Introduction & Teaching Context

Students in the School District of Philadelphia are in particular need of mental and behavioral health supports. Many of the most popular supports use the framing of mindfulness meditation; however, students who are experiencing trauma may find these tools ineffective or actively harmful if not used carefully. This curriculum offers a trauma-informed approach to this practice, through a window to a literature and culture that is quite distant from what Philadelphia students are likely to encounter in their daily lives or elsewhere in the current ELA curriculum.

In October 2023, a blog post from two officials with the School District of Philadelphia trumpeted the School District’s commitment to “more consistent access to mental health and behavioral health services and great social-emotional supports” (Banks et al., 2023). Unfortunately, these supports existed almost exclusively in the form of contracts with apps that students could choose to access, including an online program known as “Kooth.” Kooth provides students with limited digital access to counseling and a self-paced “Inner Vibe” app that purports to support students in mindfulness and meditation. Kooth may not be a wholly ineffective service; at minimum, the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services offered the organization three million dollars to provide its services free to school districts across the state (Hill, 2023). Nevertheless, it is hard to believe that a series of apps can address the mental health challenges of students in a district where more than 20% of young people expressed that they had seriously considered suicide within the past year and over 60% described recognized Adverse Childhood Experiences (School District of Philadelphia: Office of Research and Evaluation & School District of Philadelphia: Office of Student Health Services, 2023). Prior to the pandemic, students and nonprofit organizations were already rallying outside the central offices of the School District of Philadelphia to demand better mental health services for students within schools (The Notebook, 2020). In 2024, as the young people who were then about to lose their chance at 8th grade graduations prepare to earn high school diplomas, services for students remain slim.

I teach at Vaux Big Picture High School, an open-enrollment, catchment-based neighborhood high school. A higher than usual proportion of students here express concern about their own mental health, due in no small part to the endemic violence and poverty in the immediate area. Eleven times in the past four years a student has been shot during the school year, three fatally. Four of those shootings occurred at or immediately after dismissal, within two blocks of the school, and were witnessed by many students and staff. Our students require additional academic support delivered with an awareness of this persistent trauma. 31% of the current student body requires an individualized educational plan, and less than 20% of our incoming 9th graders read at a 5th grade level or above.

At the same time, I teach at a school with a rich and storied history, where many students’ parents and grandparents (and my own godfather) tell fond stories of the Vaux of the 1950s, ‘60s, and even the renowned chess team of the ‘80s. My previous TIP units have closely explored this history, prompting students to study and add to oral histories of Black education in Philadelphia or to act as compensatory historians publicizing the achievements of early Black medical professionals. When I applied for this Teacher’s Institute of Philadelphia seminar, one of my primary goals was to step outside of continually offering “mirrors” to my students and to also provide “windows” into histories and traditions outside of north Philadelphia. A trainer in trauma-informed instruction told me once that trauma “makes people’s worlds feel smaller,” and in this course I am seeking ways to expand my students’ worlds (Women Against Abuse, personal communication, March 8th, 2024).

This unit is designed as a short opening study for students at a period of major transition (such as the start of 9th or of 12th grade), introducing a number of reading skills with short, manageable texts while also integrating stress reduction and personal goal setting for young people at a key point in their lives.

Rationale & Alignment

Poetry engages the brain in ways that prose may not (Liu et al., 2015) and can be aligned to mindfulness and meditation practices (Kempton, 2020). Poetry, especially short poems rich in meaning, can provide an opportunity for teachers to explore student interest and expand student engagement with new voices outside of a required curriculum. In this unit, I have chosen to emphasize the “Cold Mountain” poems of “Han-shan,” a quasi-legendary figure of 8th Century China. These reflective and descriptive poems appealed to me to share with my students precisely because they may have been written by a collective of poets over an extended period of time, in the name of someone who may or may not have ever existed as an individual. In a sense it is poetry in a pure form, unconnected to biographical research or confessional voices, that can challenge students to engage with just the language and ideas.

Mindfulness in the Classroom

Particularly in our “post-pandemic” world, teachers, parents and administrators are paying new attention to student mental health. Even before 2020, however, educators and entrepreneurs were alert to the possibilities of mindfulness and meditation in the classroom as a way to help students manage the stress of their daily lives. Jon Kabat-Zinn developed the “Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction” training group program in 1979, a secularized form of meditation practice that quickly moved from its initial application in hospitals to other arenas. Researchers in 2016 applied Kabat-Zinn’s program to eighth graders and found consistent, significant impact in students’ self-reported stress and anxiety levels. Writing in The Guardian in 2014, one commentator proposed that “mindfulness will come to be seen as vital for dealing with the complexity of our information-rich lives,” (Bunting 2014), even as a government group in the United Kingdom was actively researching applications of mindfulness in the educational and criminal justice systems. In the aftermath of the covid-19 pandemic, many school systems have begun exploring “mindfulness” as a response to students’ grief, trauma, behavioral issues, or chronic absenteeism (The Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research, 2023).

Especially as used in educational spaces, “mindfulness” is a relatively catchall term that has been largely divorced from its spiritual and cultural roots in meditation and specifically East Asian traditions. In fact, much of modern mindfulness education takes an explicitly neuroscientific approach, relying on brain science to argue for its presence in the classroom. The MindUp curriculum, widely used and even more widely imitated, encourages teachers to educate students about the structure of their brains, framing the prefrontal cortex as an “upstairs brain,” and helping young people recognize when they have “flipped their lid” and are operating primarily from a place of stress and instinct. Scholastic Inc. even sells licensed posters from MindUp, “Getting to Know and Love Your Brain,” with the amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex neatly labeled and with language encouraging students to “breathe” and “think it out.”

Recent research undercuts previous ideas that regular, novice meditation can actually alter brain structure (Holzel et al., 2011; Kral et al., 2022) but also supports meditation and mindfulness as an intervention for young people both emotionally and academically. Loving-kindness meditation, a practice focused on cultivating universal care and compassion for all living things, was not only effective in student stress reduction but also increased students’ self-compassion (Liu et al., 2023). A broad meta-analysis found that mindfulness may be more effective for younger students than for high schoolers, but paradoxically, that may be because adolescents are already more attuned to their own emotions and more likely to recognize that stress reduction after a meditation session is not the same as a permanent solution to whatever is causing them stress in the first place (Porter et al., 2022). Nor are the benefits exclusively emotional. A study (Valosek et al., 2021) that explicitly compared classroom mindfulness meditation to a similar daily period of sustained silent reading found that meditation had a greater impact on high school students’ academic performance in English Language Arts class (blasphemous as that may seem to this career English teacher!).

Mindfulness-based meditation advocates would seem to have a robust backing of research to support their claims of both emotional and academic impact. However, a common problem in educational research, and one visible in several of the studies cited so far, appears when an intervention designed and delivered in a classroom by extensively-trained external professionals is then pushed out as a panacea to teachers. Unsurprisingly, the “magic bullet” that produced higher engagement and better test scores when delivered by a “special guest” while the normal classroom teacher managed behavior is rarely as effective when it is simply one more thing on the classroom teacher’s to-do list. Lynn and Basso’s (2023) research comparing the impacts of functional vs. compassionate meditation cueing (that is, prompting meditators with simple directions on how to be meditating vs. specific loving-kindness thoughts) offers some reassurance that an engaged teacher can provide some of the benefits of mindfulness to students without decades of monastic training. Scripts, videos, and whole curricula are easily accessible online. At the same time, however, mindfulness must be approached cautiously, particularly in classrooms such as mine, where many students are likely to have experienced both acute and chronic traumatic stress.

Trauma-Informed Mindfulness

Meditation is not in and of itself a cure-all. Poorly implemented mindfulness can cause a number of negative mental health impacts that teachers may be poorly prepared to deal with in a classroom environment. Writing on the interactions of mindfulness training, urban education, and neuroscience in 2016, Choudhury and Moses emphasized that mindfulness and meditation are not the answer to systemic racism, underfunded schools, discrimination against LGBTQIA+ students, or any other significant social ill. While neuroplasticity and training children to recognize and manage their own internal climate can become “a mechanism of hope” (p. 593), a bastardized, bootstrapping meditation practice that blames poverty on a lack of mindfulness has no place in any school.

At the same time, a number of studies and personal anecdotes have highlighted the potential negative effects (especially at the start) of mindfulness training and meditation practice. As an educator in a space where the majority of my students have experienced multiple Adverse Childhood Events and may be experiencing complex post-traumatic stress disorder as well, I see mindfulness as a powerful tool to help students begin healing. Like any powerful tool, however, it can cause injury if misused.

A 2021 (Goldberg et al.) study of primarily adults found that nearly half of new meditators described spikes in anxiety, a sense of reliving traumatic experiences, or bothersome emotional sensitivity following a meditation session. Far from being strengthened or centered, these individuals felt overwhelmed and shaken by their experiences. Granted, such experiences may be ultimately therapeutic, and 90% of participants in the study stated that they were glad to have meditated despite their grief and anxiety. Nevertheless, a classroom teacher initiating secular, potentially-mandatory mindfulness practices with students may not be equipped to help young people manage their negative emotions. This is especially true in the very classrooms (overcrowded, underfunded, still reeling from pandemic and economic disruptions) where mindfulness is most likely to be suggested as an intervention. A survey of volunteer college students found that recent experience of trauma, and especially recent experience of trauma during which the victim felt helpless, predicted negative emotions after meditation, including traumatic reexperiencing and difficulties maintaining attention (Zhu et al., 2019). Researchers noted that the ongoing nature of the PTSD symptoms, rather than just recent trauma exposure, was the deciding factor. Specifically, they posited that if facilitators offered meditators greater control of their experience and a personalized view of mindfulness practice, traumatic re-experiences could be minimized (Zhu et al., 2019).

As with many classroom interventions, research suggests that the best practice for a teacher is to avoid extremes on either end, to maintain flexibility, and to assume that a student for whom the intervention is not working is being honest, not willfully defiant. Especially for students with past and complex trauma, it’s key to frame meditation as neither controlling nor surrendering to your thoughts. Meditation that positions people to “control” negative thoughts or experiences is not helpful and can exacerbate feelings of disgust and anxiety (Tifft et al., 2021). At the same time, mindfulness practice that relies too much on just “experiencing” inner realities can trap students in a mental minefield; writing about the role of trauma-informed meditation, Compson (2014) warns, “There is no ‘just sitting with whatever is happening’ if whatever is happening is a hijack by the survival brain” (p. 285). Students need explicit and thoughtful guidance, before, during, and after mindfulness practice, in entering what Compson calls a “resilient” zone and using meditation as a way to ground rather than fracture their identity (Lawrenz & Murphy, 2022). A concentration meditation practice, where the meditator brings their focus to a single object such as a word, physical object, or their breath, provides grounding (Mosunic 2024); this curriculum suggests poetry as such an object.

Mindfulness can get taught and marketed as a secular life-hack, divorced from spiritual and philosophical roots. But if meditation is meant to take you “beyond the intellect” (1548), some form of spirituality often comes in perforce. Kempton (2020) proposes “meaning-making” as an alternative way to approach the spiritual aspects of this issue, and what is poetry but meaning-making or, in Wordsworth’s phrase, “emotion recollected in tranquility?” Poetry can be an “in” that supports trauma-informed meditation practices (as can literacy in general, but poems have the advantage of being both short and often philosophically aligned to meditation goals). Trauma-informed meditation requires student control, clear facilitator explanations, student choice, and facilitator flexibility (Stromberg, 2023). I posit that using poetry as a focus in the classroom can provide a common and academically supported experience for students while still allowing for trauma-informed mindfulness.

The act of creating poetry has neuroscientific impacts not unlike what one might be looking for from meditation (Liu et al., 2015). Brain scans of both expert and novice poets during the acts of composition and revision found a complex mental process whereby the areas of the brain responsible for control and conscious thought were deliberately disengaged during the creation of a poem and re-engaged during revision. More experienced poets were quicker to toggle between a more contemplative and more evaluative state of mind. At the same time, other brain-scan research has found that first-time meditators may engage the more verbal and self-aware parts of their brain more in early meditation; this more engaged mind might undercut the meditative goal in first-time meditators (Śliwowski et al., 2023). Poetry reading and writing may be a way to “trick” the novice meditating brain into calm.

Mary Kempton (2020) proposes poetry as a secular focus for explicitly Buddhist meditation, partly by analyzing the use of poetry in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy programs. Using poetry that addressed key themes of uncertainty, acceptance/self-compassion, and nature, program facilitators guided participants into mindfulness practices. Kempton’s article more deeply explores differences between the secular poems used in a few key programs and contrasts them with Buddhist poetry that is more comfortable with abstract concepts and with the paradox of change. Kempton further theorizes that introducing students to poetry that engages more explicitly with spiritual ideas might inoculate participants against the adverse effects of meditation already discussed.

Poetry as both vehicle and demonstration of enlightenment has a history in Buddhist tradition. Certainly, the poetry of many Buddhist poet-monks is as effective at expressing spiritual ideas as it is at conveying rich metaphor and vivid description. Current Buddhist thinkers such as Guo Jun offer observations that are themselves quite close to poems: “Thinking crowds the mind. We think that when we relax we’re not being proactive or productive. But this is not necessarily the case. Thinking crowds the mind. It becomes like a sky full of clouds. As a result, the sun cannot shine. There is no brightness or light” (2013). Hui-neng, a key figure of early Chinese Buddhism, was legendarily an illiterate would-be acolyte entrusted with only janitorial duties until he dictated a poem that demonstrated his sudden enlightenment. At first hesitant because of Hui-neng’s low status, the then-leader of Chan Buddhism approached Hui-neng in secret and then declared him his heir.

Chan Buddhism, distinguished partly by an emphasis on immediate experience and sudden enlightenment, may align particularly well with poetry that purports to capture a moment in time. Poetry can be a guidance and a scaffold to help people access the philosophy and ideas of meditation despite inexperienced or unaware instructors. Below, I’ll propose mindfulness-informed lessons based on the work of one particular poet, whose work rewards close meditative and literary analysis and whose biography is likely to tickle students’ fancy: Han-shan, whose name simply means the same “Cold Mountain” where he reportedly painted his poetry on rocks and trees.

Han-shan’s Cold Mountain Poems

Historical Context

What follows is an extremely brief and shallow history of the development of what became known as Chan Buddhism, the particular form of Buddhism that most likely inspired this poet, and which is more commonly known in English-speaking countries by its Japanese name: Zen. Now the largest recognized religion in China (Pew Research Center, 2023), Buddhism first arrived there around 206 B.C.E. and spread in some sense piecemeal, influenced by a variety of documents and teachings whose relationships to each other were not always clear (Rouzer, 2016). By 68 C.E. Buddhism was widespread, no longer a “foreign” religion, but still considered to conflict in many ways with China’s dominant philosophy of Confucianism. Though Buddhism was a religion of the gentry in the south of China, Buddhists in the north faced persecution (O’Brien, 2019). Some of the conflict originated in the disconnect between a Confucianist emphasis on filial and social responsibility and a Buddhist call for asceticism, celibacy, and meditative retreat.

Guo Jun (2013), a current master of Chan Buddhism, points out that Buddhism’s birthplace of India had a long tradition of wandering ascetics supported by charity, as well as a climate that made long-term homelessness survivable, whereas China had neither. The development of Buddhist monasteries that maintained themselves through agriculture neatly solved the conundrum of how monks in China were to survive, while also aligning practicing Buddhist monks much more with the laboring agricultural classes than the aristocratic elites. This may have contributed to the monks’ suspicion not only of physical luxury but also of self-indulgent philosophizing; in Jun’s words, “In Chan, your life is your practice. They meditated while they broke ground and sowed seeds. They meditated weeding and watering and tending their crops” (2013). This present, practical, and ongoing meditation will be clearly seen in many of the Cold Mountain poems.

The arrival of the quasi-legendary Bodhidharma, an Indian Buddhist monk of the early 5th century C.E, kickstarted the development of what would become Chan Buddhism in China. Bodhidharma has a largely legendary biography layered with myth and hagiography. The Shaolin Temple at Zhengzhou (Western China) is recognized as the first monastery of this school, and it was here that Bodhidharma, upon his arrival, seated himself in a cave facing a wall for nine years of silent, unsleeping meditation. Guo Jun (2013), speaking much more recently, emphasizes the presentness of meditation in this tradition, sharing a reflection that could be at home in any classroom mindfulness routine: “Wisdom is experiential. In Chan, we say it comes from returning again and again to the present moment. It comes from the experience of always returning. It comes from living this, from experiencing it for yourself.” Within Chan meditation there is a mindfulness of time passing or not passing, of space both within and without the body, of action and of detail.

Legend recounts an unbroken transmission of the wisdom of this newer, more meditative school from Bodhidarma to a final patriarch, Hui-neng, described earlier as the monk who proved his fitness to the writing of sacred texts by engaging in an impromptu poetry contest. Current writers recognize that Chan Buddhism, like most religions, developed its formal doctrines through a messy period of conflict and debate (App, 2018). The most intense schism concerned the question of how enlightenment arrives, whether gradually or through a moment of sudden understanding. This debate was still resolving as Han-shan began his writing.

Following (or possibly contemporary with) Han-shan’s active period, poetry became closely connected to Buddhist meditation. A common figure emerged called the shiseng, or poet-monk, who pursues enlightenment through the creation of poetry and focuses on the power of the perfect couplet. This meditative approach to poetry also influenced a gradual shift to an aesthetics of poetry for poetry’s sake (instead of as an illustration of excellence that helped you pass the high-stakes exams which characterized Chinese bureaucracy) (Mazanec 2019). Poetry was not only aligned with Chan Buddhism, it embodied it: the complementary and balanced structure, the implicit meanings that demanded deep focus, the allusions that emphasized the interconnectivity of all, and the moment of sudden inspiration or turn at the end of the poem. Egan (2010) calls poetry the “selfless” realm of thought and idea removed from individualism, and Han-shan is in many ways a self-less poet.

A “biography” of Han-shan

The name Han-shan simply means “Cold Mountain,” and no other name is known for the poet who left his writings painted on rocks and trees around Cold Mountain. What little scholars are willing to propose regarding the poet Han-shan is drawn from one possibly apocryphal story and from his poems. It has been variously proposed that he was one man, a collection of monks (Pulleyblank 1978), one monk at one time whose identity was adopted by others later in homage (Jinhua 2003), and a bodhisattva with supernatural powers (Rouzer, 2016).

His lifetime might have spanned as long as 680-800 C.E., or he may have died around 680 at an unknown age (Rouzer, 2016). Two key stories describe his life, one from a 10th-century Comprehensive Records of the Taiping Era and one in a preface to his poems that was published in the 12th century. In both of these stories Han-shan is something of a trickster archetype, an irreverent hermit who lives in the mountains, wanders down to the monastery to challenge and educate when the mood or hunger takes him, and writes his poetry on rocks and trees. The preface, which is the closest thing we have to a biography, describes how a would-be disciple encountered Han-shan and his friend Shih-te as lowly laborers at a monastery, having been sent to seek them by a miracle-working monk named Fenggan. When this disciple, a high-ranking official named Luqiu Yin, approached and bowed to Han-shan and Shih-te, they laughed at him, chided him for failing to recognize Fenggan as a bodhisattva, and fled to the mountain. When Luqiu Yin pursued them with gifts of food and clean clothes, Han-shan dismissed his messengers as “thieves” or “bandits,” declared, “Each of you should exert himself to the utmost,” and disappeared into a cave, closing it behind him. Luqiu Yin then found the rocks and trees around this magical cavern covered in Han-shan’s poetry, and collected the poems for posterity.

Biographical details from the poems offer a less fanciful but equally unverifiable tale, and furthermore describe a life that is either extraordinarily eventful or the work of a poet adopting various personas to comment on different aspects of his society. A student-friendly graphic novel by Sean Michael Wilson, Cold Mountain: The Legend of Han Shan and Shih Te, the Original Dharma Bums (2015), assembles some 40 oblique poetic references and almost a millennium of documented theorizing into a short, coherent biography as follows: Han-Shan was a well-born young man, wealthy enough to engage in genteel pursuits like hunting, charioteering, and the bow (although this would conflict with poems where he describes hoeing in the fields with a book in his hand). He was a soldier in the west, earning no recognition, and then began a laborious process of pursuing an official government position.

Wilson’s graphic novel does an effective job of introducing to students the extremely high-stakes, difficult written and spoken exams that were required for government advancement in T’ang-dynasty China. Several of Han-shan’s poems describe failure and despair related to these exams, though others imply that he achieved some form of position at some point. Wilson and other authors combine these ideas with a period of civil unrest in China in 755 C.E. to propose that Han-shan’s patron was on the losing side of an eight-year civil war, and that this forced Han-shan to flee to the country with his wife and child. (This neatly solves the dilemma of how one man could write biographically about both urban and rural lifestyles.) After an unsuccessful and unenjoyable period of agricultural life, Han-shan leaves for Cold Cliff or Cold Mountain, there to become a hermit and, eventually, a Buddhist icon.

It is far beyond the scope of this curriculum to offer an in-depth historiography of Han-shan’s poetry and its impact over the course of the centuries, but in general he (or they) seem to have been seen more as writers of religious texts than of poems of immense literary merit. Han-shan became well known in America through Gary Snyder’s 1969 Riprap And Cold Mountain Poems, a publication of his own poetry and of his translations of the poems. The vivid details, sly humor, and contempt for hypocrisy that are easy to find in Han-shan’s work attracted the attention of the Beat Poets, and Jack Kerouac’s The Dharma Bums is dedicated to Han-shan.

These short, comprehensible poems nevertheless comprise rich examples of allusion, intertextuality, metaphor, imagery, and irony, to say nothing of Buddhist philosophy. A variety of translations are available both in print and online, allowing students to access multiple wordings of the same ideas. The intrinsic structure of such poetry, which emphasizes couplets rhyming on even numbered lines in the original language, further reinforces the balance that the poet(s) discuss (Egan 2010). Though the rhyme may not survive most translations, the carefully structured parallelism both within and across poems is accessible to students.

Specific Poems & Analysis

The Cold Mountain poems were for many years treated as predominantly religious, rather than literary, texts. They are nonetheless rich examples of many key literary concepts. By exploring these poems from a perspective of meditation and mindfulness as well as literary excellence, students can gain both confidence in poetry analysis and, hopefully, a model for quiet reflection and presentness. The short analyses below will identify suggested poems to highlight sensory details, metaphor and symbolism, connotation and allusion, and structure and parallelism.

Identifying the poems is a bit problematic. Unlike, say, Shakespeare’s sonnets, the ordering assigned to the poems is inconsistent across collections, and the opening lines differ just enough across translations to be equally unhelpful. The opening lines and numbers discussed here come from Robert G. Henricks’ translation, but for each I have also provided a version from Red Pine and, where possible, from Wilson’s graphic novel, which uses the translations and numberings of J.P. Seaton.

Poems to Teach Sensory Details

A key aspect of descriptive writing and of poetry is a focus on sensory details: what the writer wants the reader to imagine seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, or smelling. At the same time, a quiet awareness of what one is experiencing through one’s senses, while trying to not engage mentally with specific thoughts, can be an entry to a meditative state. Poetry that emphasizes sensory details is an especially auspicious place to begin for two reasons. First, the concrete nature of this kind of reflection helps students visualize what they are reading, often a skill lacking in less confident readers. Secondly, the concrete nature of this kind of description mimics the “grounding” sometimes recommended for people re-experiencing trauma; a sample script to help someone reorient themselves might go something like, “Name five things you can see…four you can hear…three things you can touch with your body right now…” Close reading and visualization of these poems builds students’ reading and meditation skills while keeping them grounded.

Both Henricks and Red Pine annotate this poem noting that the “woodcutters” are representative of a natural, simple life, while also being transitional figures who go between urban and rural life. Annotations also note that the word which Henricks translates as “left” can also mean “read,” and the phrase Red Pine translates as “stayed busy” can also mean “teach the classics.” In all three versions of the poem, however, a clear picture is created of someone who is content to sit, to watch, and to listen, and in so doing, gains the respect and even envy of others.

This poem, conflicted and mournful, offers another example of precise sensory details and description and demonstrates for students their importance in creating mood.

Two other poems, presented below, go more deeply into the descriptions of nature that students and teachers might expect from poetry.

These poems are notable in both the Red Pine and G. Henricks’ translations for containing no annotations; it seems two different translators believed there was nothing more to say about these short, enthusiastic descriptions of how the mountain itself revives not only the worn vegetation but, it’s clearly implied, the soul of the poet, who can only ascend when the day is clear.

Although the sensory details are as strong here as in the other poem (“slickery” mud, for example), this is also suggested by both Henricks and Red Pine as a poem of allegory. Han-Shan is trying to climb but held back by his belongings (“clothes”), and is impeded by forces that limit his vision and make his progress more difficult than he expected.

At the same time, Bright Cliff is a real cliff, less than two miles east from Cold Mountain, and in an area famous for its cinnamon trees. Certainly, the average high school student will not need to imagine themselves on a spiritual quest to appreciate a poem that can end with “I’ll just take a nap.”

Poems to Teach Metaphor & Symbolism

A natural next step, after students have enjoyed the sensory details of Han-Shan’s poetry, is to appreciate the deeper meanings that such sensory details can have through symbolism and metaphor. If the poems above are poems about reality with a possible deeper meaning, the poems that follow are more explicitly using reality as a teaching tool.

As Red Pine coyly points out in his annotations, there is in fact an accessible, if narrow, road to Cold Mountain, and it is rarely snowed in — “but then, this poem is about a different mountain” (Red Pine, 2000, p.46). This is a poem about discovering Chan (or Zen) enlightenment through recognizing the knowledge that is in you already, not by futilely seeking a nonexistent road.

Henricks’ translation points out that “Ice melted, tiles broken” is a 4-character Chinese phrase to mean something is ruined beyond repair. This is a poem that might particularly benefit from students comparing translations; the line about “traveling in someone else’s dust,” for example, implies a literal and arrogant insistence on being first in the Seaton translation. Red Pine makes it clearer that it is a metaphor for the scholar as forging new ground, wiser than his ancestors, and Henricks does not allow the metaphor of dust and travel to enter in his translation at all. This is also a poem to allow students to draw inferences about what is considered important in Chan Buddhism, based on the poet’s clear attitude towards the rich and respected noble.

Besides being a perfect example of an extended simile, this poem embodies deeper symbols common in Buddhist poetry, as Charles Egan points out in his introduction to Clouds Thick, Whereabouts Unknown: Poems by Zen Monks of China (2010). The autumn moon, round and bright, is both a symbol of family, due to its associations with holidays such as the New Year, and a metaphor for wisdom in the Chan Buddhist Platform Sutra. The clear jade lake is a reminder of a commonly used metaphor for enlightenment, that of “still water.” According to an early Chinese translation of Buddhist ideas, if the mind before enlightenment is disturbed by wind above and currents below, the mind after enlightenment is a calm mirror, revealing truth.

Once students have been exposed to a baseline comprehension of poetry through sensory details and then to the deeper meanings of symbolism and metaphor, it is time to help them appreciate the rich philosophical and historical context of the poems by unpacking the allusions scattered throughout. It’s important to help students understand that these are not allusions they would be expected to recognize today, but that would have been known to Han-shan’s readers; when they begin to create their own poetry, they can lean into common knowledge and definitions of wisdom in their writing just as this poet did.

Poems to teach Connotation and Allusion

Students can understand and appreciate this poem merely as another recounting of the poet attempting many paths in life before finding his spiritual home, and might skim over the odd last couplet. However, Henricks points out that this is an allusion to several historical dialogues, one including a would-be recluse who meant to say “Pillow my head on rocks and wash out my mouth in the stream” and instead swapped his phrases to say “Wash my mouth with rocks and pillow my head on the stream.” Another recluse, Hsu Yu, was offered an empire and found the idea so disgusting that he swiftly went to wash it out of his ears. Of course, today students might think of the old practice of washing one’s mouth out with soap after saying, not hearing, poor language.

This is a more straightforward allusion, and one that two of the translators chose to drop rather than annotate. Hua-liu was a famously swift horse of King Mu of the Chou, ruling until 946 B.C. The round chisel with a square handle was also a common allusion at the time, no different from today’s “square peg in a round hole.” This poem is highlighting for readers the relativity of values and the impossibility of making objective determinations of value.

Again, the poet ends his poem with a reference to a story his audience would have known: Chuang-tzu, a Chinese philosopher, tells a parable of seeing a fish dying in a rut by the road. The fish begs for water, and the philosopher blithely promises to visit two kings and have them change the course of a river to flow to the fish. The fish, of course, angrily points out that a dipperful of water would save him now whereas an immense irrigation project will come far too late to help. The poet wants to meet his modest and urgent needs for peace, not the riches and glory promised by the “realm of red dust.”

Finally, I have included poems that demonstrate the importance of parallelism in Han-shan’s poetry. Though translators emphasize that much of the elegance of these rigid forms and carefully constructed couplets is untranslatable, the juxtaposition of ideas and images survives.

Poems to teach Structure & Parallelism

This poem, as both Henricks and Red Pine point out, implies a wealthy or even noble youth for the man who would become Han-shan. The four stanzas of the poem, in Henricks’ translation, contrast the images of youth with age, and compare the young man to the hares, hawks and horses sprinting above, before and beneath him.

All three translators emphasize the parallelism of these poems, creating rhyme and rhythm that gradually breaks down as surely as the poet’s attempts at worldly success.

The China of the early T’ang dynasty, when Han-shan most likely lived, was one where “selection examinations” could determine the whole course of a person’s life. These examinations assessed both applicant’s writing and judgment but also their speech, and it was in writing about such examinations that one previous philosopher complained that the assessors even looked for scabs and scars as reasons to dismiss someone. In this poem, there is a sudden turn after the second stanza, and this hopeful cheerfulness parallels and contrasts with the despair earlier.

Henricks points out that the word for “look” here is the same used to describe how Bodhidharma looked in meditation at one wall for nine years. The poet uses the parallelism here to contrast his own certainty and understanding with the false knowledge of the society he has left behind.

Reading Interventionist Practices

Fluency, or the act of reading without conscious decoding and a clear flow, is vital to reading comprehension and a common gap in upper-level students (Rasinski et al., 2005). One reason the poetry of Han-shan makes such an excellent introduction for high school students is that the vocabulary is straightforward and likely to be within students’ knowledge already, allowing them to focus on prosody and understanding. Working in an alternative high school with a high percentage of students reading well below grade level, Josephs and Jolivette (2016) found that peer-meditated, repeated reading fluency practice had a measurable impact on students’ comprehension and engagement. In this case, peers took turns reading to one another, timing one another, and correcting each other and repeating correct words. Although I have not designed my classroom activities with that level of formality, I have designed a daily poetry engagement routine that builds on fluency by modeling and reinforcing accurate and fluent reading.

Repeated reading for fluency building coupled with previewing key vocabulary has likewise helped students in high school improve their reading comprehension (Hawkins et al., 2011; Josephs & Jolivette, 2016). By carefully reviewing vocabulary during the teacher-read part of each poem instruction, teachers can build a routine in students that can be applied to future and more difficult texts.

Note: Due to extended time for student internships, in my teaching context I see students for 75 minutes three days a week and 50 minutes once a week. These 8 lessons, designed for two normal weeks of school, reflect that breakdown, with 6 lessons scheduled at 75 minutes and 2 at 50.

Lesson 1: Neuroscience, meditation & poetry

Essential Question: What is meditation, and what is its impact on my body and brain?

Key Sources:

• Meditation Directions
• Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs): Impact on brain, body and behaviour
• The Cognitive Neuroscience in Mindfulness Meditation
• Poem 51 – “My mind is like…”

Preparation: (15 min)

Warm-Up: How easy is it for you to remain calm in difficult situations? What helps or hinders you in that goal?

Begin by asking students to respond to this quote from Guo Jun, Chan master (2013):

“It is true that relaxation may appear to be simple. But it is not necessarily easy. How do we relax? By coming back to the breath. By coming back to the present moment. Stop brooding over the past and worrying about the future. The past is gone and the future is always unknown and uncertain. Breathe. One breath at a time. Relax.”

With eyes open, guide students through a short example such as Square or Box Breathing.

Demonstration: (15 min)

Share with students the key facts underpinning this unit:

• Close reading improves your literacy skills.
• Meditation and paying attention to your breath has a rich history in multiple cultures & religions. The Buddhist term most often used is Prāṇāyāma, better known today as “breathwork.”
• Our autonomic nervous systems has two branches: sympathetic and parasympathetic. When we’re in danger or under stress, our sympathetic nervous system kicks into high gear to put us in a “fight or flight” response. All of our other systems, digestion, breathing, etc, either shut down temporarily or speed up to help us fight or escape the threat. What is supposed to happen is that our body returns to a “rest and digest” mode after the danger is passed, but when you are dealing with chronic stress, your body never returns to this state and can’t sustain that long-term.
• Breathing is the one aspect of our autonomic nervous system that we can You cannot slow down your heartbeat or tell your stomach it’s safe to digest food, but you can regulate your breathing to activate your parasympathetic nervous system and give your body a chance to recover.

Application: (15 min)

Complete ACES & Resilience quiz, and lead students in short discussion. ACES can contribute to your chronic physical and emotional stress, and your resilience factors help you recognize that and recover from it.

Collaboration (20 min)

Complete three read-alouds of “My mind is like..”: first with only the teacher, then twice as choral read alouds. Focus on the entire class getting pronunciation & prosody correct when reading aloud.

Ask students to self-assess — how often do they feel the kind of peace described in this poem? What brings them to this point?

As a class: Develop norms for meditating “safely.” What will it look like in our classroom to engage with this level of quiet and inner reflection? How will we lean into our emotional strengths while giving ourselves time to get better?

Evaluation: Exit Ticket (10 min)

Give your own definition of how you think meditation might interact with your brain.

Lesson 2: History of Han-Shan & role of poetry in Chan Buddhism

Essential Question: How did Buddhism & meditation arrive in China? How does poetry embody these ideals?

Key Sources:

• COLD MOUNTAIN (Suggested minutes: 4:25-11:30)
• Learning, Growing, Changing – Dead Prez
• A History of Buddhism in China
• Investigating the Life of Chinese Literature’s Most Mysterious Poet
• The Hermit Han-Shan
• 4-10 copies of Cold Mountain: The Legend of Han-Shan & Shih Te, the Original Dharma Bums by Sean Wilson & Akiko Shimojima (Pt 1.)

Preparation (10 min)

Warm-Up: What are three current songs that you are listening to that are really speaking to your heart? Why?

Play & share the lyrics of Learning Growing Changing by Dead Prez, explaining that this is a 2010s’ hip hop song that includes a short summary of Buddhist ideas.

Demonstration: (10 min)

On a whiteboard or chart paper, create a space for students to add the facts they will gather through their exploration of Han-Shan. Begin by adding, before class or as you lecture, some basic facts:

• At the time we are studying, China was under the control of the Tang dynasty, an imperial dynasty that lasted almost 300 years from 618-907 C.E.
• Buddhism had come to China from India much earlier, in the 1st century, but spread slowly.
• In the year 500, an Indian sage named Bodhidharma came to China and founded the Ch’an or Zen school of Buddhism.
• By the early 700s, the T’angdynasty saw a flourishing of the arts, and Buddhist monasteries, poetry, and philosophy flourished as well.
• However by the 800s rebellions were spreading, in 845 there was a widespread persecution of Buddhists, and the dynasty collapsed into independent kingdoms in 907.
• Amidst all of this, our mysterious hermit poet grew up, chose to leave society, and wrote his poetry. You will now gather what information you can on his life and thoughts.

Collaboration (20 min)

Separate students into at least four groups to “jigsaw” a history of Han-shan by using three resources: the Mike Hazzard documentary, the “investigating..” article from online, the hermit article, and the graphic novel. Allow time to share out information.

Evaluation: Exit Ticket. What sort of poetry do you expect from Han-shan when we begin reading tomorrow? What elements of meditative practice do you expect to see there?

Lesson 3: Poems focused on nature & peace

Skills Emphasis: Sensory Details

Essential Question: How do sensory details help you practice both your reading visualization and your own mental grounding?

Key Sources:

D Garcia TIP 2024 Draft 2 – Link to segment on sensory details

Meditation Is Easier Than You Think

Preparation:

Warm-Up: Grounding Exercise

Sit quietly for 2-3 minutes before you begin your warm-up today. Then, name five things you can see, four you can hear, three you can touch, two you can smell and one you can taste, and describe your feelings on them if you have time.

Demonstration: (10 minutes)

Sensory details: When an author clearly describes what you can see, hear, taste, touch, or smell.

Key to establishing mood and creating a sense of realism

Especially important in poetry in order to create a moment in time, but also key in our exploration of meditation because we are trying to be fully present.

Collaboration: (35 min)

For the next four days, establish a routine of poetry engagement that also gives students a chance to practice fluency. For each poem, practice the following routine, taking about 10-15 minutes per poem.

• The teacher reads all two or three translations of the poem aloud to the class, while students annotate for the skill focus (in this case, sensory details.)
• The class chorally reads one translation of the poem, continuing their annotation, with the teacher assisting.
• Students select one translation to read aloud to their partner, and then their partner reads one translation back to them.
• Together, students write briefly on the impact of the skill focus (sensory details): Does it improve their understanding of the poem? Does it help them visualize the world more clearly?

Application: (10 min)

Revisit the meditative norms developed on day 1, and address a potential misconception about what meditation needs to look or sound like using this video. If time allows, revisit the box-breathing or the grounding exercise from the warm-up.

Evaluation: (10 min)

Now individually, students write on the meditative impact of the poem. What does it mean to be present in this moment of poetry? How do you still your mind to experience what the poet is describing?

Especially if teaching this unit early in the year, as I do, the short writings at the end of each lesson serve as a useful pre-assessment for any required constructed responses in state or local testing, and is a good place to introduce any structure or strategies expected for those.

Lesson 4: Poems Focused on Society

Skills emphasis: Metaphor & symbolism

Preparation: (10 minutes)

Warm-Up: What are four things in nature — animals, plants, weather, water features, etc — that could represent your personality? What part of you do these things represent?

Demonstration (10 min)

Briefly review the definitions of simile, metaphor, & symbolism. Be especially sure to address any confusion of the difference between a metaphor and a symbol — one is used to compare two things, and one is a concrete object in the story or poem that also carries deeper meaning. Revisit the “My mind is like…” poem discussed on day 1, this time emphasizing not only the quiet mood but also the Buddhist & Chinese connotations of the images in the poem.

Collaboration: (35 min)

For each poem, practice the following routine, taking about 10-15 minutes per poem.

• The teacher reads all two or three translations of the poem aloud to the class, while students annotate for the skill focus (in this case, metaphor, simile & symbolism)
• The class chorally reads one translation of the poem, continuing their annotation, with the teacher assisting.
• Students select one translation to read aloud to their partner, and then their partner reads one translation back to them.
• Together, students write briefly on the impact of the skill focus (metaphor & symbolism): Does it improve their understanding of the poem? Does it help them identify the themes or deeper meanings of the poem?

Application: (10 min)

Revisit the meditative norms developed on day 1, then try a basic breathwork meditation as guided here.

Evaluation: (10 min)

Now individually, students write on the meditative impact of the poem. What does it mean to be present in this moment of poetry? How do the metaphors and symbols deepen your understanding of the poet’s ideas?

Lesson 5: Poems focused on personal choices & relationships

Skills emphasis: allusion

Essential Question: How does allusion & shared references deepen our understanding of a poem?

Preparation: (10 minutes)

Warm-Up: Doodle (no words, no labels!) a miniature vision board for what you hope for out of the next ten years.

Share your vision with at least two classmates and ask them to label it. This isn’t an art test, but how clear was your vision? How easy is it to understand?

Demonstration: (10 minutes)

Allusion: A reference to something the writer and audience are both familiar with, in order to compare or draw an idea to mind; an indirect reference to a work. Examples include “Chocolate is my Kryptonite” (an allusion to Superman comics), “I’m the Romeo to your Juliet,” (allusion to Shakespeare), or, at least in spring 2024, “You’re Drake to my Kendrick” (allusion to hip-hop battle occurring through diss tracks at the time I am piloting this curriculum). Give students a clear definition and several examples, then focus on students developing some of their own to demonstrate understanding and help each other.

Before beginning the poems, give students explicit definitions of the allusions mentioned: the race horse Hua-liu, the recluse offered a kingdom who washed out his ears in disgust at the offer, or the parable of the dying fish offered a diverted river in the future when what he needed was a single cup of water now.

Collaboration: (35 min)

For each poem, practice the following routine, taking about 10-15 minutes per poem.

• The teacher reads all two or three translations of the poem aloud to the class, while students annotate for the skill focus (in this case, allusion)
• The class chorally reads one translation of the poem, continuing their annotation, with the teacher assisting.
• Students select one translation to read aloud to their partner, and then their partner reads one translation back to them.
• Together, students write briefly on the impact of the skill focus (allusion): Does it improve their understanding of the poem? Does it help them better understand what the author is implying, or do the translations without the allusions work just as well?

Application: (10 min)

Revisit the meditative norms developed on day 1, then take students through a loving-kindness meditation such as the one modeled here

Evaluation: (10 min)

Now individually, students write on the meditative impact of the poem. What does it mean to be present in this moment of poetry? How do the allusions help you, or not help you, in engaging with the ideas of the poem?

Lesson 6: Collaborative poetry making

Essential Question: How do you decide when a poem has made its point?

Key Sources:

https://terebess.hu/zen/chang/HanshanPoems.pdf

https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Chinese/HanShan.php

Preparation: (10 minutes)

Warm-Up: Are you a poet? Why or why not? What defines being a poet? What defines poetry?

Collaboration: (30 minutes)

It’s best to complete this activity on large paper, such as chart or butcher paper, or to plan to add multiple pieces of paper to one common wall or bulletin board.

Allow students five to ten minutes to scan a collection of Han-shan’s poems (either by sharing the links or by printing out a sampling before class). Students should identify at least 5 lines, from at least 3 different poems, that speak to them, and write these lines down.

Either by rotating through stations to chart paper, gathering around multiple pieces of butcher paper, or writing one line on paper and passing it to a peer, students will combine their own chosen lines of Han-shan’s poetry to create new poems. For the first 7 minutes, challenge students to write only Han-shan’s lines, not add their own; for the second 7 minutes, students may add their own writing; for the last 7, challenge students to add lines, from Han-shan or their own mind, that will “match” the line before in some key way: rhyme, number of syllables, or imagery.

Application: (10 minutes)

Review the meditation norms. Remind students that Han-shan’s poetry was written on rocks and trees, a visual medium much closer to what they have just been doing than books on a shelf. Take students through a guided mountain-visualization such as this one.

Lesson 7: Poems focused on wisdom

Skills emphasis: parallelism & structure

Essential Question: How does the structure of poetry improve your understanding of it?

Who do you want to be in society or community?

Preparation: (10 minutes)

Warm-Up:

Select one of the “class poems” we created yesterday. Rewrite the poem in one of three ways:

• So that it rhymes OR
• So that each line begins with the same letter OR
• So that each line contains the same number of syllables

Demonstration: (10 minutes)

Parallelism in literature is the repetition of sentence structure, relying on the same grammatical structure to underscore a point or add a pleasant cadence to the prose.

In Chan Buddhist poetry, the parallelism of poetry is even more important because it embodies the balance of the universe.

Similarly, almost all poetry from this period emphasizes couplets, pairing ideas and rhymes together. As originally written, most of these Han-shan poems would have been five character octets: five syllables per line, with eight total lines, following an ABCB rhyme structure. If you really want to challenge yourself, go for this plan!

Collaboration: (35 min)

For each poem, practice the following routine, taking about 10-15 minutes per poem.

• The teacher reads all two or three translations of the poem aloud to the class, while students annotate for the skill focus (in this case, parallelism)
• The class chorally reads one translation of the poem, continuing their annotation, with the teacher assisting.
• Students select one translation to read aloud to their partner, and then their partner reads one translation back to them.
• Together, students write briefly on the impact of the skill focus (parallelism): Does it improve their understanding of the poem? Does it help them better dissect the themes or ideas the author is suggesting?

Application: (10 min)

Review the meditation norms from day 1. Guide students through a short focused meditation such as this one.

Evaluation: (10 min)

Now individually, students write on the meditative impact of the poem. What does it mean to be present in this moment of poetry? How do the parallel images or statements of the poem emphasize the poet’s ideas?

Lesson 8: Poetry response & individual goal setting

Essential Question: What is your own role as a poet? As a reflective and contemplative person?

Preparation: (10 minutes)

You have been engaging in at least a slight meditative practice at least every other day for two weeks now. To what extent do you think it’s helped? To what extent do you want to continue?

Demonstration: (10 minutes)

Review vocabulary: sensory details, metaphor, symbolism, allusion, parallelism & structure

Application: (10 min)

Set specific goals for your own poems: What elements will you include? What structures will you follow (rhyme, syllable, acrostic, etc)?

Collaboration (30 min)

Working together, students will compose at least 2 short poems that meet their own criteria.

Evaluation: (10 min)

Identify three things about these practices of meditation and of poetry that you would like to continue as you go forward into the school year, and why.

Annotated Bibliography

For Student Use

App, U. (2018, July 12). A Brief History of Chan | An Excerpt from Zen Master Yunmen. Shambhala Publications. Retrieved June 15, 2024, from https://www.shambhala.com/a-brief-history-of-chan-an-excerpt-from-zen-master-yunmen/

• This short article from a meditation center covers the history of Ch’an Buddhism in a fairly straightforward and student-friendly fashion.

The Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research. (2023, February 9). The Benefits of Mindfulness Education in Schools. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/evidence-based-living/202302/the-benefits-of-mindfulness-education-in-schools

• News article that covers the importance and role of mindfulness in schools. Suitable to read with students or share in the early lessons.

Cold Mountain: 100 Poems by the T’ang poet Han-shan (B. Watson, Trans.). (1970). Columbia University Press. https://terebess.hu/zen/chang/ColdMountain.pdf

• A freely available PDF of 100 common poems, suitable for printing certain poems or making available to students as a resource.

Hazard, M. (2016, July 12). COLD MOUNTAIN. YouTube. Retrieved March 12, 2024, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3OWTwGdGmo

• Short (30 min) documentary on the poet and the poems, although it is worth highlighting for students that no actual East Asian writers or scholars are interviewed!

Kline, A. (2024). Han-shan (c.800) – Words from Cold Mountain: Twenty-Seven Poems. Poetry In Translation. Retrieved March 12, 2024, from https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Chinese/HanShan.php

• A second digital repository of Han-shan Poems.

Mosunic, C. (2024, March 28). Concentration meditation: what is it and how to practice? — Calm Blog. Calm. Retrieved June 16, 2024, from https://www.calm.com/blog/concentration-meditation

• This blog post from the website of the popular Calm app explains concentration meditation in student-friendly language.

O’Brien, B. (2019, June 25). How Buddhism Came to China: A History of the First Thousand Years. Learn Religions. Retrieved March 10, 2024, from https://www.learnreligions.com/buddhism-in-china-the-first-thousand-years-450147

• Very basic history of Buddhism in China.

Shaw, T. (2019, January 16). Hanshan: Investigating the life of Chinese literature’s most mysterious poet – The China Project. The China Project. Retrieved March 9, 2024, from https://thechinaproject.com/2019/01/16/hanshan-investigating-the-life-of-chinese-literatures-most-mysterious-poet/

• Straightforward “biography” written in an engaging fashion for students.

School District of Philadelphia: Office of Research and Evaluation & School District of Philadelphia: Office of Student Health Services. (2023, December). Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) – Research and Evaluation. The School District of Philadelphia. Retrieved March 13, 2024, from https://www.philasd.org/research/yrbs/

• Although this source is also useful for teachers, older students may benefit from examining the different infographics and recognizing the need for mental health supports in the District. This may also help students analyze their own purposes in approaching poetry and meditation for self-regulation and reflection.

The Notebook. (2020, January 31). Students demand more mental health services; city and District outline plans. The Notebook. https://www.chalkbeat.org/philadelphia/2020/1/31/22186603/students-demand-more-mental-health-services-city-district-outline-plans/

• This short article about a protest just before the pandemic calling for additional mental health supports is a useful ‘hook’ to get students discussing their past school experiences and analyzing the extent to which they have or have not felt supported.

Wilson, S. M. (2015). Cold Mountain (Graphic Novel): The Legend of Han Shan and Shih Te, the Original Dharma Bums (J. P. Seaton, Trans.). Shambhala.

• This graphic novel intersperses a tentative biography of Han Shan and Shih Te with illustrated poems.

For Teacher Use

Banks, J., Gray, A., & School District of Philadelphia. (2023, October 24). Fall Mental Health and Wellbeing update – October 2023. The School District of Philadelphia. Retrieved March 13, 2024, from https://www.philasd.org/blog/2023/10/24/fall23mentalhealthwellbeing/

• Blog post that discusses Philadelphia School District’s current approach to mental health supports within schools.

Buffalo Center for Social Research. (2015). What is Trauma-Informed Care? University at Buffalo School of Social Work. Retrieved March 13, 2024, from https://socialwork.buffalo.edu/social-research/institutes-centers/institute-on-trauma-and-trauma-informed-care/what-is-trauma-informed-care.html

• A brief summary of the five principles of trauma-informed care, applicable to classrooms as well.

Bunting, M. (2014, May 6). Why we will come to see mindfulness as mandatory | Madeleine Bunting. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/06/mindfulness-hospitals-schools

• A short discussion of the importance of mindfulness education in schools.

Byron, M. (2019) Chinese poetical histories in Ezra Pound and Gary Snyder.            Critical Quarterly, 61: 99–114. https://doi-org.proxy.library.upenn.edu/10.1111/criq.12456.

• Describes Gary Snyder’s interactions with and translations of Han Shan poems in the 1960s.

Carpenter, D. W. (2024, April 12). Prāṇāyāma: Does It Really Work? [Personal Communication].

• Lecture in Teachers Institute of Philadelphia course. Please email dgarcia3@philasd.org for notes or slides if needed.

Choudhury, S., & Moses, J. M. (2016). Mindful interventions: Youth, poverty, and the developing brain. Theory & Psychology, 26(5), 591-606.

• Article on the neuroscience behind meditation that also warns of the potential for mindfulness and meditation interventions to become just another way that students who have experienced trauma are treated as weak or flawed.

Clouds Thick, Whereabouts Unknown: Poems by Zen Monks of China (C. Egan, Trans.). (2010). Columbia University Press.

• Contains annotated translations of several Han Shan and contemporary poems, as well as a detailed analysis of the poetic tradition involved starting on pg. 34.

Compson, J. (2014). Meditation, Trauma and Suffering in Silence: Raising Questions about How Meditation is Taught and Practiced in Western Contexts in the Light of a Contemporary Trauma Resiliency Model. Contemporary Buddhism, 15(2), 274-297.

• Research article identifying some of the pitfalls in meditation training when it is not thoughtful and trauma-informed.

Forner, C. C. (2017). Dissociation, Mindfulness, and Creative Meditations: Trauma-Informed Practices to Facilitate Growth. Routledge.

• Chapters 5, 9, and 10 offer specific, practical advice for meditation with children who have experienced adverse childhood experiences.

Goldberg, S. B., Lam, S. U., Britton, W. B., & Davidson, R. J. (2022). Prevalence of meditation-related adverse effects in a population-based sample in the United States. Psychotherapy Research, 32(3), 291-305.

• This article specifically examines the impact of meditation on people with previous traumatic experiences while also highlighting the patients’ continued interest in meditation.

Jun, G. (2013). Essential Chan Buddhism: The Character and Spirit of Chinese Zen (K. Wapner, Ed.). Monkfish Book Publishing Company.

• Written by a current Zen/Ch’an master, this collection of speeches and talks briefly covers current thought on Ch’an Buddhism and the purpose and function of meditation. It is well worth a read especially if you are not previously familiar with this and feel uncomfortable teaching it.

Hanshan. (2000). The Collected Songs of Cold Mountain (R. Pine, Trans.). Copper Canyon Press.

• Another set of translations, with a helpful introduction.

Hanshan, Shide, & Fenggan. (2017). The Poetry of Hanshan (Cold Mountain), Shide, and Fenggan (C. M. B. Nugent, Ed.; P. F. Rouzer, Trans.). De Gruyter Mouton.

• Covers the poetry of “Han Shan” and some contemporaries.

Hawkins, R. O., Hale, A. D., Sheeley, W., & Ling, S. (2011). REPEATED READING AND VOCABULARY-PREVIEWING INTERVENTIONS TO IMPROVE FLUENCY AND COMPREHENSION FOR STRUGGLING HIGH-SCHOOL READERS. Psychology in the Schools, 48(1).

• Research study on the impact of repeated reading and vocabulary-previewing and its impact on high school readers specifically. Includes details on repeated reading fluency protocols if necessary.

Holzel, B. K., Carmody, J., Vangel, M., Congleton, C., Yerramsetti, S. M., Gard, T., & Lazar, S. W. (2011). Mindfulness practice leads to increases in regional brain gray matter density. Psychiatric Research: Neuroimaging, 191, 36-43.

• An earlier study that seemed to suggest mindfulness practice had a measurable impact on brain development. This has since been questioned.

Hill, C. (2023, June 24). Report: Thousands of Pa. students had access to mental health service last year. The Philadelphia Tribune. https://www.phillytrib.com/news/state_and_region/report-thousands-of-pa-students-asked-for-mental-health-help-last-year/article_73bddd8d-2c8b-506f-b34b-9fefa545e703.html

• Recent news article on the self-reported use of and success of Kooth, an online app that offers mental health supports to students in Pennsylvania.

Hu, A. (2023). Cold Mountain Poems: Text Travel and Canon Construction. Routledge.

• In the absence of any detailed biography of the poet(s), this book is almost a biography of the poems themselves; it covers the Cold Mountain Poems’ journey from China to 11th-century Japan to 20th century United States Beat poets and back again.

Hermitary Press. (2003). Han Shan: Cold Mountain Hermit. Hermitary: House of Hermits. Retrieved April 13, 2024, from https://www.hermitary.com/articles/han-shan.html

• Another article on Han Shan’s biography, this one emphasizing his participation in the hermit tradition.

Kral, T. R. A., Davis, K., Karponay, C., Hirshberg, M. J., Hoel, R., Tello, L. Y., Goldman, R. I., Rosenkranz, M. A., Lutz, A., & Davidson, R. J. (2022). Absence of structural brain changes from mindfulness-based stress reduction: Two combined randomized controlled trials. Science Advances, 8.

• This randomized controlled study highlights the issues with previous research that seemed to imply introductory meditation could still change the structure of meditators’ brains.

Jinhua, J. (2003, March). An examination of the authors of Zen poems in the handed down “Hanshan Poetry Collection”. Chinese Literature & Philosophy Research Collection, (22), 65-90.

• In this article, Jinhua proposes an alternative writer for the Han-Shan poems. Accessed via translation app as it exists only in Mandarin.

Josephs, N. L., & Jolivette, K. (2016). Effects of Peer Mediated Instruction on the Oral Reading Fluency Skills of High School Aged Struggling Readers. Insights into Learning Disabilities, 13(1), 39-59.

• This article emphasizes the importance of peer mediated instruction and provides guidance on how to use it in fluency growth.

Kempton, H. M. (2020, April 30). Use of Poetry in Secular Mindfulness Guidance. Mindfulness, 11, 1546-1556.

• Kempton analyzes the problems with divorcing meditation from Buddhist traditions and offers poetry as a secular meaning-making activity that can engage and accommodate both religious and areligious practitioners.

Lawrenz, L., & Murphy, J. (2022, January 5). Trauma-Informed Mindfulness: Benefits, Risks, and Getting Started. Psych Central. Retrieved April 23, 2024, from https://psychcentral.com/health/trauma-informed-mindfulness#how-to-be-trauma-informed

• A brief overview of trauma-informed mindfulness and how to apply it in the classroom or therapist’s office.

Liu, S., Erkkinen, M. G., Healey, M. L., Xu, Y., Swett, K. E., Chow, H. M., & Braun, A. R. (2015). Brain Activity and Connectivity During Poetry Composition: Toward a Multidimensional Model of the Creative Process. Human Brain Mapping, 36, 3351-3372.

• This article describes and illustrates attempts to map what occurs in the brain when someone is creating a poem (and even if what happens is different if the poem is a good or bad one!) and provides useful background on the role of poetry in supporting brain development.

Lynn S, Basso JC. Effects of a Neuroscience-Based Mindfulness Meditation Program on Psychological Health: Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial. JMIR Form Res. 2023 Jan 19;7:e40135. doi: 10.2196/40135. PMID: 36656631; PMCID: PMC9896358.

• A preprint article available through the National Library of Medicine, this shows that the benefits of meditation do not seem impacted by whether or what a teacher is cueing.

Mazanec, T. J. (2019). How Poetry Became Meditation in Late-Ninth-Century China. Asia Major, 32(2), 113-151.

• This article covers the growth of poetry in religious importance in Buddhism in the late 800s.

Pemberton, J. V., & Edeburn, E. K. (2021). BECOMING A TRAUMA-INFORMED EDUCATIONAL COMMUNITY WITH UNDERSERVED STUDENTS OF COLOR: What Educators Need to Know. Curriculum and Teaching Dialogue, 23(1-2).

• This article breaks down the effectiveness of Social Emotional Learning (SEL) and trauma-informed education while also highlighting the ineffectiveness of any efforts that pathologize students, pretend to be color-blind or fail to recognize and address equity gaps.

Pennotti, R., Lawson, G., Rosenquist, J. R., & Rubin, D. (2022, April). Building and Sustaining Programs for School-based Behavioral Health Services in K-12 Schools | PolicyLab. PolicyLab. Retrieved March 13, 2024, from https://policylab.chop.edu/tools-and-memos/building-and-sustaining-programs-school-based-behavioral-health-services-k-12

• Recent information from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia on the importance of mindfulness and trauma-informed work in schools.

Pulleyblank, E. G. (1978). Linguistic Evidence for the Date of Hanshan. Studies in chinese poetry and poetics, 1, 163-195.

• Pulleyblank’s key article where he uses linguistic evidence to posit that there are at least two distinct collections of Han-Shan poetry, one written significantly earlier by a single person and one, more didactic, written later and by self-proclaimed disciples.

Porter, B., Oyanadel, C., Saez-Delgado, F., Andaur, A., & Peñate, W. (2022). Systematic Review of Mindfulness-Based Interventions in Child-Adolescent Population: A Developmental Perspective. European Journal of Investigation in Health, Psychology & Education, 12, 1220-1243.

• Article on the impact of mindfulness interventionsl

Pretnar, M. (2015). Deciphering the Discourse Metaphor of Hanshan. Archiv Orientalni, 83(1), 161-215.

• Literary analysis of metaphor and reality in Han-Shan poetry.

Rasinski, T. V., Padak, N. D., McKeon, C. A., Wilfong, L. G., Fiedauer, J. A., & Heim, P. (2005, September). Is reading fluency a key for successful high school reading? Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 49(1).

Rouzer, P. F. (2016). On Cold Mountain: A Buddhist Reading of the Hanshan Poems. University of Washington Press.

• In-depth analysis of the poems as primarily a religious text.

Schulten, K. (2022, May 4). Ways to Read, Write, Teach and Learn Poetry With The New York Times. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/31/learning/lesson-plans/ways-to-read-write-teach-and-learn-poetry-with-the-new-york-times.html#link-77ed211a

• Additional resource for teachers looking for additional activities to do with poetry or wanting to combine this unit with modern poetry.

Śliwowski,, M., Jastrzębska,, P., Holas, P., Żygierewicz, J., & Suffczyński, P. (2023). Brain activity during meditation in first-time meditators. International Journal of Neuroscience, 133(3), 238-247.

• Article involving brain scans of first-time meditators identifying the impacts, or lack of impact, on their emotional and neurological state.

Stromberg, E. (2023). Trauma-Informed Mindfulness Meditation in the College Classroom. In E. Stromberg (Ed.), Trauma Informed Pedagogy in Higher Education: A Faculty Guide for Teaching and Learning (pp. 89-99). Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.

• A study that offers some important guidance on integrating meditation and mindfulness into a classroom in a way that prepares for and supports students who might be vulnerable to being retraumatized by enforced meditation.

Tan, J. Q., & Chen, Q. (2023). Han Shan’s reclusion: From quasi-homelessness to ultra-homelessness. postmedieval: a journal of medieval cultural studies, 14(1), 693-715.

• These authors analyze Han Shan’s gradual withdrawal as a story of religious conversion from Confucianism to Doaism to Chan Buddhism and draw connections to ecology and environmentalism.

Tanahashi, K., & Levitt, P. (2019, July 12-14th). Upaya Podcast Series: Poetry of the Legendary Hermit Hanshan [Podcast]. Upaya Zen Center. Retrieved March 12, 2024, from https://www.upaya.org/2020/06/levitt-tanahashi-poetry-legendary-hermit-hanshan-7-parts/

• Podcast that describes information on the legends of the poet and closely analyzes a number of poems. Email required to access.

Tifft, E. D., Underwood, S. B., Roberts, M. Z., & Forsyth, J. P. (2022). Using meditation in a control vs. acceptance context: A preliminary evaluation of relations with anxiety, depression, and indices of well‐being. Journal of Clinial Psychology, 78, 1407-1421.

• This article highlights that the positive impacts of meditation depend on not treating it as a cure-all or expecting to use it to control emotions. Meditation instruction in schools where the primary goal is decreasing detentions or classroom disruption wil not be effective or helpful.

Valosek, L., Nidich, S., Grant, J., Peterson, M., & Nidich, R. (2021, Summer). Effect of Meditation on Psychological Stress and Academic Achievement in High School Students: A Randomized Controlled Study. Education, 141(4).

• This study finds that meditation and mindfulness has a more positive effect on student stress and academic achievement even than independent reading, a useful resource for any teacher who encounters pushback!

Wilkes, J., & Scott, S. K. (2016, Summer). Poetry and Neuroscience: An Interdisciplinary Conversation. Configurations, 24(3), 331-350.

• In the format of an annotated dialogue, a scientist and a poet discuss the overlaps between neuroscience and poetry, including experimentation, reflection, problem-solving, and distractions from key goals.

Zhu, J., Wekerle, C., Lanius, R., & Frewen, P. (2019, October). Trauma- and Stressor-Related History and Symptoms Predict Distress Experienced during a Brief Mindfulness Meditation Sitting: Moving toward Trauma-Informed Care in Mindfulness-Based Therapy. Mindfulness, 10(10).

• These researchers surveyed volunteers to identify ways in which meditation can be counterproductive and distressing to practitioners with a significant or recent history of trauma.

Standards

Pennsylvania Core Standards Addressed

CC.1.3.11–12.A Determine and analyze the relationship between two or more themes or central ideas of a text, including the development and interaction of the themes; provide an objective summary of the text.

CC.1.3.11–12.D Evaluate how an author’s point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text.

CC.1.3.11–12.E Evaluate the structure of texts including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the texts relate to each other and the whole.

CC.1.3.11–12.F Evaluate how words and phrases shape meaning and tone in texts

Pennsylvania Career Ready Skills Addressed

Evaluate behaviors in relation to the impact on self and others.

Explain how empathy and perspective taking foster relationship building.

Interact with others demonstrating respect, cooperation, and acceptance.

Explain how expressive communication strategies can affect others.

Evaluate how societal conventions may influence the perspectives of individuals.