Curated OER
Dancing through Poetry
Get your class up and moving as they explore how to express movement and dance through words. Designed around two poems by Lillian Morrison about break dancing, the activity truly captures the creative and multi-sensory aspects of...
Curated OER
Poetry and Hip Hop
High schoolers compare and contrast the genres of poetry and hip-hop. They view a poetry slam and write about it in their journals. Learners view a Lauryn Hill music video and respond to it in their journals. They compare and contrast...
Curated OER
Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices by Paul Fleischman
Do your young readers know that poems can be performed as a team? They listen to a few examples from Paul Fleischman's book Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices, paying attention to how the how readers work together. They examine the...
Curated OER
Comparing Themes Across Texts
Read various texts to compare the themes across each text. Learners write a journal entry describing the most beautiful scenery they've seen and use a map of the United States to locate the Sequoia National Park and Muir Woods. They then...
Curated OER
Searching for Meanings Beneath the Surface of the Poem
Students analyze poetry. In this cultural perspectives instructional activity, students read the poem "Soccer Until Dusk" by Mark Brazaitis. Students analyze the poem and consider the cultural perspective it reveals.
Curated OER
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: Poems for Two Voices
"That man is not truly one, but truly two." The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde offers readers a change to craft a poem combining words and phrases from Robert Lewis Stevenson's novella to create a poem for two voices. The...
National Endowment for the Humanities
The Metamorphoses and Modern Poetry: A Comparison of Mythic Characters
To gain an appreciation of the power of point of view, class members compare Ovid's version of the myth of "Orpheus and Eurydice" with that used by H.D. in her poem, "Eurydice." Individuals then craft a reflection in which they use...
Academy of American Poets
Teach This Poem: "On Being Brought from Africa to America" by Phillis Wheatley
Phillis Wheatley's poem, "On Being Brought from Africa to America" is the focus of a lesson that asks readers to consider how the poem is a critique of slavery. Groups comprise a list of words and phrases they notice as well as questions...
EngageNY
Mid-Unit Assessment: Small Group Discussion: How Do Modern Poems Portray Modern Adversities?
How is a poem similar to and different from a news article? Pupils use a graphic organizer to compare and contrast the two genres. Also, as part of a mid-unit assessment, scholars participate in small-group discussions based on poetry...
Curated OER
Comparing Kwakiutl, Cheyenne and Navajo tribes
Third graders study the difference between the Kwakiutl, Cheyenne and Navajo tribes. They identify the people, resources, lifestyle and beliefs of the Kwakiutl, Cheyenne, and Navajo Indians. Afterward, they present their projects on each...
K20 LEARN
The Power of Poetry: Perspectives in Poetry
What do Abraham Lincoln, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Amanda Gordon have in common? They all believe in the power of words—the power of words to create change. After analyzing the rhetorical strategies in several poems and speeches,...
Curated OER
Visualize and Draw to Increase Comprehension
Improve readers' comprehension with a pair of visualization opportunities. First they listen, eyes closed, as you read a description from Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach, and discuss ideas about what they "see." After you read...
Main Memory Network
Longfellow's "The Village Blacksmith" and Whitman's "Song of Myself"
Although the work Americans do has changed over time, the plight of the American worker has largely remained the same. Facilitate a class discussion aboutAmerican workers using Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "The Village Blacksmith" and...
Read Works
Fireflies in the Garden
Imagine a dark sky lit up with fireflies. Robert Frost's "Fireflies in the Garden" instills a visual in the reader's mind of a star lit sky glowing with fireflies. After reading the poem, learners compare and contrast the image the poem...
EngageNY
Notices, Wonders, and Vocabulary of the Third Stanza of “If”
How does one's experience reading a poem's text differ from listening to its audio version? Delve into the insightful question with the poem, If by Rudyard Kipling, as pupils compare and contrast their experience using a note-taking...
EngageNY
Introducing “If” and Noting Notices and Wonders of the First Stanza
After reading chapter 14 of the story Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis, scholars take part in a read-aloud of the poem If by Rudyard Kipling and compare it to the reading of Bud, Not Buddy. Learners then go deeper into the poem...
Curated OER
Text Features of Fiction, Poetry, Drama: Story Matrix
How do novels differ from plays? Explore with your class the text features of fiction and drama by reading The Hidden One: Native American Legend and then performing a reader’s theater script based on the story. Class members create a...
Curated OER
Searching for Meanings Benath the Surface of the Poem
Students read "Soccer Until Dusk". As a class, they discuss the various settings and actions in the poem and discuss the life in Guatemala and compare it with the United States. To end the instructional activity, they complete a...
Curated OER
Dali & Desnos: Surrealism in Poetry and Art
High schoolers research the surrealism movement and its primary artists. Language is also analyzed, and students will create their own original poem utilizing surrealistic techniques.
Curated OER
Teaching Selected Poems from Jim Wayne Miller's the Brier Poems
Students explore the basic elements of poetry through Appalachian life poetry. In this poetry lesson, students read seven poems from Jim Wayne Miller's the Brier Poems and complete poetry analysis activities for each poem.
Curated OER
Exploring Contrasting Story Elements Through Tapestry and Poetry
Young thinkers view two narrative art tapestries and study the images included that tell a story about the Roman Emperor Constantine. As they examine the details of the tapestries, pupils use a Venn Diagram to record the similarities and...
Curated OER
Exploring Contrasts in "The Lanyard" by Billy Collins
Middle schoolers analyze the speaker's ideas and tone in the Billy Collins poem "The Lanyard." After identifying how each of the five senses is addressed in the poem, they compare images to draw conclusions about the speaker and his...
Curated OER
Comparing Author's Voice
Third graders compare various voices. In this author's voice lesson students read poems from two books, Spooky ABC and Where the Sidewalk Ends. Students choose words that indicate the voice of the author.
Curated OER
How Poets Evoke Social and Historical Representations
Students explore how poems represent the social, historical, and cultural times that they were written in. In this poetry lesson plan, students compare and contrast poems with music of the time and explore implications of writing poems...