Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Poetic Elements Are Fun!

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Engage your class in the elements of poetry with a series of lessons and activities. The plans cover simile, metaphor, personification, onomatopoeia, alliteration, and imagery. Learners come up their their own metaphors, identify poetic...
Lesson Plan
Facing History and Ourselves

Hardship and Hope: Teaching Amanda Gorman's "New Day's Lyric"

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Class members come together to study Amanda Gorman's poem "New Day's Lyric." After a close reading of the poem, learners watch a video of Gorman reading her poem, and then craft additional lines for the poem where they offer suggestions...
Lesson Plan
National Endowment for the Humanities

“The Great Migration” by Minnie Bruce Pratt

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Minnie Bruce Pratt's poem, "The Great Migration," offers young scholars an opportunity to reflect on how where we come from influences who we are. Groups conduct a close reading of the poem, recording observations about the poem's...
Lesson Plan
Poetry Out Loud

The Tabloid Ballad

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
What do the theme song from Gilligan's Island, the nursery rhyme "The Owl and the Pussy-Cat," and the poem "The Shooting of Dan McGrew" all have in common? Why, they're ballads of course! Challenge your young balladeers to compose their...
Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Looking Closely at Stanza 1—Identifying Rules to Live By Communicated in “If”

For Teachers 6th Standards
Here is a lesson plan in which pupils connect themes and rules to live by from the story Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis to those found in the poem If by Rudyard Kipling. First, scholars discuss their reading and review Bud's...
Lesson Plan
ReadWriteThink

Writing Free Verse in the "Voice" of Cesar Chavez

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Introduce middle schoolers to free verse poetry with a instructional activity that has young poets read two free verse poems and list the common characteristics of the form. They then read a passage from Cesar Chavez's biography and a...
Lesson Plan
National Endowment for the Humanities

"From Citizen, VI [On the Train the Woman Standing]," Claudia Rankine

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Claudia Rankine's poem "From Citizen, VI [On the Train the Woman Standing]," asks readers to consider direct and more subtle forms of prejudice. After discussing the format of the poem, its tone, and the emotions expressed, class members...
Lesson Plan
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Curated OER

Reflection

For Teachers 7th Standards
The tenth lesson in the 12-part poetry unit asks seventh graders to reflect on their learning about poetry and share their work with other poets.
Lesson Plan
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Curated OER

Mood

For Teachers 7th Standards
Young scholars learn how to distinguish between the mood of a piece of writing (how the work makes the reader feel) and the tone (the writer's attitude toward the material) in the sixth lesson in a poetry unit. After watching two very...
Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Introducing “If” and Noting Notices and Wonders of the First Stanza

For Teachers 6th Standards
After reading chapter 14 of the story Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis, scholars take part in a read-aloud of the poem If by Rudyard Kipling and compare it to the reading of Bud, Not Buddy. Learners then go deeper into the poem...
Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Notices, Wonders, and Vocabulary of the Third Stanza of “If”

For Teachers 6th Standards
How does one's experience reading a poem's text differ from listening to its audio version? Delve into the insightful question with the poem, If by Rudyard Kipling, as pupils compare and contrast their experience using a note-taking...
Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Grade 10 ELA Module 1: Unit 1, Lesson 5

For Teachers 10th Standards
If you've ever wished you could respond to an author's message, an instructional activity that connects three poems with the same concept will appeal to you. Based on the first few lessons' focus on Christopher Marlowe's "The Passionate...
Lesson Plan
Prestwick House

The Poetry of Bob Dylan

For Teachers 9th - 10th Standards
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...
Lesson Plan
K20 LEARN

If You're a Bird, I'm a Bird: Symbolism

For Teachers 8th - 9th Standards
Would a bluebird be as scary as a vulture? Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" is the central text in a lesson about symbolism. After a close reading of the poem, learners consider what the raven might represent to the narrator. They then...
Lesson Plan
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Curated OER

Revision

For Teachers 7th Standards
Young poets learn the value of using a thesaurus when crafting and revising poems. They examine poems rich in figurative language and then a revised version with the figurative language removed. To demonstrate what they have learned,...
Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Looking Closely at Stanza 3—Identifying Rules to Live By Communicated in “If”

For Teachers 6th Standards
Just as Bud, from the novel Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis, had rules to live by, so does the poem, If by Rudyard Kipling, but how do the two relate? Pupils delve deep into the poem's third stanza, participate in a grand...
Lesson Plan
Facing History and Ourselves

Identity and Place

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Build scholars' ability to understand their own values and learn about World War II at the same time. Scholars write poetry and discuss identity and place in depth with an in-depth social studies resource. 
Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Grade 11 ELA Module 2: Unit 2, Lesson 10

For Teachers 11th Standards
Audre Lorde's poem "From the House of Yemanjá" describes the speaker carrying two women on her back—she must be strong! Pupils read the second stanza using instructional activity 10 of 14 from the Grade 11 ELA Module 2: Unit 2 series....
Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Analyzing the Significance of the Novel’s Title: Connecting the Universal Refugee Experience to Inside Out and Back Again, Part 2

For Teachers 8th Standards
How does poetry help people better understand societal issues? Pupils participate in a jigsaw activity to analyze poems from the novel Inside Out & Back Again. Next, they connect the poems to real-life refugee experiences from the...
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Facing History and Ourselves

Responding to Difference in Democracy

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Disagreements happen in a diverse democracy. It's what people do about these differences in a diverse society that the resource models. After listening to an eight-minute podcast about a woman who collaborated with people who have very...
Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Comparing and Contrasting: Seeing and Hearing Different Genres

For Teachers 6th Standards
Let's compare and contrast! Scholars use a Venn diagram to compare and contrast the experience of reading a poem and listening to its audio version. Next, they complete graphic organizers, comparing two different genres: a poem and a...
Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Analyzing, Comparing, Sharing: Modern Voices

For Teachers 6th Standards
What do modern voices sound like? Scholars explore the topic, reading two concrete poems from John Grandit's Blue Lipstick and analyzing them using a graphic organizer. Next, they read a third poem and work with partners to look for...
Lesson Plan
Academy of American Poets

The Immigrant Experience

For Teachers 4th - 6th Standards
The Buttonhook by Mary Jo Salter is the focus of a unit that explores the immigration experience to Ellis Island. First, scholars bring in an artifact that represents their heritage. A group-exercise allows them to share and discuss...
Lesson Plan
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Learning for Justice

Maya Angelou

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
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...

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