Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Oral Directions: Practice for the Slam

For Teachers 8th - 12th
Students practice their poetry presentations. In this poetry slam lesson, students use the provided practice feedback form to prepare for presenting their poems prior to participating in their own poetry slam competition.
App
Tiny Mobile

Poetry Creator | Verses

For Students 2nd - 8th
Construct from a canvas of words, lyrical expressions that your budding poets can share and post.  Based on refrigerator magnet poetry, creative writers can develop their poetry independently, or from a given prompt from their...
Activity
Poetry4kids

How to Write a Clerihew

For Students 3rd - 8th Standards
Writing funny poems is the best part about learning poetic forms! Young poets learn all about clerihews—humorous four-line poems about people—with an explanatory lesson.
Activity
Poetry4kids

How to Write a Silly Song Parody

For Students 3rd - 8th Standards
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery—and it's a great way to learn about poetic structure! Young poets use familiar tunes to write a song parody based on straightforward guidelines.
Lesson Plan
1
1
Health Smart Virginia

Socially Conscious Social Networking

For Teachers 8th
A powerful, award-winning video launches a lesson about socially conscious social networking. After watching the video and engaging in a full class discussion, individuals share their ideas about healthy social networking in a podcast or...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Performance and Reflection on Listening and Speaking

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Young scholars prepare for and evaluate their performances in poetry slams. In this literature lesson, students write personal narratives about their poetry slam experiences.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Civil War

For Teachers 5th - 8th Standards
Historical poetry is lyrical in form and rich with content. After examining the differences between the Northern and Southern states before and during the U.S. Civil War, learners complete a Venn diagram and create an illustration of the...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Poems with Tone and Mood

For Teachers 8th - 12th
Students examine the use of tone in poetry. In this literature lesson, students read "We Real Cool," by Gwendolyn Brooks and use the provided graphic organizer to chart the poem's tone and mood.
Lesson Plan
PBS

The Harlem Renaissance

For Teachers 7th - 12th
A reading of Walter Dean Myers' "Harlem" sets the stage for studying the literature, art, and music of the Harlem Renaissance. The lesson begins with a review of the social, political, and economic conditions of the 1920s and 1930s that...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Rhythm and Improv, Jazz and Poetry

For Teachers 11th - 12th
Connect the ideas of jazz improvisation and art to writing poetry. Learners collaborate and write different lines of poetry, imitating the jazz styles of improvisation and freewriting. Take a close look at the poems "Tenebrae" by Yusef...
Lesson Plan
2
2
Curated OER

The Poetics of Hip Hop

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
The Bard, Nikki Giovanni, Mos Def? “Sonnet 18,” Ego Tripping,” and “Black on Both Sides”? Sure! It’s the poetics. Class members compare the lyrics, rhythm, and rhyme in classic poetry to hip-hop in a richly detailed resource that...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Poetry Slam

For Teachers 9th
Ninth graders write a poem and participate in a poetry slam.
Unit Plan
Academy of American Poets

Voice

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Four lessons make up a poetry unit that introduces high schoolers to spoken and written poetry. Class members also examine poems as social commentary and connect these poems to various novels and plays. A great way to incorporate poetry...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Performance Poetry as Social Commentary

For Teachers 8th - 12th
Students explore poetry that examines social concerns. In this poetry lesson, students research poems and poets. Students present their findings to their classmates.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Poetry as Social Commentary

For Teachers 8th - 12th
Students read poems with social commentaries. For this poetry analysis lesson, students read poems selected by their instructors and complete the provided social commentary chart to determine how the poems speak out against social issues.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Raptor Poetry

For Teachers 3rd - 9th
Young scholars create poems about raptors. They discuss raptors and create three poems including at least two of the following: haiku, diamante, found, and acrostic. They create a classroom book of poems or conduct a poetry slam where...
Worksheet
Curated OER

Poetry Search

For Students 9th - Higher Ed
In this Literature learning exercise, students identify and locate vocabulary terms related to poetry. There are 27 words located in the word search.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Borrowed Inspiration: Writing Social Commentary

For Teachers 8th - 12th
Students read poems with social themes. In this poetry analysis lesson, students read poems selected by their instructors and complete the provided social commentary chart to determine how the poems speak out against social ills....
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Introduction to Poetry

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Students explore poetry. They investigate the poetry al around them. Students examine poetry in order to create a deeper understanding of poetry. They read and write a variety of poetry.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Rap as a Modern Poetic Form

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Pupils write and listen to rap songs. They discover how common themes in rap are indicative of the problems, as well as the empowerments, that can be seen in our urban cultures today. They discover how rap is actually an evolution of...
Lesson Plan
Time Warp Trio

See You Later, Gladiator!

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Young historians take a look at the age of gladiators, and the cultural atmosphere present when they staged their epic battles. Pupils pretend to be reporters and write newspaper articles about one of the events they stage. Then,...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Easy Etiquette

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students investigate rules of etiquette. In this poetry lesson, students consider etiquette rules and follow multi-step directions to create a poinsettia napkin ring. Students work in small groups to demonstrate proper etiquette in...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

"How Many, How Much" by Shel Silverstein

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students decide on the reasonableness and relative magnitude of situations in their lives as Shel Silverstein did in the poem "How Many, How Much."
Lesson Plan
Alabama Learning Exchange

Alex: Poetry Slam

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Students will locate a poem of their choice from a designated website to interpret. Students will then search the Internet for performances of the poem they select. In addition to creating a written interpretation of the poem, including...