Fire and Ice by Robert Frost

To practise some of the shortcuts and tricks we revised/learned about using Word, the group members created visual representations of the poem 'Fire and Ice' by Robert Frost. I have used this poem before for this kind of task and each time I try to create a different way of handling it with the class or group. Here is what we did this year.

We were already warmed up on Wednesday so it was easy to move to this task without any special lead-in, although with a group of students I would ask a few general questions about poetry (Do they like  reading poetry? Any favorite poet? Does anyone write poetry, etc.) or about artistic self-expression (painting, drama, dance etc.) before starting.

First I gave each group member a blank piece of A4 paper. I asked them to copy what I was writing on the board on the paper in their best handwriting. Writing the poem yourself makes you think more deeply about the words than merely reading it or listening to it. It also gives some silent time to start to interact with the text. I wish this was an original idea of mine but it isn't! I picked this suggestion up from a lesson plan on the Internet. The steps given in this lesson plan have been copied and reporduced on many websites - usually without attribution which isn't very nice. I hope the site I have given is the original source.    

Here is an example of the poem as one of our participants copied it:

Next the teacher reads the poem out loud twice or the group can listen to a version from the web a couple of times. Librivox has several recordings for you to choose from.


Then, just as in the lesson plan on the website, we brainstormed around the words 'fire', 'ice' and 'world'. They did this with their partners first and we collected all the answers on the board.

This helps people think about the possible range of meaning of some key words in the poem.

In pairs or small groups the students/participants can share their ideas about the following questions:


a.) Where did your mind go while you wrote and listened to the poem?
b.) What pictures did this poem give you? And what feelings do you get from these pictures?

c.) What does Frost think will happen at the end of the world? Do you agree or disagree? Why?

d.) What message do you think Frost trying to convey?

I adapted these questions from another lesson plan on the web.

Now it's time for individual interpretation. Everyone goes to the Internet to find copyright friendly images that they can use to illustrate the poem and what it means to them. You can access a copy of the task if you want to see it in full.

Here are a few of the results! I'm sure you agree they look wnderful. In the next post, I'll share how we prepared a rubric for peer assessment purposes.