Have everything you need to know about the elements of poetry with a nine-page handout. Split into four categories—word sounds, meanings, arrangement, and imagery—budding poets may reference terms, read definitions, descriptions, and...

Emily Dickinson's "Because I could not stop for Death" provides high schoolers with an opportunity to practice their critical thinking skills. They examine the images, diction, rhythm, and rhyme scheme the poet uses and consider how...

Exposing learners to the power of words in poetry is a stimulating way to learn languages. Songs, haikus, rhyming words, and narrative works are all employed in a resource for teaching English as a Second Language.

Teach your class a thing or two about figurative language with this straightforward presentation. The presentation defines figurative language as well as various types of figurative language, such as metaphor, alliteration, onomatopoeia,...

This isn't your traditional Robin Hood tale! Explore a Middle English ballad with your young historians, and examine the underlying structure and purpose of historical texts.

A six-week unit takes high schoolers through various works of African-American literature, including poems, plays, and short stories. The lesson plan format includes a week-by-week description of activities, goals, materials, and...

Consisting of a thorough and straightforward list of poetry terminology, the first part of this presentation would be a good introduction to a poetry unit, or a review for an upcoming poetry project. The list of terms is quite extensive,...

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...

As a review of poetry and literary terms, this resource would be a great addition in a middle school classroom. There are questions involving sonnets, similies, haikus, and more. An instructor could use this resource as is, or add...

Poetry is often referred to as compressed speech—compressed because poets choose their words for their sound, as well as their meaning, and carefully arrange these words to create the maximum effect. Introduce class members to...

Expose your class to various poetic forms. Listed in and described in this slide show are: ballad, lyric poem, ode, dramatic monologue, sonnet, and villanelle. Some descriptions are more detailed than others. 

Review the values of traditional literature. Each slide traces the history of oral storytelling, prominent literary figures, and explores the values of teaching through traditional literature. The presentation could be used as a teacher...

What do Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and The Odyssey have in common? Why, they are all epics, of course, and are presented here as examples of the literary term. If you are beginning a study of epics, consider previewing the terms included...

Introducing or need to review literary devices and terms for a study of poetry? Though text heavy, the explanations and examples of key poetic devices will provide learners with the vocabulary they need to discuss and craft poems.

Beginning a poetry unit and need to review poetry forms? Ten forms are reviewed. For each, the purpose, subject and theme, tone, rhyme, rhythm, lines, and stanzas are described. Alas, no examples of these forms are included.

Rather than a lesson, this resource is a list of poetic forms and young poets are encouraged to try their hand at composing poems of various types.

Sixth graders write a song.  In this Middle Ages lesson, 6th graders read the ballad Barbara Allen and answer comprehension questions.  Students create their own ballad using a rhyme scheme.

Learners compare and contrast different forms of communication.  In this poetry lesson, students focus on the ballad form and read "Timothy Winters". Learners draw conclusions from the ballad and divide into groups to research the...

Students create "cowboy ballads" in this interactive, multi-day lesson. The cowboy is researched using various sources and class discussions. Students evaluate individual work at the end of the lesson.

Students assess the literary quality and elements of Jackson's journey to write a ballad about his automobile adventure.

Young scholars explore the poetic ballad. They examine the rhythm of a typical ballad and listen to recitations of sample ballads. They choose an article from a supermarket tabloid and write a comical ballad using rhythms and...

In this original music composition worksheet, learners compose a piano accompaniment for their own original ballads as they follow the 7 steps on this worksheet,

In this ballad composition worksheet, students compose a ballad in any key as they write a 12 line rhyming poem and continue to follow the other 6 steps to create their original ballad.

In this ballad research paper worksheet, students complete the 6 short answer questions to build an outline to be used to write their own research paper and essay pertaining to ballads.