Lesson Plan
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Definition Poems

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
“Hope is a tissue, wiping away your problems and fears.” Use a Definition Poem Web worksheet to model for your class how to craft a free verse poem based on an emotion. After brainstorming topics, groups use the sheet to make comparisons...
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A Garden of Verses: Poems About Class Gardens

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students explore botany by participating in a language arts activity. In this garden poetry lesson, students read the classic poem "Mary, Mary Quite Contrary" and discuss the imagery and rhyming methods used. Students examine their own...
Lesson Plan
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Understanding the Basics of Poetry: Free Verse

For Teachers 5th - 6th
Young scholars analyze free verse poetry. In this free verse poetry lesson, students complete a worksheet for free verse poetry and read an example poem by Wallace Stevens. Young scholars interpret the stanzas.
Lesson Plan
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All About Me - A Poem

For Teachers 2nd
Second graders brainstorm unique qualities they possess in a All About Me worksheet. They write free verse poems about things that most people don't know about them. They brainstorm descriptive words to enhance their poems and rewrite them.
Lesson Plan
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Teaching Selected Poems from Jim Wayne Miller's the Brier Poems

For Teachers 5th - 7th
Students explore the basic elements of poetry through Appalachian life poetry. For this poetry lesson, students read seven poems from Jim Wayne Miller's the Brier Poems and complete poetry analysis activities for each poem.
Lesson Plan
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Japanese Poetry: Tanka? You're Welcome!

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students explore tanka, a form of Japanese poetry. They read and analyze tankas to determine the structure and intent, and compose a traditional and a non-traditional tanka.
Lesson Plan
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Poem of Instruction

For Teachers 5th - Higher Ed
Students write a free-verse poem and utilize the skill of providing detailed instructions. identify opportunities to create poems from simple, everyday verbal or written instructions. They study everyday language that has merit as poetry.
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Free Verse

For Teachers 1st - 5th
Students write free verse poems. In this poetry lesson, students use a three-step method to create a free verse poem. Students brainstorm ideas, let their ideas "incubate," and write a free verse poem.
Lesson Plan
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Greeting Cards

For Teachers 3rd - 9th
Students create greeting cards. They listen to verses from various cards and evaluate each one. They research websites of greeting card makers and complete a chart. They discuss themes and ideas in greeting cards and edit their free...
Lesson Plan
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Poetry In Motion

For Teachers 4th
Fourth graders read and analyze poetry and examine the process of writing poetry. They read and analyze the poem "From a Railway Carriage" by Robert Louis Stevenson, and answer comprehension questions. They identify the similes,...
Lesson Plan
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Lesson Plan for Waiting to Waltz: A Childhood by Cynthia Rylant

For Teachers 6th
Sixth graders examine the elements of writing poetry. In this creative writing lesson, 6th graders discuss a book of poetry in the setting of Appalachia. Students incorporate childhood experiences into the development of visual and...
Lesson Plan
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Rhythm & Improv: Jazz & Poetry

For Teachers 9th - 12th
High schoolers analyze the elements of poetry and jazz. In this critical thinking skills lesson, students take a closer look at the rhyme, rhythm, alliteration, form, free verse, lyricism, and imagery that exist is jazz as well as...
Lesson Plan
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Personalized Poetry Portfolio

For Teachers 8th
Eighth graders create their own poetry portfolio containing poems that relate to Students' lives and families. The portfolio consist of the following types of poems: acrostic, diamante`, haiku, cinquain, and free verse.
Lesson Plan
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Poems and Songs: Rivers and Ponds

For Teachers 1st - 4th
Students explore songs and poems related to the animals, habitats, and activities on rivers and ponds. They listen to song clips, explore various websites, read poems and song lyrics, complete worksheets, and define key vocabulary words.
Lesson Plan
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Japanese Poetry: Tanka? You're Welcome!

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students explore the structure and content of the Tanka form and to arrive at a definition of the structure in English. They analyze a tanka to determine its structure and intent and compose two Tanka; one in traditional form and one...
Lesson Plan
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Have a Ball with Poetry

For Teachers 2nd
Second graders brainstorm words pertaining to the senses about the beach. They write a free verse poem, using these words and adding a line about their feelings.
Lesson Plan
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Ideas for Teaching Creative Poetry

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students read and write a variety of forms of poetry and create an original page for a class "I Spy" book. They read and discuss the form of poetry used in the "I Spy" books, and conduct Internet research on how the "I Spy" books are...
Lesson Plan
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Out of the Dust 4

For Teachers 8th
Eighth graders read the novel, "Out of the Dust," and create a free-verse poem about a treasure of their own. They use the attached checklist to evaluate their own poem.
Lesson Plan
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Out of the Dust (High School)

For Teachers 4th
Fourth graders read Hesse's "Out of the Dust". They respond to questions about the novel and write a free-verse poem modeled after the author's.
Lesson Plan
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African American Poetry: Family and Traditions

For Teachers K - 3rd
Learners are introduced to the elements of African-American poetry. As a class, they are read different types of poems to discover there are different styles of poems and practice rhyming words. They share information on their family...
Lesson Plan
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Creative Writing Lesson

For Teachers 6th - 8th
It's hard to find inspiration; have your learners bring in a slew of magazines and search for inspiring pictures! They look for characters, setting, and possibly even conflict clues. They analyze the pictures they select, turn their...
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The Power of Poetry

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students utilize the Internet to research figures of speech used in poetry and poetry terms
Lesson Plan
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Images and Indirection

For Teachers 9th - Higher Ed
Students closely analyze a true event or moments associated with their life, then present the scene, and personal emotions and/or actions generated by that incident in a free verse poem. They learn the difference between words defined...
Lesson Plan
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So You Want to Be A Poet?

For Teachers 4th
Fourth graders study different types of poetry and then write examples in this unit. They write, among others, free verse, Diamante, Clerihew, and color poems.