Rhyme, rhythm, free verse, imagery: Do these words describe poetry, or jazz music? The answer is both! A resource explores these similarities as scholars watch a video, engage in discussion, read author biographies, write poetry and journal entries, conduct research, and view art.

Concepts

poetry, american literature, t.s. eliot, langston hughes, robert frost, the harlem renaissance

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Additional Tags

social studies

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Instructional Ideas

• Guide learners in writing a Robert Frost-style poem that features characters engaged in manual labor
• Ask pupils to write a poem about a single image, in the style of William Carlos Williams's "The Red Wheelbarrow"

Classroom Considerations

• Print the author biographies and timeline for students in advance
• The 10th installment of the 16-part American Passages series 
  

Pros

• For helpful planning, the unit includes overview questions, learning objectives, and a unit overview 
• Each author biography concludes with higher-order thinking questions
• Provides a wide variety of additional resources

Cons

• None

Common Core

RL.6.5 RL.7.5 RL.8.5 RL.9-10.5 RL.11-12.5