Curated OER
Spoken Word Poetry
High schoolers examine the spoken work poetry of Abiodun Oyewole. They discuss the West African Griot tradition, listen to spoken word poetry, write and perform a poem, and watch a video excerpt of a poetry workshop.
Curated OER
Is Perception Reality? Writing Paradoxes in Poetry
Explore the paradox of the universe - or, at least, of popular music - with this lesson. Using the songs "Inaudible Melodies" by Jack Johnson and "She" by Green Day, your class will complete a graphic organizer to help them understand...
Curated OER
Symphonic Poetry
Students interpret the themes in Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture, create a 6-line poem based on the themes in the Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture, and define musical terms related to the study of programmatic music in...
Curated OER
Research a Poet and Explicate a Poem by that Poet
Using your school's media center, internet research, and a SMART board, 7th graders research a chosen poet and write a research report. Additionally, 7th graders explicate one poem by the poet within their report. Several resource links...
Curated OER
Lesson: Unfolding Water Lilies
Comparing two different artistic mediums can be a welcome challenge. Learners compare Monet's The Water Lily Pond to three nature-inspired poems. They consider how each art form is interrelated, descriptive, and expressive. They then...
Curated OER
Lesson: That Long Jakes
Cross-media analysis takes time and attention to detail. The class analyzes the painting Long Jakes and the poem "Backward Bill." They pay attention to the similarities and differences in each piece, looking for details that describe the...
Curated OER
Life Reflections in Songwriting and Poetry
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.
Curated OER
Magical Creatures Land
The opening of J.R.R. Tolkein’s The Hobbit provides a model of how to use rich details to create a setting. After reading the description of Bilbo Baggins’ abode, young writers create their own magical home for a fantasy creature. The...
Anchorage School District
“Dressing Up” an Introduction
Are your pupils ready to move beyond a thesis statement by adding additional detail to their introductory paragraphs? Provide this handout to give your class some ideas for spiffing up their work. The page includes a sample paragraph...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Seeing Sense in Photographs & Poems
Learners analyze photographs and poetry as forms of each other. In this poetry and photography analysis lesson, students use the photographs of Alfred Stieglitz and poetry from William Carlos William to explore how poetry and painting...
Curated OER
Balloon Writing
For this writing activity worksheet, students create a poem within a balloon utilizing a word box of words to choose from. Students also design their own balloon and write a short description of it on paper.
Curated OER
May Writing Ideas
For this writing worksheet, learners explore and discover a variety of ways to help make writing more interesting and creative.
Curated OER
Descriptive and Imaginative Poetry
Students use descriptive and imaginative words and images in poetry. In this poetry lesson, students choose a picture to describe to the class. As the student gives the description, the classmates choose the words and images that best...
Curated OER
The Tempest: Picture Poems
Students, in pairs, write descriptive poems of selected images of The Tempest using vocabulary from a word bank. They pass the poems only to other groups and then they attempt to draw an image solely based on the poem.
Curated OER
Acrostic Poetry
In this Acrostic Poetry worksheet, students utilize descriptive language to write an Acrostic poem incorporating the word apples.
Curated OER
Color Poems
Students describe colors. In this descriptive writing lesson, students brainstorm color descriptions using all of the senses except sight. Students write poems including similes, sensory images, and interesting word choice. Examples are...
Curated OER
Geometry Poetry
Students write an original diamante poem about a shape of their choice. They examine how to write a diamante poem, and select a shape and write a poem using Microsoft Word software.
Curated OER
Poems for Every Season
Young scholars read and explore autumn poetry. In this poetry lesson plan, students read Autumnblings and are introduced to different poetic forms. Lesson includes ideas for exploring the poetic forms presented in the book and...
Curated OER
Splish, Splash Poetry
Students write weather shape poems and sing weather related songs. In this creative writing activity, students read the book, It's Raining, It's Pouring and list weather words they heard in the story. Students use the writing process to...
Curated OER
Descriptive Writing
Students discuss the importance of using adjectives in writing. They separate into five groups, each group is given a bag with an object inside to describe using just one sense. They write a description of a Hershey's Kiss using adjectives.
Curated OER
Adjectives in Poetry
Students read selected poems from the book Beast Feast, by Douglas Florian. They identify at least two to three keyword facts about each beast highlighted in the poems.
Curated OER
Our Poetic Planet : Writing Poems about the Earth
Students share their thoughts regarding nature. In this poetry lesson, students compose poems in different formats that feature weather and clouds.
Curated OER
Design Life: Exploring Society Through Art
Introduce learners to the design elements and artifacts of interior environments in Victorian Canada (or any people and era you care to explore) based on artwork that represents their world. Your secondary social historians view the art...
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
We Can Work It Out: English Language Development Lessons (Theme 7)
Listen, look, speak, and move are the routine steps of the English language development lessons found in a We Can Work It Out themed unit. Language proficiency is reinforced through picture cards, poems, and grand discussions about...