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Lesson Plan
Little Stones

How Can Poetry Make People Think and Care?

For Teachers 8th - 12th Standards
Can beautiful words change the world? Literary scholars discover how to paint their visions of change using poetry in a series of three workshops. Each independent topic gives participants a chance to examine their feelings about...
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Lesson Plan
National Endowment for the Humanities

Arabic Poetry: Guzzle a Ghazal!

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
High schoolers research the evolution and cultural significance of the Arabic ghazal form of poetry. They, in groups, compose an original ghazal poem and read it aloud to the class.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Poetry of Chinese Immigration

For Teachers 8th - 10th
Numerous people from China immigrated to the US during the era of industrialization and expansion. Provide your class with a glimpse into the life of a Chinese immigrant through the poetry they left behind. They then compose a poem of...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Agriculture Awareness Through Poetry

For Teachers 8th - 10th Standards
Whether you are viewing a landscape painting of a farm, examining a still-life portrait of a bowl of fruit, or reading a descriptive poem about cultivating food, you can't deny that agriculture plays a major role in visual and language...
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Lesson Plan
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National Endowment for the Humanities

Hopi Poetry

For Teachers K - 5th Standards
The Hopi refer to corn as their children, demonstrating its importance to the Native American group. Class members consider the role of literal and figurative language by examining poetry from this indigenous group. The resource includes...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Creating a Memorial Day Poster Poem

For Teachers 3rd - 6th
Does your class know about the meaning of Memorial Day? Discuss the history of the holiday in this lesson, which prompts elementary and middle schoolers to create word webs of ideas about the holiday. Additionally, they create poems...
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Lesson Plan
Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media

War and Poetry

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
A band of brothers or the Devil's agents? Nobel warriors freeing the oppressed or mercenaries working for the military/industrial complex? Groups examine poems from the Civil War, World War I, and World War II to determine the poets'...
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Lesson Plan
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Pulitzer Center

"Voices from Haiti": Using Poetry to Speak up for a Cause

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Explore a real world use of poetry with your class! Young language arts pupils consider the concept of advocacy and how journalism, photography, and poetry can raise awareness for a cause. They read several poems about individuals...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Writing a Historical Poem

For Teachers 3rd - 6th
Students work together to research a historical event. They create their own poems based on their research. They share their poems with the class and discuss the historical event further.
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Lesson Plan
PBS

Discuss 22-year-old Amanda Gorman’s inaugural poem “The Hill We Climb”

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Two poems by National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman are spotlighted in a PBS lesson. Young scholars conduct a close reading and watch videos of Gorman reading her inaugural poem "The Hill We Climb" and "The Miracle of Morning." They...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Discovering Angel Island: The Story Behind the Poems

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Poems carved into the wooden walls of the Asian immigrant prisons on Angel Island provide upper elementary graders an opportunity to study not only the story behind the poems but to also focus on the figurative language employed by the...
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Lesson Plan
Anti-Defamation League

Social Justice Poetry

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Learners gain insight into how songs and poems express feelings of injustice. They also learn about literary devices and types of poems and make a personal connection when they write their own free verse poems about injustice.
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Lesson Plan
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Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation

Making Your Mark: Free Verse Poetry

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Using the insight they have gained into the experiences of detainees at the Angel Island Immigration Station, young poets create their own free verse poems that they feel captures what it may have felt like to be an immigrant interned on...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Biographical Poems

For Teachers 3rd - 12th
Students write a biographical poem about themselves. They observe a teacher-led demonstration, write an autobiographical poem and a biographical poem about a famous person using a template form, and display the poems side-by-side.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Dali & Desnos: Surrealism in Poetry and Art

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students research the surrealism movement and its primary artists. Language is also analyzed, and students will create their own original poem utilizing surrealistic techniques.
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Lesson Plan
Academy of American Poets

Teach This Poem: "Tamales on Christmas" by Christian Robinson

For Teachers K - 12th Standards
A lesson spotlights the poem "Tamales on Christmas" by Christian Robinson. Scholars discuss their favorite foods and then examine a lively picture of a family preparing tamales. After listening to the poem twice, learners participate in...
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Lesson Plan
Academy of American Poets

Teach This Poem: "Alice Paul" by Katharine Rolston Fisher

For Teachers K - 12th Standards
Powerful women need not look like Wonder Woman. After writing a paragraph about a strong woman they know, young scholars examine images of Alice Paul and then do a close reading of Katharine Rolston Fisher's poem "Alice Paul." Finally,...
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Lesson Plan
Crafting Freedom

George Moses Horton: Crafting Virtual Freedom Through Poetry

For Teachers 6th - 8th
What is "virtual freedom"? How about "enslaved entrepreneurship"? Class members will learn about these terms and much more as they read the poems and examine the life of George Moses Horton.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Poetry of War and Peace

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Students read and discuss the poem "In Flanders Fields," then write poems evoking images of peacetime. They practice the techniques of writing poetry while using textual imagery to create visual images.
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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...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's Christmas Bells

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Learners read and analyze the anti-slavery poem, "Christmas Bells" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. They discuss the content and form of the poem, write an essay, write an original poem, examine how this anti-slavery poem was converted...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Poetry of The Great War: 'From Darkness to Light'?

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Learners 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.
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Lesson Plan
National Endowment for the Humanities

Walt Whitman to Langston Hughes: Poems for a Democracy

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Explore the idea of democratic poetry. Upper graders read Walt Whitman, examining daguerreotypes, and compare Whitman to Langston Hughes. They describe aspects of Whitman's I Hear America Singing to Langston Hughes' Let America Be...
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Lesson Plan
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Facing History and Ourselves

Speaking Up and Speaking Out

For Teachers 6th - 12th
The final lesson in the Standing Up for Democracy unit offers class members a way they can stand up and speak out by crafting spoken word poetry, or Slam poetry. After analyzing several examples, individuals reflect on one positive...

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