Students explore the visual, auditory, and verbal worlds offered by iLife applications to create a project that engages all learners and learning styles. They create a class book and CD of nature poems and artwork.

If you're looking to tie rap music into poetry writing, this would be a good presentation to use as you kick off your mini-unit. Learners are given a brief, but descriptive, history of rap music and rap poetry. The slides include...

Have your music lovers examine song lyrics and identify the poetry elements or tools used by a lyricist. They review the song individually before working in groups to discuss what they discovered about the song's narrator or character...

Students analyze, discuss and compare sources of inspiration, use of words and imagery, and other differences in writing styles between two featured songwriters. This is an introductory lesson to a creative project unit.

Students read various examples of poetry and create a poetry portfolio. In this poetry writing lesson, students work at their own pace to complete a poetry portfolio with examples of the different poetic forms demonstrated. ...

Engage your class in art analysis of Indian Look-Alike by Melanie Yazzie. Using this work of art as inspiration, writers compose a poem or short story. After a peer review session, the teacher conveys information about the work of art as...

Jazz and the City, Jazz and the Civil Rights Movement, Jazz and Gender, Jazz and Literature, Jazz and the Arts, Jazz and Film. Here's a packet of unit plans organized around themes that reflect American culture. Each unit examines how...

In need of a few great ways to teach an arts-enriched lesson on astronomy? This resource contains several interesting ideas that link poetry to the stars in the sky. These suggestions are very simple and could use a teachers touch, but...

Young scholars explore nature by participating in a poetry writing activity. In this forest investigation lesson, students identify images and feelings they experienced while they were in a forest on a class trip. Young scholars identify...

Middle schoolers interpret poetry though movement. In this poetry lesson students take a poem they've previously read and discussed in class and work in pairs to develop gestures for each line.

Remember learning to spell “encyclopedia” by singing along with Jiminy Cricket? How about using a singing exercise to learn the names of the presidents? “The Presidents Song,” includes the names, in order, from Washington to Coolidge....

Introduce your middle schoolers to the lives of past Native Americans. First, learners work together to put photographs in a sequence. Then, using their sequence, they create stories to share with the whole class. No matter how old your...

The Harlem Renaissance if the focus of a carefully crafted, interdisciplinary unit designed to introduce middle schoolers to the contributions key figures made to American art and culture during the period. Class members select...

Students analyze how a poet uses language to capture creatures and draft a poem on a 'sinister' animal. In this poetry analysis lesson, students read Ted Hughes' poem 'Pike' and analyze pictures of pike fish. Students use their research...

Examine the contributions of African-Americans in the worlds of art and literature. Over the course of a few days, young scholars will read and analyze a poem, a short story, and a piece of art. They complete a range of...

Help young readers find, identify, and use their voices with a set of empowering activities based on Peter H. Reynolds' trilogy of books. Sky Color, Ish, and The Dot focus on recognizing moods and treating each other...

Engage your middle schoolers with Pastor Martin Niemoller's famous poem that begins, "First they came for the communists." Now that you have their attention, send learners to the various work stations you created to have them explore...

Learners collect memorabilia and create shadow boxes in the style of David Stewart. They also compose a poem and explain their identity in an oral presentation. This is a rare lesson that works quite well for a variety of age levels.

Create songs and raps to develop an understanding of the proper use of common misused words and homophones. First, your class defines misused words and homophones correctly by utilizing the words in a rap or song. Then they use...

Students determine if Lincoln and Whitman ever met and write a dialogue between the two men. In this Whitman and Lincoln instructional activity, students read Whitman's poem "Beat! Beat! Drums!" and connect it to the events of Lincoln's...

Making a book is a fun art activity that can extend itself into so many different core subjects. Listed are the instructions and materials needed to create accordion-style books. Learners can use the basic tools to construct small books...

A series of 4 activities foster critical thinking, careful observation, and creative expression with the work of Canadian artist Robert Harris. Learners respond to half a painting and then to the whole picture while listening to a poem;...

Students learn what goals Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had when he wanted to change the inequality of the United States.