Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Our City, Our Words

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Students write poetry that captures their feelings about their city or town. After presenting their poetry at a class reading students compare their poetry to the work of published poets who have written about the same city.
Lesson Plan
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Andy Warhol/Digital Self-Portraits

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students research the life and art of Andy Warhol and create a digitally manipulated photographic self-portrait. Students conclude the assignment by writing a poem to describe the point-of-view taken in their digital photo.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Where the Sidewalk Transcends

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Students use titles of Shel Silverstein poems to generate their own poetry for Students. Each student then compares his or her poem to the Shel Silverstein poem of the same title.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Stanza Proud

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Students examine different decades in American history, finding connections between the historical events and the poetry written during these time periods. They write their own poetry based on current world events.
Lesson Plan
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Learning through The Duke

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students examine the important contributions made by Duke Ellington to the field of jazz, as well as some of the factors that led to his involvement in the field. As they explore the language of the 1920's, connections will be drawn...
Lesson Plan
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The Last Meow

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Students explore the popular culture phenomenon of the musical 'Cats' and the T.S. Eliot poems that were its inspiration. They write original poems about animals, and read them aloud to their peers.
Lesson Plan
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Painting Portraits with Words

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Students examine how an exhibition of an author's writings can become a portrait or biography of that author . They work in small groups, analyzing various poems by Yeats.
Lesson Plan
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Words of Deep Meaning

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Young scholars create their own poems to express a deep feeling or transformative experience, then write imaginary letters to people in the article, responding to their poetry and sharing their own creative process.
Lesson Plan
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How I Became Me

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Young scholars examine their own identities and read about the experiences of adopted Chinese daughters celebrating the Jewish rite of passage, the bat mitzvah. They write personal poems or speeches illustrating how their identities...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Silhouettes and Interiors

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Learners create a multimedia piece that integrates drawing and collage. Students learn about metacognition and the discovering of self through genres of art and literature by using these steps: inspiration, brainstorm, application,...
Lesson Plan
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Versed on the Disadvantaged

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Students reflect on what it means to help those in need, then read and analyze poetry that illustrates the struggle of poor people. They create collages connecting current issues of poverty with poets' experiences.
Lesson Plan
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A Walk Through the Past: A Grave Undertaking

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Students explore how historians construct a story out of fragments of the past; a discussion of nineteenth century poetry and art leads students to connect art and literature to their place in time.
Lesson Plan
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STUDENT'S CHOICE

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Students interact, answer questions, and extend the story plot. They write a Haiku or basic poetry with their words, name characters, create a new ending for a story, and write a new story with one of the characters.
Worksheet
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A. B. "Banjo" Paterson

For Students 5th - 6th
In this A. B. "Banjo" Paterson online worksheet, students read three poems written by one of Australia's best know writers. Students click on several sites to answer fourteen questions about the author and his poems.
Lesson Plan
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Calling Names

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Learners explore how language shapes debate by researching the names and tags both advocates and opponents use when discussing a topical issue. For homework, they create name collages and write prose poems.
Lesson Plan
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Clay Story Adventure

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Young scholars build three-dimensional rough draft for a story by creating objects, people, places, animals, etc., with clay, and write story in a journal, poem, or other written form.
Lesson Plan
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The Gift That Keeps on Giving

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Learners reflect on the role of DNA in society since its discovery in 1953 by creating works of art and poetry that metaphorically illustrate the importance, influence and concerns of DNA research.
Lesson Plan
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Japanese-American Internment/Relocation Camps

For Teachers 4th - 8th
Students create poetry and verse, using all 5 senses to paint a visual image of life in a Japanese-American internment camp.
Lesson Plan
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Gratitude Journals

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Students brainstorm ideas of thankfulness or being grateful for things and use these ideas to create a personal gratitude journal. They build a book using copy paper, twigs and rubber bands then explore different techniques to create a...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Mythical Beasts

For Teachers 5th - 12th
Students explore literature and art forms containing creatures that are part human and part animal, such as the Greek Sphinx, Neptune, or the Green Centaur. Individually, students write a poem or short story to create a character with...
Worksheet
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Charlotte's Web

For Students 4th - 6th
In this literature learning exercise, students, after reading the novel, Charlotte's Web, write an original poem about Wilbur and start each line with a word that begins with the letters in his name straight down.
Lesson Plan
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From Rags to (Paper) Riches: Explore Colonial Papermaking

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Students explore Colonial papermaking.  In this Colonial America U.S. history lesson, students analyze two poems written in the 1690s about the Rittenhouse paper mill to learn about papermaking.  Students produce their own...
Lesson Plan
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Lessons from the Holocaust; Hitler's Germany

For Teachers 4th - 7th
Learners explore Nazi Germany by completing several worksheets. In this Adolf Hitler lesson, students identify Hitler's role in the holocaust, his role in the German community and his mindset. Learners read the poem "The Hangman" by...
Lesson Plan
PBS

Being Heard

For Teachers 4th - 8th
Examine the work of contemporary authors who use their writing to express opinions about the struggle against prejudice and oppression in our society. A short lesson on the Harlem Renaissance introduces learners to the most prominent...