Poems carved into the wooden walls of the Asian immigrant prisons on Angel Island provide upper elementary graders an opportunity to study not only the story behind the poems but to also focus on the figurative language employed by the...

Quoth the raven - nevermore! Delve into Edgar Allan Poe's' The Raven," but not too deeply. Answer reading comprehension questions in this multiple-choice quiz without getting too much into the mind of the narrator or poet himself.

A very good 13-slide presentation on similes and metaphors is here for you. It introduces young poets to each term, gives examples, and prompts them to work together to identify similes and metaphors in several different sentences.

If your class doesn't know what a haiku is, show them two examples from the Japanese poet Issa (both included here), and have them make some observations. How long are they? What is the structure? A video and a list of questions help...

Metaphors open doors to descriptive language for your poets. They read the poem "What is the Sun" and record all the metaphors they find. Then, scholars change one of them to a simile. After answering two more comprehension...

What do Roger Chillingworth, Dr. Heidegger, and Ethan Brand have in common? They are all American literature poster boys for Romanticism, advertising the dangers of valuing reason over feeling and intuition. Introduce your class to...

What makes a poem a poem? Give your class a basic understanding of some of the different aspects of poetry by showing them a slide show of poetic devices and elements. The presentation is quite long, so you might split it up into a few...

In a detailed, creative writing task, potential poets analyze how race, identity, and society categorize and (mis)represent us. The learning begins with an imaginative anticipatory set where high schoolers describe unique situations...

A delightful lesson on poetry is here for you and your middle schoolers. Learners are instructed to write a Halloween poem. They get to choose the age range for the audience of the poem. So, it may be scary (for older kids), or humorous...

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...

Sor Juana, considered one of the first feminist writers and a great Latin American poet, is the topic and inspiration for this excellent lesson. Use the introduction, guiding questions, and learning objectives to lead your class into a...

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...

The work of Langston Hughes opens the door to research into the origin and legacy of the Harlem Renaissance and how the literature of the period can be viewed as a commentary on race relations in America. In addition, groups are assigned...

Haikus by Basho, Buson, Issa, and Shiki are used as models for a brief lecture on the importance of poetry in Japan's history and the structure of this poetic form. Students then go on a nature walk, record impressions, and return to the...

Based on the poem "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" by Irish poet William Butler Yeats, this resource is well constructed and guides learners through examining the Yeats poem (rhyme, meter, content) to composing a poem of their own about a...

What do an early 20th century poet and a 1980's rock star have in common with a novel from the 1960's? Using Wilfred Owen's poem "Disabled" and George Michael's song "Mother's Pride," learners answer questions about the lyrics and themes...

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...

Fifth graders recognize the characteristics of poetry. In this poetry activity, 5th graders listen to poetry by Dionne Brand and discuss the meaning of the poems. Students construct their own poems and present them as an assessment.

Students investigate the power of title and poetry in a Langston Hughes' poem. In this poetry analysis lesson, students discuss the poem 'I, Too' for its title and content. Students use the variation in English Words and Phrases website...

Students, after researching the backgrounds to both Longfellow and Freiligrath, examine and analyze selected works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow via his association with the German radical Ferdinand Freiligrath. They discuss and draw...

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.

Fourth graders study different types of poetry and then write examples in this unit. They write, among others, free verse, Diamante, Clerihew, and color poems.

Students use numeric operations and concepts to describe, analyze, communicate, synthesize numeric data, and to solve problems.

Students survey several concepts in literature, science, history, and geography as a preparation for the CSAP standardized testing experience. This nine lesson unit provides exposure to the format and content of the test.