24 The Rime of the Ancient Mariner Part 1- Lesson Plan PDF

Katelynn Sutton
LESSON PLANS
12 th Grade British Literature
Lesson Plan VIII: April 30, 2018
Lesson Topic
Objectives
Samuel Taylor Coleridge: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
The students will…
1. Connect an author’s background information with the truths and attitudes
displayed in his works
2. Discern thoughts, ideas, and descriptions from a literary text
3. Take part in meaningful discussion based on thoughts gleaned from a
literary text
4. Answer informal assessment questions about a literary text throughout its
reading
5. Read poetry with proper expression and emphasis
Materials
Needed
‣ TV/computer
‣ 12 th Grade BJU Press textbooks—British Literature
‣ 12 th Grade BJU Press Teacher’s Edition Book 2—British Literature
‣ Pen/pencil/highlighter to take notes or highlight info in book about
Coleridge and his masterpiece.
‣ Samuel Taylor Coleridge PPT
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

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• Youngest child, favored by his father and alienated from brothers
• Became a “dreamer”
• Was known at Cambridge for his brilliance, reading, and
idleness; never earned his degree
• Formed unorthodox religious and political views
• Founded the utopian community Pantisocracy in 1794 with
Robert Southey of Oxford; married the sister of Southey’s fiancé
• Eventually tired of the community, Southey, and even his wife
• Suddenly sprang to life and brilliance when meeting William
Wordsworth
• They composed the Lyrical Ballads together to challenge
conventional poetry and restore emotion and imagination in
poetry
• By 1802, Coleridge became addicted to opium and lost
his faith in the transcendentalist beliefs he had taught
to Wordsworth
• Wrote “Dejection: An Ode,” mourning the loss of his
creative powers
• Returned from a health sojourn in an even worse
condition
• Attempted to write some prose pieces
• Eventually broke from Wordsworth and moved to
London, gaining some control over his addictive habit
• Still could not finish a writing project
• Utilizes ordinary language and lyrical verse form in
ballad stanza
• Story adheres closely to geographical fact– he
describes an actual route used during the time period
• Narrative also adheres to moral truth
• Sin brings loneliness and separation
• Adversity brings spiritual prosperity
• Poem’s immediate end is pleasure while its ultimate
end is truth
• Entire story is seen through the eyes of the Mariner
Content or
Skills to Be
Reviewed
New Content or
Skills
Transcendentalism and utopian societies
Life of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and the background of his masterpiece The
Rime of the Ancient Mariner that opens up the Lyrical Ballads by Coleridge
and Wordsworth
Content, setting, and meaning of the poem itself
Procedures
Procedure Outline
I. (8:45-8:55) Teach the life and background of Samuel Taylor
Coleridge. Teach the background information about The Rime of the
Ancient Mariner.
*I took the background info about Coleridge and the poem straight from their
textbooks. I put those specific facts on the Power Point to highlight main

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points and keep us from having to read through all of the material in our
books. The book’s section of background info is almost overwhelmingly
long and detailed.
A. Who was Samuel Taylor Coleridge? (use PPT to teach
through his life)
1. Youngest child, favored by his father and alienated
from brothers
2. Became a “dreamer”
3. Was known at Cambridge for his brilliance, reading,
and idleness; never earned his degree
4. Formed unorthodox religious and political views
5. Founded the utopian community Pantisocracy in 1794
with Robert Southey of Oxford; married the sister of
Southey’s fiancé
6. Eventually tired of the community, Southey, and even
his wife
7. Suddenly sprang to life and brilliance when meeting
William Wordsworth
8. They composed the Lyrical Ballads together to
challenge conventional poetry and restore emotion and
imagination in poetry
9. By 1802, Coleridge became addicted to opium and
lost his faith in the transcendentalist beliefs he had
taught to Wordsworth
10. Wrote “Dejection: An Ode,” mourning the loss
of his creative powers
11. Returned from a health sojourn in an even
worse condition
12. Attempted to write some prose pieces
13. Eventually broke from Wordsworth and moved
to London, gaining some control over his addictive
habit

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14. Still could not finish a writing project
B. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
1. Utilizes ordinary language and lyrical verse form in
ballad stanza
2. Story adheres closely to geographical fact– he
describes an actual route used during the time period
3. Narrative also adheres to moral truth
4. Sin brings loneliness and separation
5. Adversity brings spiritual prosperity
6. Poem’s immediate end is pleasure while its ultimate
end is truth
7. Entire story is seen through the eyes of the Mariner
II.
(8:55-9:20) Begin reading the poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
together. Stop at Part IV (p. 542).
A. Ask a few students to help me read.
B. Stop to discuss important or interesting items from the text.
(Ask students to explain what I want to emphasize before I
tell them what they should have noticed—make them think!)
C. Make the narrative sound exciting and suspenseful to capture
student interest.
III.
Ask informal assessment questions throughout to test student
understanding.
Key Questions
(1) What did transcendentalists look to as “God”? (nature)
(2) What is Coleridge’s most outstanding characteristic? (idleness—not living
up to potential)
(3) What does the spellbinding of the wedding guest to the Mariner’s tale
represent? (reader unable to tear himself from a good work of literature even

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with other things pressing on him)
(4) What protects the Mariner’s crew as they travel? (the albatross)
(5) What heinous crime does the Mariner commit—for no reason? (killing
the albatross)
(6) What hangs from the Mariner’s neck, weighing him down? (the
albatross—his sin and guilt)
(7) What does his sin bring about? (loneliness, separation, and consequences
for himself and those around him—they all die while he is left alone in the
doldrums)
Activities
‣ Teaching of Coleridge’s life and background
‣ Teaching of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’s background
‣ Reading of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
‣ Discussion of the narrative as it is read aloud
‣ Answering of informal assessment questions throughout the lesson
Summary or Conclusion
The Mariner is left in the doldrums alone as a result of his own wrongdoing.
As he watches his crewmates fall in death one by one, they look to him in
accusation. He had seen and identified Death before she even arrived at their
ship, knowing that he had summoned her. He realizes that his isolation and
suffering are the result of his own sin.