Robert Frost - The Black Cottage

Designed to accompany the Robert Frost poetry anthology for CIE AS English, but will be appropriate for any senior study of the poem The Black Cottage. This lesson (intended to be taught over two periods, but could be summarised into one with annotation for homework) first introduces students to the crux of the poem: whether values and beliefs change over time, or are in some sense immutable and inherent. The main part of the lesson focuses on analysis of the title, suggesting useful vocabulary and appropriate language techniques necessary for studying the poem, identifies the speaker and situation, glosses unfamiliar words and provides a brief introduction to the American Civil War. The lesson then sets comprehension questions to check understanding, and invites students to evaluate both the characters of the minister and the old lady. The second part of the lesson then moves on to close analysis of the second half of the poem (which can be done using the supplied annotated PDF), encouraging students to finally demonstrate their learning through an evaluation of relevant contextual knowledge and by making links to previously studied poems by Robert Frost. A blank and annotated copy of the poem are also included with this resource.