About This Lesson
Dance of Romance positions love as a central literary motif through which the students analyze how writers across eras represent devotion, conflict, sacrifice, and emotional risk. Anchored by the essential question—When is love worth the fall?—the curriculum integrates canonical poems such as "Sonnet 116," "How Do I Love Thee?," "The Song of Changgan," and "The Raven," paired with contemporary works like “Dusting” and “Redbird Love”. Cross‑genre texts—including “The Gift of the Magi”, “Catch the Moon”, and the article “Masters of Love”—extend students’ understanding of how love shapes human behavior and narrative structure.
Throughout the unit, the students develop genre knowledge in poetry, practice close reading across literary forms, and culminate their learning by composing a literary analysis that synthesizes thematic patterns and authorial craft across selections.
