Introduction

As English teachers, we’re always searching for ways to help improve reading comprehension for our students, for them to not just read a text but truly understand it, to move beyond word recognition and decoding to analyzing themes, craft, and meaning.

Too often, however, students finish texts and walk away with only a surace-level grasp of its message. What if we could change that?

Whether it’s a short story or a poem, a sonnet or a drama, one thing I’ve kept in mind throughout my lessons is using Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction, a research-based framework that transforms how we teach complex texts. These principles, rooted in cognitive science, emphasize clear explanation, scaffolded practice, and frequent checks for understanding, things struggling readers often need to help improve their comprehension of a text as well as allow for deeper levels of understanding. When applied to poetry, for example, they don’t just improve reading comprehension: they empower students to think critically, discuss confidently, and connect deeply with the text.

One text that I had my English IV students read, discuss, and analyze is John Donne’s “Death, be not proud”. In this post, I’ll walk you through how I used Rosenshine’s principles to teach Donne’s sonnet in a way that ensured every student—not just the most advanced—had a more nuanced, richer understanding of the text.

Teaching “Death, be not proud” with Rosenshine’s Principles

Begin with a Clear Objective

In choosing “Death, be not proud”, I had to think of an objective that aligned not only with the TEKS, but also with what I wanted students to accomplish by the end of the reading.

It was important, therefore, for the objective to be stated upfront. For example,

By the end of today, you’ll be able to explain how Donne uses personification and logical arguments to challenge the power of death in his sonnet.

Here, my goal is twofold:

• how Donne uses personification
• how Donne uses logical arguments to challenge the power of death in his sonnet

Upon establishing the objective, the next goal is to connect the sonnet to student’s prior knowledge, a key ingredient to improve reading comprehension. Whether it be done with an anticipation chart or an open-ended freewrite, the idea is to have students make a connection between their prior knowledge and ideas explored in the sonnet.

That, then, leads to the following as a warm-up:

Have you ever been afraid of something? How did you try to overcome that fear?

Once students have had an opportunity to share their responses, I then tell them that in “Death, be not proud”, Donne overcomes his fear by arguing with death itself.

It works because students know what they’re working toward, which focuses their attention and reduces anxiety, both of which are essential in the quest to improve reading comprehension.

Present New Materials in Small Steps

After starting with a clear objective, my next goal with “Death, be not proud” is to chunk sections of the sonnet for deeper questioning and analysis.

For instance, I’d divide the sonnet into the following sections:

• Lines 1-4: Death’s personification and the speaker’s defiance
• Lines 5-8: The argument that death is not powerful
• Lines 9-14: The conclusion that death is a “slave” to fate and chance

Then, I’d begin tackling one section at a time. For the first quatrain, I asked the following questions:

• How is death being described?
• What words does the speaker’s attitude show toward death?

For the first question, we’d engage in whole-group discussion to identify personification of death and how Donne is portraying it. With the second question, we’d focus more on words or phrases that help us understand Donne’s attitude towards death. Both questions serve one purpose: to improve reading comprehension.

The same process continues with the remaining quatrains, slowly building student’s confidence in understanding the sonnet as well as the argument Donne is making. In chunking the sonnet, it creates important, small steps that prevent overwhelming students and allows them to digest its complexity without feeling lost.

Provide Models and Worked Examples

After going through the chunking of the sonnet, the next step I take is showing students how to make meaningful annotations that facilitate their comprehension and understanding. In other words, I’d show them how I as a reader go through the process of understanding and analyzing the sonnet.

For example, in reading the first quatrain, I’d project it on the smartboard and think aloud as I make annotations. I’d say:

• I notice Donne capitalizes “Death”, which is a clear example of personification. He’s giving death humanlike qualities to emphasize that death isn’t just an abstraction.
• The way he uses “proud” is interesting to me. It’s suggesting that death thinks it’s powerful, but it’s clear that Donne is challenging it as he later says “though some have called thee / Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so”.

When it comes to working with students to improve reading comprehension, it’s important that models are provided to them, giving them a template for their own analysis, reducing guessworking and cognitive load.

Guide Student Practice

Once I’ve modeled the process of annotating and thinking aloud, the next thing I do is allow students to practice on their own while I monitor their progress. This helps scaffold practice from me (their teacher) to independent (the student).

Since I modeled and annotated how I made sense of the first quatrain, we’d read the second quatrain as a class. From there, I’d ask students:

• What does Donne mean when he says, “From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be, / Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow”? How do these lines help develop his argument about death?

After we’ve finished discussing the questions and making meaningful annotations together as a class, students would then engage in independent practice by themselves or with a partner to annotate the third quatrain. They’re tasked with finding one example of personification (if applicable) or one line that shows death’s lack of power (if applicable).

Then, in independent practice (no partners), students would read the couplet and write a 1-sentence summary of Donne’s final argument against death.

This model—the gradual release of responsibility—helps build students’ confidence and ensures they’re internalizing the process.

Ask Questions to Check for Understanding

It’s important that I ask students questions about the sonnet to ensure they have a general understanding of it. Moving from literal questions to more evaluative questions provides me with an opportunity to monitor student progress.

For example, I’d ask students the literal question, “What does Donne compare death to in line 9?”

From there, I’d move on to an inferential question such as, “Why does Donne call death a slave? What does this suggest about death’s power?”

Finally, I’d ask students an evaluative question like, “Do you think Donne’s argument is convincing? Why or why not?”

Questions such as these (and more) keep students actively engaged and help me gauge their understanding in real time. It also helps me keep track of students who may need more 1-on-1 assistance during independent practice, giving them the opportunity to ask questions for clarification.

Obtain a High Success Rate

Before all else, ensuring students can answer questions correctly is paramount to the lesson. This is why it’s important that students can answer questions correctly.

Part of this involves pre-teaching vocabulary such as personification, sonnet, couplet, imperative, and theological before reading it (in the event that they don’t know the definitions).

And while they are high school seniors, I always make it a point to engage in choral reading. Part of the initial read is us reading the sonnet together as a class, with my main goal to help build their fluency and familiarity. I find that this is very important with helping students to improve reading comprehension.

Instructional supports, too, play an important role here. For instance, I provide students with a modern-day “translation” of the sonnet while they read the original (for those who may be overwhelmed by Donne’s use of English).

Doing these things helps students feel capable, making them more likely to engage deeply with the text because the conditions have been created for them to succeed.

Provide Scaffolds for Difficult Tasks

Whether it’s identifying and analyzing use of personification or rhetorical strategies, it’s important that students are supported as they tackle challenging parts of the sonnet.

I provide students with a TP-CASTT graphic organizer to help guide the analysis of the sonnet. While the objective may be to focus on personification and Donne’s rhetorical strategies, having students complete the graphic organizer helps deepen their understanding of the sonnet.

In addition, I give students sentence stems to help structure their thinking when writing responses. For example:

• Donne personifies death as _____, which suggests _____.
• The spearker’s tone is _____ as evidenced by the words/phrases “_____”.

When it comes to the annotation, I do give students an annotation handout denoting what symbols to use, which are the same symbols I used in my modeling and annotation of the first quatrain during the teacher-led portion of the lesson (first quatrain).

These scaffolds lower the barrier to complex tasks, making them accessible to my students, many of whom are struggling readers that have often struggled in their English classes throughout their high school journey. It’s also a great way to improve reading comprehension.

Require Independent Practice

To ensure students’ mastery of the objective, it’s important that they’re given time to apply skills on their own.

One assignment I’m very partial to is the one-pager, an activity that requires them to do the following:

1. Make a claim about a text
2. Gather three pieces of text evidence to support the claim
3. Briefly explain how or why each piece of text evidence supports their claim
4. Create a series of drawings that represent/symbolize ideas explored in the sonnet

How students choose to organize their one-pager is up to them; regardless, what I’m paying more attention to is how they’re using the assignment as a creative means to demonstrate their complete understanding of the sonnet.

For students who aren’t keen to the idea of creating a one-pager, I default to the classic short-answer response question where they must answer a few questions, gather relevant text evidence, and show how the text evidence supports their answer.

Through these independent practices, I’m allowing students to solidify skills and encourage ownership of their learning.

Review and Revisit

To improve reading comprehension, it’s important that reviews are conducted on a regular basis. Spaced repetition strengthens memory and deepens understanding, which is perfect for something like Donne’s sonnet.

Daily recaps are a big part of my instructional cycle. Reviewing and discussing what we did the day before and how it’ll lead into today’s focus helps with reviewing key ideas from the sonnet.

I also use it as a means of informal assessment. Much like the independent practice students engage in, hearing student responses to some of my recap questions gives me data on which students may need more help or intervention support.

The goal of these reviews is to help students retain and connect ideas over time.

Check for Understanding Frequently

Of all Rosenshine’s principles, this is perhaps the most important one for me. Having regular checks for understanding ensures that no student is falling through the cracks.

The classic warm-up and exit tickets are perfect for this. Asking an exit-ticket question such as, “What is one line from the sonnet that shows Donne’s defiance of death? Explain its meaning in your own words.” gives me an opportunity to see how students are not only making sense of the line but also whether they’re understanding what’s being asked of them.

Low-stakes quizzes are another method of regularly checking for understanding. Questions are mostly at the Remembering, Understanding, and Applying levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy with subsequent quizzes incorporating Analyzing and Evaluating.

These frequent checks for understanding allow me to address misconceptions immediately and adjust my instruction as needed.

Final Thoughts

Teaching a challenging text (especially something as dense as Donne’s “Death, be not proud”) can feel daunting. However, by incorporating Rosenshine’s principles to improve reading comprehension, we’re teaching students about literature and showing them how to think, analyze, and engage with it. It’s a skill they’ll carry with them long after they leave our classroom.

Which of Rosenshine’s principles do you already use in your teaching?