Pennsylvania Department of Education
Analyzing Literary Elements in Literary Nonfiction
Fourth graders identify the literary elements of a nonfiction text. For this literary elements lesson, 4th graders read the text Piano Starts Here--The Young Art Tatum and fill in a chart that includes the events from the book....
Curated OER
Somewhere Under the Rainbow--The Romantic Period in British Literature
Students create 2-3 poems, a children's story, or a two or three dimensional piece of art. In this Romantic Period lesson, students discuss the historical background of the Romantic Period and relevant literary terms. ...
Curated OER
Jazz Dance and Music
Fourth graders write a poem. In this jazz music lesson, 4th graders learn about the basics of jazz dance and practice basic movements. Students learn common terminology and listen to several recordings of jazz music. Students create a...
Curated OER
Powerful Poetry
Young scholars examine Haiku poems and analyze their meanings. They create a whole class Haiku, then develop their own poems.
Art Institute of Chicago
Lesson Plan: A Writer’s Odyssey
Looking for a fresh approach to an end-of-unit project for The Odyssey? Check out a resource that has class members write their own hero's journey short story and then craft an illustration that depicts their tale. Apollonio di...
Curated OER
What is a Hero? Heroism in Greek Mythology
Students explore the tales of Greek mythology and discuss what it means to be a hero. They associate acts of epic heroism with philanthropy noting that these characters acted in a larger than life manner to secure the common good.
Curated OER
Beowulf: Songs of Ancient Heroes
Introduce your class to epic heroes with these activities for Beowulf. After watching a video clip, taking notes on heroes, and tracking characteristics of heroism throughout Beowulf, class members retell an episode of Beowulf using a...
Curated OER
Video Poetry
Students analyze a poem of their choice to find the meaning. They break the poems into sections and add images and sounds to make it into a video. They show their video to the whole school if possible.
Curated OER
Video Poetry
Students analyze a poem to find meaning by breaking it into scenes and supporting the text with appropriate images and sounds. They use Frames to create their video poem. Once students have an image, place them all into one folder. ...
Dr. Seuss Enterprises
Dr. Seuss in the Classroom
Explore the works of Dr. Seuss, such as Horton Hears a Who, Horton Hatches and Egg, The Sneetches and Other Stories, The Lorax, The Butter Battle Book, and Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories. Each story lesson includes reading...
Curated OER
Imagery
Ninth graders explore poems, various poetic devices, and identify imagery used in poetry. In groups, they examine poetic devices, define them, paraphrase and summarize poetry. Students study poetry by Robert Frost as they explore...
Curated OER
Editing Emily's Way: An Exercise in Diction and Its Implications
Students examine the poetry of Emily Dickinson and the diction in her poetry. In this poetry analysis lesson plan, students read Dickinson poetry and analyze the diction in the poems. Students journal about the poetry and rewrite their...
Curated OER
Express Yourself Lesson Seed 2
Use Langston Hughes's poem, "Words Like Freedom," to explore the concepts of freedom and liberty. Learners read the poem, determine the theme, and use the provided graphic organizer to examine the connotative and denotative meanings of...
Shutterfly
Photo Story Lesson Plan
After reading Loree Leedy's There's a Frog in My Throat: 440 Animal Sayings a Little Bird Told Me, kids create and illustrate their own poems that convey the meaning of an idiom. The poems are then transferred into Shutterfly's Photo...
Curated OER
Express Yourself Lesson Seed 5
Building on the previous activity in this series of lesson seeds, this plan focuses on the use of dialect in Theodore Taylor's novel, The Cay. Class members examine specific lines of text, use their reading journals to respond to the...
Reed Novel Studies
Fuzzy Mud: Novel Study
Trouble always finds trouble. While avoiding a bully, Tamaya and Marshally from Fuzzy Mud take a trip through the off-limit woods and find themselves lost. To complete the worksheet study, scholars analyze several literary devices, learn...
Reed Novel Studies
Rules: Novel Study
Have you ever been so focused on others, that a look in the mirror surprises you? It seems that Catherine, a character in Rules, does just that when she focuses so much on her autistic brother's behaviors that she is surprised by her own...
Curated OER
Poet Analysis: Ciaran Carson
Students analyze lyrics and narration by reading poetry. In this language arts lesson, students read and examine the poem Belfast Confetti. Students discuss the topics and questions asked by the author Ciaran Carson.
Curated OER
Praise for a Color
Students discover the 5 senses by analyzing poetry. In this poetry activity, students read a poem with their class and analyze how each sense plays into their understanding of the poem. Students write a poem based on a...
Curated OER
Analyzing Poetry
Learners research a poem using the Internet or library source. They analyze their selection including a line by line explanation of the poem. Students create a powerpoint presentation of their analysis.
Curated OER
Testimony: A Lesson in Creating Poetry
High schoolers closely analyze testimony from the Holocaust. They express, in poetic form, meanings students created in their analysis. They react to written passages from the time period.
Curated OER
Writing about Poetry
Students analyze a poem and the use of stylistic devices in the poem. They make connections between the techniques of the poem and its meaning.
Curated OER
The Poetics of Hip Hop
Students consider the role of rhythm, form, diction, and sound in poetry. In this integrated arts instructional activity, students discuss the attributes of poetry as they analyze Shakespearean sonnets, hip hop music lyrics, and...
Curated OER
Pictures in Words: Poems of Tennyson and Noyes
Eleventh graders describe and analyze the effects of poetry on readers. They participate in an Internet scavenger hunt, an exercise involving interpretation of poetry through visual art, and an opportunity for students to create their...