National Humanities Center
Teaching Emily Dickinson: A Common Core Close Reading Seminar
Three of Emily Dickinson's poems, "I like to see it," "Because I could not stop for Death," and "We grow accustomed to the Dark," provide instructors with an opportunity to model for class members how to use close reading strategies to...
California Federation of Chaparral Poets, Inc
Poetic Devices
Have everything you need to know about the elements of poetry with a nine-page handout. Split into four categories—word sounds, meanings, arrangement, and imagery—budding poets may reference terms, read definitions, descriptions, and...
Curated OER
Poetry In Motion
Fourth graders read and analyze poetry and examine the process of writing poetry. They read and analyze the poem "From a Railway Carriage" by Robert Louis Stevenson, and answer comprehension questions. They identify the similes,...
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.
Curated OER
Limericks
Introduce your class to the limerick with a focus on the form and its history. Resource is short on procedure, but contains useful suggestions about where to look for school-appropriate limericks for young readers. Examine the...
BPE
Teacher Guide for Faster Passage: "Sympathy" and "Caged Bird" Poetry
Prepare class members for formative assessments of student thinking in reading (FAST-R) with a resource that compares Paul Laurence Dunbar's "Sympathy" and Maya Angelou's "Caged Bird." Readers respond to 10 multiple choice questions and...
Curated OER
Edward Lear, Limericks, and Nonsense
Introduce your class to the delights of nonsense poetry and explore literary devices with the writing of Edward Lear. Learners identify rhyme and meter as well as figures of speech, alliteration, and onomatopoeia in "The Owl and the...
Curated OER
The Real Emily Dickinson
Enhance your learners' knowledge of Emily Dickinson and her poetry. Specific questions ask for lines and words from poems. Feedback for an online quiz is available immediately.
Curated OER
Edward Lear, Limericks, and Nonsense: There Once Was...
Students recognize poetic devices including rhyme, syllabification, and meter. They identify the characteristics of a nonsense poem and of a limerick. They write their own limericks.
Livaudais-Baker English Classroom
An Introduction to Sonnets
What is 14 lines long, written in iambic pentameter, and follows a predetermined rhyme scheme? Introduce scholars to the sonnet, one of the most famous of the fixed-form types of poetry, with a 10-slide presentation that includes the...
Curated OER
The Poetics of Hip Hop
The Bard, Nikki Giovanni, Mos Def? “Sonnet 18,” Ego Tripping,” and “Black on Both Sides”? Sure! It’s the poetics. Class members compare the lyrics, rhythm, and rhyme in classic poetry to hip-hop in a richly detailed resource that...
Curated OER
Listening to Poetry: Sounds of the Sonnet
High schoolers experience and enjoy the sounds of poetry. They erform sound experiments with sonnets and closely read and analyze a sonnet by Shakespeare. Students write an analysis of how sound affects meaning in a sonnet chosen from...
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...
Curated OER
Rap as Lyrical Poetry
Students investigate the history of rap as an analysis of lyrical poetry and hip hop culture. In this rap analysis lesson, students watch a PBS NewsHour clip about the difference between rap music and hip hop culture. Students analyze...
Curated OER
Silhouettes and Interiors
Students create a multimedia piece that integrates drawing and collage. Students learn about metacognition and the discovering of self through genres of art and literature by using these steps: inspiration, brainstorm, application,...
Curated OER
Introduction to Poetry
Students determine the rhyme scheme of a poem and find examples of similes. In this poetry analysis lesson, students review definitions needed for the topic and analyze the rhyme or rhythm for the example poems. Students also find...
Curated OER
The Road Not Taken
Students analyze Robert Frost's poem "The Road Not Taken." In this poem analysis lesson, students review vocabulary for the poem and read the poem. Students discuss the meanings in each stanza, the theme, and its rhyme scheme. Students...
Curated OER
Edward Lear, Limericks, and Nonsense: There Once Was?
Students explore limericks. In this poetry writing lesson, students listen to and read a variety of poems written by Edward Lear. Students count syllables and identify meter by clapping as they read aloud. Students complete a limerick...
Teacher Web
Poetic Sound Devices
As part of a study of poetic devices, kids are asked to identify the assonance, consonance, and alliteration found in a series of lines of poetry, and then identify the rhyme scheme and the types of rhyme found in Poe's "Annabel Lee,"...
Curated OER
This Isn't Your Little Sister's Poetry: Analyzing and Understanding a Variety of Acclaimed Poets
Eleventh graders are introduced to various basic and advanced poetic devices. They read several poems and practice identifying poetic elements. They identify at least two different poems and substantiate why they belong in the canon.
Curated OER
African American Poetry: Family and Traditions
Learners are introduced to the elements of African-American poetry. As a class, they are read different types of poems to discover there are different styles of poems and practice rhyming words. They share information on their family...
Curated OER
Printable Poem Starter: If You Were an Ornament
Students have the opportunity to finish a Christmas-themed poem about an ornament hanging on a tree. The first two lines establish a simple rhyme scheme that students can follow as they finish the poem. The worksheet includes a picture...
Curated OER
Poetry Search
In this Literature worksheet, students identify and locate vocabulary terms related to poetry. There are 27 words located in the word search.
Curated OER
Japanese Culture
First graders research information about Japanese people and culture. They read a Japanese story listening for rhyme schemes. They create their own rhyme schemes. They discuss Japanese food and sample rice cakes. They read Haiku and then...