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Poetry Walk
Explore with your class the purposes and author's intents for poetry titles. First you read several brief poems to the class and discuss how the authors may have chosen the titles. Then small groups read title-less poems posted around...
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Using Pre-reading Strategies: Infer
Use this resource to support your class practicing inference with poetry and visual art. The plan calls for an examination of "The Scream" by Edvard Munch and the "Mona Lisa" to promote speculation about artist's intent. From there, it...
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Lyrics Analysis Guide
Assist your learners as they unravel the wonders of lyric analysis. This resource breaks down the analysis process by hook, verse, and chorus. Each is briefly defined and is used to look at any song's lyrics in a systematic way.
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What's Important to You?
What are the most important things to your second graders? Learners read the poem "There Isn't Time" as inspiration to list things that are important to them. They list five things they would like to do in order of priority....
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1900 America: Historical Voices, Poetic Visions
Pupils examine the United States at the turn of the century. Using primary source documents, they interpret them within a specific historical context. Using this information, they write a poem with metaphors and a specific meter They...
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Fire and Ice Questions
After reading "Fire and Ice," have your class answer these seven thought-provoking questions. Some questions ask readers to connect with the text while others require the learner to reference the text in order to provide an answer.
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"Playing in the Snow" - Reading Comprehension (Poem)
Have your English language learners puzzle through this activity. Class members read the incomplete poem about playing in the snow and use the given words to complete poem. This is challenging since some of the spaces are ambiguous. Ask...
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Bridge to Terabithia: Visualizing to Optimize Comprehension
Good readers visualize. And in our image-rich culture it is imperative that children are provided with opportunities to practice this important skill. A selection from Shel Silverstein’s Where the Sidewalk Ends and Bridge to Terabithia,...
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CTBS Reading Practice #1
Expose your class to a variety of excerpts of poetry with a reading practice activity. There are four excerpts from different poems included in this resource; there are three to five related questions for each poem. Learners read each...
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Sonnets
Explore the concept of rhyme scheme within a Shakespearean sonnet. After writing out their favorite (appropriate!) rap song and explaining why they like it, middle schoolers define a rhyme scheme. Afterward, they examine a Shakespearean...
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Personification #2
Langston Hughes’ poem, Fall Leaves, provides the text for a personification identification worksheet. Pupils underline examples of this literary device and then write an explanation of how it is used in the poem.
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Annotating Poetry
Use text marking and highlighting to explore the structure of a poem. After listening to Allan Ahlberg read "Please Mrs. Butler," learners locate stanzas and patterns on their copy of the poem using the text marking technique. Class...
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Writing: Narrative, Expository, Persuasive, and Descriptive
If you are interested in having a basic framework for teaching expository, narrative, persuasive, and descriptive writing, this resource may help; however, you will have to find information on the different forms of writing to share with...
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Can You Haiku?
Everyone loves haikus! They're short, quick, and fun to write! Analyze the rules and conventions of haiku. Readers interpret examples of haiku and develop a vocabulary for writing haiku. Then they compose a haiku based on a personal...
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Fluency Is Too Cool for School
What does a successful reader sound like? Help readers gain fluency and become successful readers through repeated readings of given poems. They use the cover-up method to help them decode new words and chart their progress as they...
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Poetry Beyond Words: Creating Poetry with Linguistically Diverse Students
Models of and directions for how to write 20 different types of poems are featured in an NCTE resource. The introduction to each form highlights the embedded concepts. For example, tongue twisters encourage poets to use alliteration and...
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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...
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Pretty Plants Point of View
Young poets use Kidspiration to draw a flower, personify the flower, and write a poem from the flower's point of view. Sharing these poems in small groups will reinforce learners' knowledge of personification.
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There Was an Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly
Here is an entertaining way to introduce your language learners to several significant grammatical structures. The children’s rhyme, There Was an Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly, contains examples of noun and relative clauses for the class...
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Animal Noises
The Spanish song, Vengan a Ver Mi Granja, provides young language learners an opportunity to expand their vocabulary. After listening to the sounds, class members name the animals and their habitats, construct puppets of the animals, and...
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Arkansas State Anthem
Does your state have an anthem? Consider using it to launch a study of poetic imagery. Class members research the poet, the history of the song, the images presented, the format, and the tone. Conclude with a class sing-along.
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Using Creative Dramatics With the Teaching of Poetry
Launch your poetry unit in a very dramatic way. Divide your class into groups, and give each group a different poem. After discussing the poem, each group member selects a stanza to study. The group then develops a skit that represents...
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Poetry - Stanzas - I Am Poem
Reinforce the concept that many poems are organized into stanzas, each of which has the same number of lines. The provided worksheet template asks young poets to craft three stanzas that all begin with the same line and have the...
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Goblin Market Theme of Sex
Learners will read then analyze the story "Goblin Market" then discuss themes of sex and lost virginity. There are 5 questions and a series related links to help them take a critical look at an interesting children's story. This story...