Citizen: An American Lyric Lesson Plan

What is a Lyric?

Kind of Activity:

Technology

Objective:

Students will be able to define lyric and understand the form of the text.

Common Core Standards:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.5

Structure:

To begin the activity, explain to students that Rankine calls Citizen a lyric—meaning not a song lyric, but a form of poetry. Then, organize students into pairs and instruct them to come up with a definition of a lyric. Students will work backwards from the text and reason their way to a definition. Give students about 5-7 minutes to work on that.

Then, give students some examples of lyrics. You might choose the following examples:

To Anthea, who may Command Him Anything...