Students explore, analyze, study and read a variety of poems and listen to jazz that have their roots in the Harlem Renaissance. They then discuss the similarities and differences of themes in the works of different poets and composers.

Models of and directions for how to write 20 different types of poems are featured in an NCTE resource. The introduction to each form highlights the embedded concepts. For example, tongue twisters encourage poets to use alliteration and...

Introduce your class to ekphrastic poetry with an exercise that asks them to examine Edward Hooper's painting House by the Railroad and Edward Hirsch's poem "Edward Hopper and the House By the Railroad." After a close reading...

Writing poetry in ancient China was the modern equivalent of sending a greeting card. Scholars learn about the ancient Chinese poetic form called the lu shih. They read about the context of poetry during the T'ang Dynasty and complete a...

Looking for a resource that models how to read and analyze a poem? Check out this packet that uses sections of Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself" to demonstrate how to paraphrase, note literary elements, and identify the poet's inferences.

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...

Learners analyze photographs and poetry as forms of each other. In this poetry and photography analysis activity, students use the photographs of Alfred Stieglitz and poetry from William Carlos William to explore how poetry and painting...

Students look carefully at two photographs by Dorothea Lange that relate to the universal theme of a journey. They identify parallels between Lange's photographs and two poems. They write about the theme of journey as it relates to their...

Students create a poem on about spring. They read final version of their poem chorally. They write reflections of their experience in creating the poem.

Third graders relate dance movements to chants. They tap out the rhythm of poetry on different body parts.

Introduce your class members to allegory and propaganda with a series of activities designed to accompany a study of George Orwell's Animal Farm. Readers examine the text as an allegory, consider the parallels to collective farms...

High schoolers examine the experiences of African American women. In this poetry lesson plan, students use their literary analysis skills to compare the poetry of Maya Angelou to rap music performed by Queen Latifah and Lauryn Hill.

Eleventh graders are introduced to various basic and advanced poetic devices. They read several poems and practice identifying poetic elements. They identify at least two different poems and substantiate why they belong in the canon.

Learners examine examples of poems and identify the prepositions in them. They write original poems using prepositional phrases and create illustrations to go with them.

Learners compare and contrast the experience of the migrant worker as depicted in The Grapes of Wrath with the experiences of migrant children as depicted in the narratives and poems provided.

Add a great resource to your collection of The Grapes of Wrath curriculum materials. A thorough packet contains loads of useful suggestions, whether you use the novel as an anchor text, as a reading circle...

Students read information about Anglo-Saxon rulers and literary techniques, then complete a worksheet to help them review. Students take notes about the oral tradition, Anglo-Saxon literary terms, and Anglo-Saxon poetry. Students create...

Your students already know when they like a story and when they don't, but they may not know that the plots of these stories are shaping that opinion. Like all resources in this series, the two activities and quizzes provided here deal...

Students begin the lesson with a review of the elements of poetry. Individually, they read a variety of poems and literature one white and one black author focusing on decay, sterility and alienation. They identify these images within...

Students read one of his minor poems but focus on Paradise Lost. They apply historical criticism to the poem and note the parallel between the Biblical references and the politics of Oliver Cromwell.

Walt Whitman was a composter? Certainly the cycle of life and death he describes in "Leaves of Grass" parallels the processes going on in a compose pile. The interdisciplinary approach detailed here could be used to foster a deeper...

Second graders compare and contrast gymnastics in 1859, 1900 and today. Students contrast differences in gymnastics for boys and girls today. Students pretend that they are interviewing a famous gymnast and write up their interview....

Eighth graders write a multi paragraphed, expository composition that explanins how one would conduct themself before, during, and after a job interview. In order to be prepared for the interview, 8th graders complete a thesis, have an...

Students examine the impact of colonialism on African nations, researching and analyzing post-colonial literature from those countries. They develop and present a creative display of their novel and its historic parallels.