Sonnet Puzzles: Active Learning in the Literature Classroom
My friends and family know that I LOVE to craft. Give me some paper, scissors, and glue, and I can make one heck of a greeting card. I like bringing my crafty side into my lesson planning, as it inspires me to create low-tech activities that get students thinking and engaged, no matter how early in the morning our class is.
One of my go-to activities in my Introduction to Poetry course is sonnet puzzles.
Some context: We spend the first day of this unit talking about the difference between English and Italian sonnets with poems we have read together previously (we start the semester with poems like Shelley’s “Ozymandias” to explore voice, tone, and theme). Once they have this baseline, their understanding of sonnets is put to the test during our next class period.
In this activity, students work collaboratively to reverse-engineer a series of sonnets, focusing on the poems’ formal characteristics to predict the correct order of the lines in the original compositions. Once the groups have determined what they believe to be the correct line order, they annotate each poem, making note of the tone, themes, and literary devices they have identified. Then, we discuss the results, comparing their work with the original poems.
This is always one of the most fun days of the semester, filled with laughter and hilarious debates as students try to piece together quatrains and identify the rhyme schemes. I’ll circulate and help check their work in progress, giving some hints as needed along the way. By the end of the period, students have a much clearer sense of the importance of rhyme and punctuation, as well as how stanzas function as intentional units.
Materials Needed
This activity does require some extra preparation time, but I’ve found it to be a worthy investment, even in the busiest of semesters. I try to make copies for multiple class sections at a time so that I don’t have to remake my materials every single semester.
You’ll need:
Three sonnets of your choosing, cut into strips so the lines are easily shuffled. I recommend choosing three sonnets of varying difficulties, having students start with the easiest and working their way up to a more challenging sonnet that is perhaps experimenting with form. In a 75-minute course, most groups are able to fully work through two of the poems, but I like having the third, final challenge available
Paperclips or envelopes to gather the strips for each individual poem
Glue sticks and paper for the student groups to re-compose the poem
I also give each group a “cheat sheet” defining English vs Italian sonnets and some key literary terms (metaphor, metonymy, apostrophe, etc.). This helps them annotate the poem once they have glued down the lines in the order they think the poem was originally composed.
Sometimes I’ll provide markers or colored pencils as well for students to color-code parts of the poem or for use in their annotations. This isn’t necessary, though.
What are students saying?
Here’s what students are saying about this activity in my course evaluations. One of the questions I add to my course evaluations asks “What in-class activities were most helpful for your learning and development, and why?”:
“The sonnet puzzle was the best!!! Putting the sonnets back together really helps to pick them apart. By putting the quatrains together, identifying the volta, and realizing the rhyme scheme I really feel like I understood the form of sonnets much better after this activity.”
“I really enjoyed how creative the in–class assignments were. My favorite activity was rebuilding a sonnet that had been cut up into single lines, but there were so many opportunities for group work. The activities were well structured as well, I felt like I was learning the material while also being engaged.”
“The sonnet puzzles were so much fun and so memorable, I will remember that for a while!”
