EngageNY
Revisiting Big Metaphors and Themes: Revising and Beginning to Perform Two-Voice Poems
Now that your class has read all of Esperanza Rising, take the time to tackle big metaphors and themes. Pupils will participate in an activity called Chalk Talk, in which they circulate around the room in small groups and add...
Read Write Think
Poetry Portfolios: Using Poetry to Teach Reading
Over the course of five periods, scholars create a poetry portfolio. They begin with a reading of the poem, Firefly. With a focus on vocabulary, learners reread the poem then look for sight words and other skills.
Utah Education Network (UEN)
7th Grade Poetry: I Am Poem
A study of Alfred Noyes's poem "The Highwayman" opens a lesson about narrative poetry. Scholars read the poem and compare it to the animated video version using a worksheet. Learners look at models and use a template to craft an "I Am"...
Curated OER
De-Mystifying Poetry: Understanding Narrative Poetry
Tenth graders explore narrative poetry. They analyze sections of a poem and present to groups. They compose their own narrative poems using pictures as prompts. They exchange their poems and analyze their classmate's poem.
Anti-Defamation League
10 Ideas for Teaching Black History Month
Celebrate Black History Month with the help of 10 ideas that delve deep into the history, major events, contributions, famous African Americans, and sheds light on how scholars today can take a proactive stance on current civil rights...
Curated OER
Creating a Found Poem
Teach your English learners about theme through this found poem project. Class members read two versions of O. Henry's "The Gift of the Magi": the original version and a synopsis. After learning about themes and connecting theme to their...
Curated OER
Plot the Oysters' Peril!
Use comic strips to teach sequencing in narrative poetry. As homework, each class member selects a comic strip with 4-8 frames, cuts the frames apart, places the pieces in an envelope, and brings the envelope to class. Class members swap...
Curated OER
Poetry Shared Reading
Students explore poetry. For this poetry lesson, students discover the qualities of good writing and the characteristics of poetry. Students practice reading poems in different ways. Studnets also discuss the mood of the poem and the...
Roald Dahl
The Twits - Mrs Twit
"A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly." The second instructional activity in an 11-part unit that accompanies The Twits by Roald Dahl uses poetry to encourage positive character traits. Mrs. Twit has ugly...
Curated OER
Making Poetry Writing Fun!
Students find a group of words from an unlikely source and turn them into a poem. They discuss the central image in two well-known poems by Langston Hughes and Emily Dickinson. They write their own short poem expressing one central...
Curated OER
Native American Culture
Students read a variety of Native American Literature and discuss the main idea by answering critical thinking questions about the poem. Students use context clues to understand the feeling of the Native American culture about the Earth....
Curated OER
Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon Lesson Plan
Students explore bullying and positive self concept with Molly Lou Melon. In this Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon lesson, students determines the main idea and essential message from text.
Shmoop
ELA.CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.10
How do you assess what your pupils have learned over the course of the year? Find out how competent they are at reading and analyzing age-level literature with the ideas presented here. Included in this resource are two suggested...
Curated OER
What Is Haiku
Middle schoolers engage in a instructional activity that is concerned with the study of poetry while focusing on Haiku as a format. They practice reading a variety of different pieces of literature in order to increase exposure. Students...
Curated OER
You've Got to be Taught to Hate and Fear
Students explore themes of prejudice and acceptance. In this character education lesson, students listen and respond to several fiction books, poems, and lyrics with a similar theme. Students locate articles with the main idea of...
Schmoop
ELA.CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.9-10.2
Although the ideas on how to implement the skill RI.9-10.2 are lacking, the assessment would work well for challenging learners to summarize, and identify the main ideas of presidential speeches that are of similar topics. One could use...
Curated OER
Ballads and Communication
Students compare and contrast different forms of communication. In this poetry lesson plan, students focus on the ballad form and read "Timothy Winters". Students draw conclusions from the ballad and divide into groups to research...
Curated OER
Movies in Your Mind
Students practice visualizing elements from a story. While reading a poem aloud, the instructor models what they see as they read the passage. Students draw a picture of a scene from the book "How to Eat Fried Worms" after reading it...
Curated OER
Honoring Our Veterans Through Poetry Prewriting
Students learn about the origins of holidays and cultural practices in the United States
Curated OER
Teaching the Hindu-Buddhist Tradition in East Asian Culture Through Asian Literature and Film
Students explore various intellectual traditions which dominate human history through a variety of contemporary pieces of literature which exemplify the traditions. Biblical monotheism, Greek rationalism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism...
Curated OER
Reflecting/Writing after a field trip or other experience
Students reflect on field trips in writing. In this journal writing lesson, students write about a recent experience by using 4 of their senses to tell what they remember. They turn these into poetry.
Curated OER
A Little Mystery and Intrigue in Writing Short Detective Stories
Pupils read and analyze the twelve short stories in the novel "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes." They create their own detective that has to solve a new kind of crime, and write and edit a short story with their original detective as...
Curated OER
Learning Festival
Fifth graders at this age are very interested in the adventures of knighthood and life in the past, so the unit will serve as a basis for teaching skills while maintaining high interest.
Curated OER
Reading and Writing About the Solar System
Utilizing the classic Magic School Bus series, young scientists explore the solar system. Some excellent worksheets are included in this plan, such as Planet Roll Call and Solar System in Motion. This is an ambitious 5-day unit that...