+
Unit Plan
Bolton Healthy Schools

Deal with Poetry

For Teachers 7th - 12th
The stated goal of this unit is to use poetry to "improve the emotional health of young people." Budding poets read and then supply their own lines for poems that deal with alienation, loneliness, and rejection.
+
Organizer
National Endowment for the Humanities

Elements of the Epic Hero Cycle

For Students 9th - 12th
Here's a handy worksheet applicable to any study of epic heroes, including those in epic poetry. Readers record examples from their text that identify the quest, the tests, helpers and companions, as well as the low point, the...
+
Lesson Plan
National Endowment for the Humanities

Sor Juana, la poetisa: Los sonetos

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Examine two of Sor Juana's sonnets in depth. Learners first listen to an audio recording or a reading of the sonnets and then analyze the structure and form, paying attention to elements of the Baroque and el gongorismo. Assess student...
+
Lesson Plan
Prestwick House

Discovering Genre: Poetry

For Students 9th - 12th Standards
Work on literal and figurative meanings with a lesson plan focused on Robert Frost's "After Apple-Picking" and "The Road Not Taken." Readers identify the literary devices used by the poet to set the poems' themes, settings, and narrative...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

1900 America: Primary Sources and Epic Poetry

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Using Walt Whitman's Song of Myself and Hart Crane's The Bridge as models, class groups first craft their own epic poems for 1900 and, using primary sources, create a multi-media presentation that captures the sights and sounds of life...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Kite Runner: Setting Poem

For Teachers 9th - 12th
To gain a deeper understanding of the importance of the settings in The Kite Runner, readers use the provided poem frame to create three poems, one for each of the settings in Hosseini's novel.
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Poetry Archive

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Listening to poems about feeling lonely and feeling like an outsider set the stage for a group activity that focuses on Stevie Smith's "Not Waving But Drowning." Groups examine the three stanzas of Smith's poem separately and identify in...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Lincoln is in the House! ("Name-Dropping" Poems and the Power of Connotation)

For Teachers 9th - 12th
“What’s in a name?” Just about everything. Barack Obama, Vincent van Gogh, Justin Bieber. Famous names evoke a multitude of reactions and poets often use the names of famous people in their works precisely because names carry...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Poetry of The Great War: 'From Darkness to Light'?

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students examine World War I poetry for historical context, poetic devices, and participate in a class discussion. They write an analysis of the poetry's form and its content.
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Exploring Contrasts in "The Lanyard," by Billy Collins

For Teachers 7th - 12th Standards
A good gift is hard to find. A “worn truth,” perhaps, as Billy Collins says in his poem, “The Lanyard,” but true nonetheless. After a study of Collins’ tribute to a mother’s love, young poets select an object that sends them “into the...
+
Lesson Plan
K20 LEARN

Blackout Poetry: Re-Envisioning Writing

For Teachers 10th - 11th Standards
Introduce young poets to Blackout Poetry. Much like Found Poems, Blackout Poetry challenges scholars to rethink the process writers may use to craft their poems. After watching a short video in which poet Austin Kleon describes his...
+
Lesson Plan
K20 LEARN

The History of Spoken Word Poetry: Historical and Cultural Perspectives In Literature

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Spoken word poetry, more than almost any other form, reveals the historical and cultural perspective of the poet. High schoolers listen to various spoken word poems, select one to research in-depth, and then apply what they have learned...
+
Lesson Plan
Anti-Defamation League

Social Justice Poetry

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Learners gain insight into how songs and poems express feelings of injustice. They also learn about literary devices and types of poems and make a personal connection when they write their own free verse poems about injustice.
+
Lesson Plan
K20 LEARN

Speak Your Truth: Techniques in Spoken Word Poetry

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
As part of a study of Spoken Word Poetry, class members watch a series of performance videos and note where poets get their ideas and the performance techniques used by the poets. Pupils then draft and share their poems.
+
Lesson Plan
K20 LEARN

Spiders, Spiders, Everywhere: Poetry Analysis - Theme And Metaphor

For Teachers 10th - 12th Standards
Walt Whitman's poem "A Noiseless Patient Spider" provides high schoolers an opportunity to reflect on the importance of perseverance and fortitude. After drafting a Quick Write about a time they tried and tried again to accomplish...
+
Unit Plan
Curated OER

Looking North Of The Greek World: The Slavic Folk Poetry of The Balkans

For Teachers 9th - 11th Standards
Showing how folk poetry keeps alive national heritage is the stated goal of this proposal for a unit on the poetry of the Balkans.
+
Lesson Plan
1
1
National Endowment for the Humanities

Thirteen Ways of Reading a Modernist Poem

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
High schoolers analyze modernist poetry and the role of speaker in example poems. Learners study modernist poems from the Romanticism and Victorian periods as well as Wallace Stevens' "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird." Using a...
+
Lesson Plan
1
1
National Endowment for the Humanities

Emulating Emily Dickinson: Poetry Writing

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
High schoolers analyze mood and voice in Emily Dickinson's poem, "There's a Certain Slant of Light." After the analysis, students write a poem of their own emulating the Dickinson poem, and then write a one-page essay describing what...
+
Lesson Plan
1
1
National Endowment for the Humanities

In Emily Dickinson's Own Words: Letters and Poems

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Analyze the depth and beauty of American Literature by reading Emily Dickinson's letters and poems. The class analyzes Dickinson's poetic style and discusses Thomas Wentworth Higginson's editorial relationship with Dickinson. They pay...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Listening to Poetry: Sounds of the Sonnet

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Learners investigate how sound influences meaning in poetry by listening to sonnets. They write an analysis after listening to and reading sonnets.
+
Lesson Plan
Columbus City Schools

Poetry Speaking and Listening Standards

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Celebrate April's National Poetry Month or enrich a poetry unit with a wealth of language arts material. Class members develop an oral interpretation of a poem and/or develop a podcast interview with a poet. 
+
Lesson Plan
National Endowment for the Humanities

Walt Whitman to Langston Hughes: Poems for a Democracy

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Explore the idea of democratic poetry. Upper graders read Walt Whitman, examining daguerreotypes, and compare Whitman to Langston Hughes. They describe aspects of Whitman's I Hear America Singing to Langston Hughes' Let America Be...
+
Unit Plan
Smithsonian Institution

Smithsonian In Your Classroom: The Music in Poetry

For Teachers K - 12th
Take poetry off the page and put it into terms of movement, physical space and, finally, music with this series of three lessons from the Smithsonian Institution. This resource introduces students to two poetic forms that originated as...
+
PPT
Curated OER

Poetry: The Most Compact Form of Literature

For Teachers 11th - Higher Ed
Introducing or need to review literary devices and terms for a study of poetry? Though text heavy, the explanations and examples of key poetic devices will provide learners with the vocabulary they need to discuss and craft poems.

Other popular searches