Academy of American Poets
Teach This Poem: "Black Laws" by Roger Reeves
After investigating the Black Lives Matter movement, class members do a close read of Roger Reeves' "Black Laws." They write down words and phrases that rhyme, consider the kinds of rhymes used and their function in the poem. Scholars...
Curated OER
Using Prepositional Phrases
The class reads the book Heckedy Peg. Stopping to point out the prepositional phrases, the teacher models and guides the young scholars to deeper comprehension. Small groups collaborate to read A Sweet Smell of Roses. They thenfind the...
Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation
Moving to the Poems of Angel Island
A poem carved on Angel Island's walls is the guiding text of a lesson that challenges scholars to put movement into a written piece of art. After warm up-activities, learners play a game of "Pass the Clap" and "Pass the Line," in which...
Annenberg Foundation
Poetry of Liberation
How do writers use words to protest injustice, challenge the status quo, and shape their own identities? Individuals watch and discuss a video, read author biographies, write poetry and journals, develop a slideshow, and complete a...
Curated OER
Realistic Impressions: Investigating Movements in the Visual Arts
You and your high school class can examine the idea of artistic movements with this lesson. Explore various websites, compare/contrast paintings, after which the assignments are to complete a chart, and write an essay.
Curated OER
Poetry/Music: Let It Snow!
Young scholars create poems and sound compositions using instruments, sounds, and pictograph notation. After listening Debussy's Children's corner suite, they brainstorm a list of snow vocabulary words. Students write poems and in groups...
Curated OER
Poetry: Walking With My Iguana
Bring a little excitement to your next poetry analysis lesson plan. Using the highly energetic poem "Walking With My Iguana," learners consider poem structure and rhyme. They listen to the poem, discuss the rhythm and tone with their...
Curated OER
Reading Poetry
Present your class with an overview of poetry-related information. The slides are clearly organized by topic, starting with reading poetry, ending with myths, and touching on everything from the five senses to open and closed forms of...
Academy of American Poets
Teach This Poem: "Alice Paul" by Katharine Rolston Fisher
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,...
Prestwick House
Discovering Genre: Poetry
Work on literal and figurative meanings with a lesson focused on Robert Frost's "After Apple-Picking" and "The Road Not Taken." Readers identify the literary devices used by the poet to set the poems' themes, settings, and narrative...
Curated OER
Introduction to Modernist Poetry
Students examine the concept of modernism. They analyze different modern poetists writings and identify the context in which the poems were written. They write poems of their own to complete the activity.
National Endowment for the Humanities
Thirteen Ways of Reading a Modernist Poem
High schoolers analyze modernist poetry and the role of speaker in example poems. Learners study modernist poems from the Romanticism and Victorian periods as well as Wallace Stevens' "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird." Using a...
Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian In Your Classroom: The Music in Poetry
Take poetry off the page and put it into terms of movement, physical space and, finally, music with this series of three lessons from the Smithsonian Institution. This resource introduces students to two poetic forms that originated as...
Curated OER
Langston Hughes Was a Dreamer Too
Encourage your pupils to imagine their own dreams for the future. After studying three poems by Langston Hughes and listening to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s I Have a Dream speech, young poets craft their own dream stanza.
National Endowment for the Humanities
Understanding the Context of Modernist Poetry
Students examine the historical, social, and cultural context of modernist poetry. They explore websites, complete a chart, compare/contrast rural and urban life, watch a video of early New York, and complete a writing assessment...
UnboundEd Learning
Rosa Parks: The Mother of the Civil Rights Movement
Class members listen to a passage on Rosa Parks, examine images of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and respond to questions based on the text. They then craft a free-verse poem that recounts her achievements and reveals why she is considered...
Curated OER
Goals and Perseverance
Define the word perseverance to have learners understand why it is important in reaching goals. Young scholars research how Martin Luther King needed perseverance to accomplish his goals. They write acrostic poems using the word...
Curated OER
American Civil Rights Movement, Photo Essay
Young scholars view photographs from the Civil Rights Movement and write an essay from the point of view of someone in the photograph. They artistically represent various aspects of the Movement.
Curated OER
Dali & Desnos: Surrealism in Poetry and Art
Students research the surrealism movement and its primary artists. Language is also analyzed, and students will create their own original poem utilizing surrealistic techniques.
Curated OER
Creative Writing Poem
Fifth graders write poetry using imagery and practice poetry presentation. In this poetry instructional activity, 5th graders listen as the teacher reads a humorous poem using different voice modulations and presentation techniques. They...
Curated OER
Social and Cultural Issues in the Civil Rights Movement
Students watch videos, listen to speeches and analyze the information that is presented about the civil rights movement. They examine visual art of the period.
Curated OER
Lesson: Impressions
Here, Autumn Poplars is the painting upper graders will analyze. They look at techniques, time period, and the use of impressionism to convey a natural theme. They go outside to make observations of nature and use what they see to write...
California Education Partners
Women
Alice Walker's poem "Women" provides ninth graders the opportunity to demonstrate their ability to identify how a writer's choice of syntax and diction contribute to the development of the theme of the work.
Curated OER
Dancing through Poetry
Get your class up and moving as they explore how to express movement and dance through words. Designed around two poems by Lillian Morrison about break dancing, the activity truly captures the creative and multi-sensory aspects of...