Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation
Conditions in China: Why Might One Leave Home Forever?
Primary source texts provide scholars with the background information they need to understand why Chinese peasant farmers were driven to emigrate. After underlining keywords, phrases, and/or lines in the texts, individuals craft a...
Digital Public Library of America
The Poetry of Emily Dickinson
Are you contemplating a poetry study featuring Emily Dickinson? Finding good primary sources to accompany the study can be a challenge—never fear, help is here! Check out this primary source set that includes manuscripts of several of...
Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media
The Revolutionary Times as Seen Through the Eyes of Women
The role of women before and during the American Revolution changed dramatically. To gain an understanding of these changes, middle schoolers analyze primary source documents, including letters from women that supported the patriot cause...
Digital Public Library of America
The Poetry of Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou's work reflects her passion for life, civil rights, and justice for all. A collection of 12 primary sources provide scholars with insight into this amazing woman. The set includes photographs, articles, recordings of...
EngageNY
Writing Interview Questions
And now for the star witness! Scholars take a look at a model newspaper article and discuss the importance of eyewitness accounts. In groups of three, they take turns underlining text from eyewitnesses. They then regroup to talk about...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Hopi Poetry
The Hopi refer to corn as their children, demonstrating its importance to the Native American group. Class members consider the role of literal and figurative language by examining poetry from this indigenous group. The resource includes...
EngageNY
Analyzing and Discussing: Modern Voices
This is the way we go to school. Scholars take a look at two poems about different ways to get to school, TyrannosaurBus Rex and Point A to Point B. Pupils work in triads to analyze the poem images and determine the theme.
EngageNY
Writing the Final Narrative: Monologue or Concrete Poem
Get inspired to help those creative juices flow. Using the resource, scholars write their final, best version of their narrative monologues or concrete poems. Next, they prepare for a performance task by watching and discussing a video...
EngageNY
Introduction: Writing a Narrative of Adversity
A little adversity is good for writing. Scholars review narrative-based monologues and concrete poems and choose which genre to use to express their own theme of adversity. Pupils also consider how to structure their narratives by...
EngageNY
Mid-Unit Assessment: Small Group Discussion: How Do Modern Poems Portray Modern Adversities?
How is a poem similar to and different from a news article? Pupils use a graphic organizer to compare and contrast the two genres. Also, as part of a mid-unit assessment, scholars participate in small-group discussions based on poetry...
EngageNY
Seeing, Hearing, and Comparing Genres: A Poem and a Letter
One can never be too prepared. Pupils prepare for their upcoming mid-unit assessment by writing their group norms for small group discussions. Additionally, scholars read and listen to a poem, comparing the two experiences using a Venn...
EngageNY
Analyzing, Comparing, Sharing: Modern Voices
What do modern voices sound like? Scholars explore the topic, reading two concrete poems from John Grandit's Blue Lipstick and analyzing them using a graphic organizer. Next, they read a third poem and work with partners to look for...
EngageNY
Comparing and Contrasting: Seeing and Hearing Different Genres
Let's compare and contrast! Scholars use a Venn diagram to compare and contrast the experience of reading a poem and listening to its audio version. Next, they complete graphic organizers, comparing two different genres: a poem and a...
Facing History and Ourselves
Responding to Difference in Democracy
Disagreements happen in a diverse democracy. It's what people do about these differences in a diverse society that the resource models. After listening to an eight-minute podcast about a woman who collaborated with people who have very...
Teaching Tolerance
Poetry and Storytelling Café
Academics take turns as actors in an engaging poetry cafe. Elementary learners work in small groups to create original poems or stories addressing community issues and read their work in front of a live audience. Scholars also reflect...
Facing History and Ourselves
Speaking Up and Speaking Out
The final lesson in the Standing Up for Democracy unit offers class members a way they can stand up and speak out by crafting spoken word poetry, or Slam poetry. After analyzing several examples, individuals reflect on one positive...
EngageNY
Poetry Analysis: Small Group Practice
Howdy partner! After discussion and teacher model reading of Slaveships, scholars pair up for a partner reading of the poem. They then use equity sticks to discuss their thoughts of the poem with the class. Readers talk about allusion,...
EngageNY
End of Unit Assessment: Poetry Analysis
Learners finish the end-of-unit assessment by completing a poetry analysis of We Wear the
Mask. Scholars may use their Poet’s Toolbox reference sheets and How to Read a Poem anchor
charts to guide them through the assessment.
EngageNY
Poetic Tools in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Scholars listen to a reading and answer probing questions about If We Must Die by Claude McKay. Readers annotate their personal copies of the poem as they discuss its figurative language, vocabulary, and meaning. They then transfer their...
EngageNY
Launching the Performance Task: Planning the Two-Voice Poem
Two voices, one poem. Scholars learn about and write a two-voice poem using graphic organizers, model poems, and guides. They practice reading poems with a partner and discuss how a poem of this type could help compare Salva and Nya in A...
EngageNY
Examining a Model Two-Voice Poem and Planning a Two-Voice Poem
Successful poetry writing requires three P's: planning, preparation, and practice. Pupils read a model two-voice poem and discuss how the author uses evidence to develop the theme. With a partner, scholars use a rubric to analyze the...
EngageNY
Mid-Unit 3 Assessment and Planning the TwoVoice Poem
Class members prepare to write a two-voice poem that compares and contrasts two characters from Linda Sue Park's novel, A Long Walk to Water. Pupils also complete the mid-unit assessment, answering questions about juxtaposition from the...
Weber County Library
Abstract Ideas Explored: Writing with Extended Metaphor
A 25-page packet includes eight detailed lesson plans centered around poems by Emily Dickinson. Each lesson begins with a burning question that students attempt to answer by using evidence from Dickinson's poems.
Minnesota Department of Natural Resoures
Tree Life
The life of a tree is the focus of a packet consisting of several activities all covering a different subject. Second graders measure shadows, make pinecone critters, write poems, count rings, complete a word search, play tree tag, and...