Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Learning Network: Poetry Pairing July, 21, 2011

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Although not a complete lesson plan, this set of emotionally powerful texts could be used in a variety of lessons. From The New York Times' Learning Network site, the resource includes a poem, an excerpt from a New York Times article and...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Collective Poetry: Teaching Tolerance

For Teachers 2nd - 4th
Help your class create collective poetry following a simple, engaging model from Teaching Tolerance (tolerance.org). Each young poet writes five things on an index card: sayings from others, favorite sound, favorite place, favorite...
Lesson Plan
Hawaiʻi State Department of Education

Poems That Dance

For Teachers 5th
Combine the elements of dance with the actions in a poem. Learners review basic grammar, write an action-packed cinquain poem, and then choreograph a dance based on their cinquains. After the dances are done, they'll discuss the elements...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Mad-Libbing Your Way Into Modern Poetry

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Use a Mad-Libs like activity to create modern poetry! Writers will identify different words and their parts of speech and study "The Red Wheelbarrow" by Williams Carlos Williams. Then, use the sheets attached to craft your own poem! An...
Lesson Plan
Scholastic

Reading Poems From the Academy of American Poets Chancellors

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Start a lesson on poetic voice with a peer to peer discussion on what characterizes the strength in the voice with which a writer chooses to express himself/herself. In pairs, readers are tasked with reading and creating T-charts for...
Lesson Plan
Scholastic

Selecting Favorite Poems From Historical Poets

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Here is a poetry lesson that begins with a free-association activity focused on the word voice. Learners each sit alone for a moment and make sounds that express how they are currently feeling, and then turn to their partners to share...
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

Exaggerated Poetry

For Teachers 2nd - 5th
Students use physical poses and vocal choices to create emphasis in communication. For this exaggerated Poetry lesson, students use physical movement and vocal choices to exaggerate an expression make a connection between literary...
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

Letters from Emily Dickinson: Letters and Poems

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students analyze how Emily Dickinson perceived herself as a poet. Students read correspondence between Dickinson and her preceptor, Mr. Higginson to determine the depths of their relationship. Students interpret several of her poems.
Lesson Plan
Scholastic

Sky

For Teachers 2nd - 5th
Lead your class through a writing exercise that explores personification. After listening to the teacher read a poem that personifies the sky, they go step by step through the writing their own personification poems.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Musical Poetry

For Teachers 9th - 12th
High schoolers analyze lyrics of their favorite songs as examples of alliteration, metaphor, Onomatopoeia, personification, rhyme, and simile to determine the purpose of these devices in poetry. They use their analysis to create a...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Poetry Connection: After Reading Strategy for Fever 1793

For Teachers 9th - 12th
“If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster/And treat those two impostors just the same. . .” After concluding Fever 1793 class members engage in a reading strategy that asks them to connect their thoughts about the self-reliance theme in...
Lesson Plan
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Walt Whitman: From Song of Myself

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Looking for a resource that models how to read and analyze a poem? Check out this packet that uses sections of Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself" to demonstrate how to paraphrase, note literary elements, and identify the poet's inferences.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Deciphering the Mechanics of Poetry

For Teachers 7th - 9th
After a review of poetic terms, groups are given an object and they create a poem using a simile, a metaphor, internal rhyme, end rhyme, alliteration, and personification. Groups then exchange objects and repeat the process. Consider...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Figurative Language

For Teachers 5th Standards
Fifth graders identify and categorize figurative language in poetry.They read a poem and find an example of figurative language, then read the included hand-out on figurative language, and describe each type of figurative language. They...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Haiku Movies

For Teachers 3rd - 6th
Students create a movie to illustrate an original haiku poem in this upper-elementary school, Language Arts lesson utilizing technology. The lesson meets state standards for Language Arts and includes a materials list and possible lesson...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Poetry SLAM: Youth Verse Competition

For Teachers 8th - 10th
Use this model, based on urban youth poetry competitions, to create an engaging venue for your poets to share their work out loud, with expression. Build class community, have fun, and celebrate your authors' original verse....
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Library Media: Poetry

For Teachers 5th
Fifth graders explore different kinds of poetry. They work in groups to collect different styles of poetry. Then they use charts to organize the attributes of various poems. Conclude the lesson by having each individual choose the style...
Lesson Plan
Film English

To This Day

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Bring bullying out into the open with an involved lesson surrounding the animated version of Shane Koyczan's spoken word poem "To This Day." Class members discuss images related to bullying and watch the video without sound. They write a...
Lesson Plan
Main Memory Network

Longfellow's "The Village Blacksmith" and Whitman's "Song of Myself"

For Teachers 11th - 12th Standards
Although the work Americans do has changed over time, the plight of the American worker has largely remained the same. Facilitate a class discussion aboutAmerican workers using Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "The Village Blacksmith" and...
Lesson Plan
Poetry4kids

Alliteration and Assonance Lesson Plan

For Teachers 3rd - 8th Standards
Scholars analyze the poem My Puppy Punched Me in the Eye by Ken Nesbitt in order to locate examples of alliteration and assonance. After reading the poem, alliterative words are underlined and assonant words are circled. 
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Art of Locomotion

For Teachers 10th
Tenth graders examine the artistic legacy of trains by comparing the representations of trains in the painting of Turner and the photographs of Terry Evans. They write an essay, story or poem using their own observations of trains,...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

"Ing" Words as Descriptors

For Teachers K - 4th
This clever lesson has your students listen to story about bugs, work together to brainstorm list of "ing" words that describe bugs, create t-chart of words, choose words to place in poem template to create class poem about bugs, and use...