Students read about the sights and sounds of a Las Vegas Christmas. They use words and phrases taken from articles in a recent issue of the New York Times to create a holiday-themed "found Poem."

Fifth graders observe video of poem recitations of a person reciting a poem. In this language arts lesson, 5th graders discuss rhythm and rhyme of poetry as well as pauses within poems. Students choose a poem, in a small group, and...

Eighth graders read and respond to a poem. In this reading and responding lesson plan, 8th graders read a poem as a class and respond to questions about it.

In this making acrostics worksheet, 8th graders read the definition of an acrostic, read an example of one and write 3 acrostics using the words work, energy and machine.

Rudyard Kipling's poem "If" provides readers with a chance to practice their reading comprehension skills. After a close reading of the poem, individuals respond to the comprehension and critical thinking questions included in the resource.

In this writing a poem activity, students read 15 words in a chart and color the ones that rhyme with "old". Students put the rhyming words in pairs, then write a poem using them.

Students decode words as they construct meaning. In this writing lesson plan, students create a story using the software program Bailey's Book House. They listen to their story on the computer, print it out, and read it aloud....

Poets write love letters, but how often do the objects of their love write back? Compare Christopher Marlowe's "A Passionate Shepard to His Love" to Sir Walter Raleigh's response, "The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd," with an engaging...

Can authors speak to each other across works, genres, and centuries? Study the conversation between Christopher Marlowe in his poem "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" and the responses by Sir Walter Raleigh and William Carlos Williams...

If you only read a poem once, you'll miss many levels of analysis and comprehension. High schoolers finish reading "The Passionate Shepard to His Love" by Christopher Marlowe and discuss how the poem's organization contributes to its...

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...

If you've ever wished you could respond to an author's message, an instructional activity that connects three poems with the same concept will appeal to you. Based on the first few lessons' focus on Christopher Marlowe's "The Passionate...

Scholars listen to a reading and answer probing questions about If We Must Die by Claude McKay. Readers annotate their personal copies of the poem as they discuss its figurative language, vocabulary, and meaning. They then transfer...

Winnie the Pooh lands in a gorse-bush plant in chapter one of A.A. Milne's beloved children's novel, Winnie-the-Pooh. With the novel study, scholars research three interesting facts about the plant. They also compose a four-line poem...

Guide high schoolers through the most successful and efficient ways to address a text with a literary analysis instructional activity. As learners find examples of alliteration in Christopher Marlowe's "The Passionate Shepard to His...

In this comprehension exercise, readers compare Carl Sandburg's "Chicago" to a description of the city from Upton's Sinclair's The Jungle.

You can often track a character's development based on others' reactions to their words or actions. Using Karen Russell's "St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves," ninth graders work in a jigsaw activity to analyze how Mirabella's...

Beyonce's "Halo" and Bruno Mars' "Grenade" provide eighth graders with an opportunity to consider how a writer's choice of words can create a very different tone even when the subject is the same. After a close reading of both lyrics,...

The cinquain, a five line, fixed-form poem that features one subject, is the focus of the third exercise in a series of ten poetry writing resources.

Working in groups, young historians review a war poem written by Stephen Crane. After reviewing the poem, they present an oral interpretation of the poem and hold a panel discussion about their analysis. The panel is made up of five or...

Scholars practice rhyming and phonemic awareness using trade books and poetry. They will listen to the book Mouse Mess several times throughout the week, identifying rhyming words, and matching words that begin with the same sound. Then...

Define the word perseverance to have learners understand why it is important in reaching goals. Young scholars research how Martin Luther King needed perseverance to accomplish his goals. They write acrostic poems using the word...

Learners participate in a variety of emergent and early-literacy activities based on a "friendship" theme. Learners listen to the book Do You Want to Be My Friend by Eric Carle, then echo read, choral read, and independently read...

Knock, knock, knock...Creep out your class with a critical thinking lesson plan focused on word relationships in Edgar Allen Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart." They investigate  the relationship between word choice, mood, and...