Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Marriage of Visual and Thematic Aspects of Herbert's Poetry

For Teachers 8th
Eighth graders study the visual aspects of poetry and write a poem using the white space to form a poem into the shape of a plus sign.
Website
British Library

British Library: 20th Century People: Sylvia Plath

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
Read a summary of Sylvia Plath's impact on 20th Century literature and view additional resources such as related articles, collection items, and teacher resources.
Unit Plan
Georgia Department of Education

Ga Virtual Learning: 20th Century and Modern Poetry: World War I

For Students 9th - 10th
This lesson from a unit on 20th Century and Modern Poetry focuses on World War I and war poetry that resulted from the disillusionment and cynicism due to the high casualties and devastation. It features links to the Causes of World War...
Unit Plan
Georgia Department of Education

Ga Virtual Learning: Brit Lit: 20th Century Postmodernism: William Butler Yeats

For Students 9th - 10th
This lesson from a unit on 20th Century Postmodernism, focuses on the poet William Butler Yeats. It provides links to hit biography, a virtual tour of Yeats' life and works, and two poems. Students are asked to respond to two questions...
Website
British Library

British Library: 20th Century People: Wilfred Owen

For Students 9th - 10th
Read a summary of Wilfred Owen's impact on 20th Century war poetry and view additional resources such as related articles, collection items, and teacher resources.
Lesson Plan
British Library

British Library: 20th Century Teaching Resources: Ted Hughes's Birthday Letters

For Teachers 9th - 10th
In these activities, students will consider Ted Hughes as a poet and a person, as well as some of the literary and personal influences on his writing. They will explore some of his poems in the draft and published form, exploring the...
Lesson Plan
British Library

British Library: 20th Century Teaching Resources: T S Eliot's the Waste Land

For Teachers 9th - 10th Standards
Through close reading of "The Waste Land" in its original manuscript form, students will explore how the poem evolved in the process of editing. By reading contemporary letters and reviews, students will be guided towards a more informed...
Website
British Library

British Library: 20th Century Works: Birthday Letters

For Students 9th - 10th
'Birthday Letters', a collection of 88 poems by the British poet Ted Hughes, revolves around Hughes's relationship with the American poet Sylvia Plath. Read an overview and view additional resources such as articles, collection items,...
Website
British Library

British Library: 20th Century Works: Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats

For Students 9th - 10th
"Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats" is a book of comic verse by the American modernist poet T.S. Eliot. Read an overview of these poems and view additional resources such as articles, collection items, and teacher resources.
Website
British Library

British Library: 20th Century Works: Ariel

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
'Ariel' is a posthumously published collection of poetry by the American poet Sylvia Plath. Read an overview and view additional resources such as articles, collection items, and teacher resources.
Website
British Library

British Library: 20th Century Works: Anthem for Doomed Youth

For Students 9th - 10th
'Anthem for Doomed Youth' is a poem by the British poet Wilfred Owen, drafted at Craiglockhart War Hospital near Edinburgh in 1917. Read an overview and view additional resources such as articles, collection items, and teacher resources.
Website
British Library

British Library: 20th Century Works: Dulce Et Decorum Est

For Students 9th - 10th
'Dulce et Decorum Est' is a poem by the British poet Wilfred Owen, drafted at Craiglockhart War Hospital near Edinburgh in 1917. Read an overview and view additional resources such as articles, collection items, and teacher resources.
Website
City University of New York

Cuny: Dorothy Parker Rothschild

For Students 9th - 10th
This biography of 20th century poet Dorothy Parker discusses the many tragedies that impacted her life and the wit that made her writing famous.
Website
Academy of American Poets

Poets.org: Rita Dove

For Students 9th - 10th
This site houses a brief biography of the 20th-century poet Rita Dove, a native of Akron, Ohio.
Website
Academy of American Poets

Poets.org: Gary Soto

For Students 9th - 10th
This site, part of the official site of the Academy of American Poets, provides an overview of Gary Soto's life and career.
Activity
Other

Twentieth Century Poetry in English

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
The work of many major poets can be reached through links at this site. Includes biographical information on poets and many works.
Handout
Poetry Foundation

Poetry Foundation: Stephen Vincent Benet

For Students 9th - 10th
A short biography of poet Stephen Vincent Benet with links to many of his poems, including "John Brown's Body".
Unit Plan
TED Talks

Ted: Ted Ed: The Poet Who Painted With His Words

For Students 9th - 10th
Among the great poets of literary history, certain names like Homer, Shakespeare and Whitman are instantly recognizable. However, there's an early 20th century great poet whose name you may not know: Guillaume Apollinaire. Genevieve Emy...
Handout
Academy of American Poets

Poets.org: Ezra Pound

For Students 9th - 10th
This is a very good site from the Academy of American Poets about Ezra Pound. The site houses a biography of the poet, a selected bibliography of his work, as well as links to full texts of several of his well known works.
Website
University of Illinois

University of Illinois: Modern American Poetry: Online Companion

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
A site that lists syllabi, biographies, and criticism of many American poets of the 20th century.
Handout
W. W. Norton

Norton Anthology: Twentieth Century Topics

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
Explore the world of Twentieth Century British literature through this informative site. Find out how and why Georgian and Modernism movements developed. Includes a quiz.
Website
Academy of American Poets

Poets.org: Naomi Shihab Nye

For Students 6th - 8th
Short biography of Naomi Shihab Nye, including a picture, three of her poems, and a link to the "Minnows" homepage.
Website
Emory University

Emory University: Lost Poets of the Great War

For Students 9th - 10th
This marvelous site offers a chronology of WWI, an assessment of its cost to society, and links to such poets as Rupert Brooke and Wilfred Owen. Has a plethora of information on the war.
Handout
Other

Nebraska Center for Writers: Weldon Kees

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
Weldon Kees (1914-1955?) was not only an important minor poet of the mid-20th century American literary scene, he was also a fiction writer, playwright, cultural critic and impresario, filmmaker and photographer, abstract expressionist...