages 1-2,  Students are introduced to [Elegies]

• Lesson 2, pages 3-4, Students draft their own elegy
• Lesson 3, pages 5-7, Students share each other’s elegies

They provide a general outline useful for teachers since it helps to see how the lesson might fit in a teaching period.

 Lesson one, for example,

Opener à Mini-Lesson à Learning Activity à Closer.

Opener: word association activity w/ share-out

Mini-Lesson: Teacher introduces elegy poems (frame/define)

Learning Activity: Students read and annotate Garcia elegies

Closer:  Reflection question, (“What does the poem that you read today remind or make you think of?”)

These lesson plans could be used by anyone, including teachers, homeschooling parents/teachers, and librarians. 

You can download the lesson plans below. Download [Elegies] & black_Maybe Lesson Plan for K-12

Roberto Carlos García is available for class visits and you may reach him here.

Jhensen Ortiz, Librarian

*Special thanks to Jayson Castillo, a Ph.D. candidate in Urban Education at the CUNY Graduate Center and Research Associate at the CUNY Dominican Studies Institute for his insights and feedback on the lesson plans.