ReadWriteThink
Sonic Patterns: Exploring Poetic Techniques Through Close Reading
Robert Hayden's poem "Those Winter Sundays" serves as the anchor text in a five-part lesson plan that takes the mystery out of poetry analysis by modeling explicit strategies for pupils to employ to conduct a close reading of a poem....
Robert Frost Farm
“Choose Something Like a Star” Discussion—Applying Style to Content
Robert Frost's "Choose Something Like a Star" and John Keats' "Bright Star" provide the text for a two-part instructional activity in which class members analyze the effects of style on meaning in poetry. Randall Thompson's song cycle...
National Endowment for the Humanities
In Emily Dickinson's Own Words: Letters and Poems
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...
Curated OER
Style and Voice
Develop the writing skills of your high school class. Writers consider their personal style and voice, read selections by other authors, and then write pieces that challenge them to experiment with their own style.
Indiana University
World Literature: "One Evening in the Rainy Season" Shi Zhecun
Did you know that modern Chinese literature “grew from the psychoanalytical theory of Sigmund Freud”? Designed for a world literature class, seniors are introduced to “One Evening in the Rainy Season,” Shi Zhecun’s stream of...
Prestwick House
The Poetry of Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan's selection as the 2016 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, the first songwriter ever to receive the honor, has focused the attention of a new generation on the work of the legendary artist. Class members analyze the...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Responding to Emily Dickinson: Poetic Analysis
Learners explore Emily Dickinson's poem "Safe in Their Alabaster Chambers." In this Dickinson poem lesson, students analyze the poem as proof of Dickinson' awareness of her reader. Learners analyze her style and identify her editorial...
Friends of Fort McHenry
Sensory “Star Spangled Banner”
Music can help us to access memories and events in a meaningful way, and Francis Scott Key used specific words to convey what he had seen and felt when writing what would become America's national anthem. Help your class connect to the...
Curated OER
Teaching Selected Poems from Jim Wayne Miller's the Brier Poems
Students explore the basic elements of poetry through Appalachian life poetry. In this poetry lesson, students read seven poems from Jim Wayne Miller's the Brier Poems and complete poetry analysis activities for each poem.
Learning for Justice
Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou's poem, "Still I Rise", offers young scholars an opportunity to consider how poets use literary devices to create powerful messages. After a close reading and discussion of the poem, class members reflect on how they can...
Curated OER
Language Arts, Music, Poetry: Blues Style
This instructional activity focuses on how the blues both operates as poetry and informs the poetry of many prominent African American poets. Students consider the poetic devices and recurring themes in blues lyrics and the significance...
Curated OER
Poetic Math Greeting Cards
Fourth graders work in groups; collect data in a survey; depict in tables, charts, or graphs the results of the survey; and make predictions. They use creative writing skills and computer skills to generate a greeting card of their own.
Curated OER
Extreme Poetry Vocabulary
Challenge your class with this comprehensive list of literary vocabulary words. Learners take a pre-test, look up definitions, come up with an example, and then take a post-test. You might use this prior to a unit about poetic devices in...
Vanderbilt University
Stories from the Panama Canal
The stories of the Silver People, the West Indies immigrants hired to work on the Panama Canal, come to life in a lesson about the building of the Panama Canal. Groups research why the canal was built, how it was build, the working...
Curated OER
Poetry Prodigies
Learners in three classes in different locations become Poetry Prodigies as they use iChat AV and an iSight camera to teach and explore from each other about different poetic styles. They explore six types of poetry are taught:...
Curated OER
Emily Dickinson & Poetic Imagination: "Leap, plashless"
Students analyze the poems of Emily Dickinson and write their own nature poem. In this poetry analysis lesson, students read Dickinson poetry and analyze the use of imagery, sound, and metaphor. Students write their own nature poem using...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Thirteen Ways of Reading a Modernist Poem
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...
Curated OER
1900 America: Historical Voices, Poetic Visions
Students examine the United States at the turn of the century. Using primary source documents, they interpret them within a specific historical context. Using this information, they write a poem with metaphors and a specific meter They...
Curated OER
American Rhythms
Students combine elements of music with poetry. In this creative writing lesson, students examine poems from a variety of authors with varying writing styles. Students explore the different elements of poetry, including tone, rhythm,...
Curated OER
Poetry
Fifth graders read several poems by famous poets and identify what about their style makes them unique. They then analyze and compare poetic style, use of forms and themes. Next, 5th graders investigate and collect different examples of...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Emulating Emily Dickinson: Poetry Writing
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...
Curated OER
Creating Found Poetry From Picture Books
Students use picture books to identify poetic elements and word choice. They create a "found poem".
Curated OER
Letters from Emily Dickinson: Letters and Poems
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.
Curated OER
Carl Sandburg's "Chicago": Bringing a Great City Alive
Carl Sandburg composed poetry that conveyed a time and place in American Literature and history. Learners identify the literary techniques he uses to describe the historical and cultural context of living in Chicago. They define the...