Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Classify By Topic

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Young scholars explore and evaluate poetry. In small groups, they read and summarize poems, complete a handout, create and perform a dramatization of a poem, and write a journal entry in response to their performance.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

America's Civil Rights Movement, Activity Five

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Learners read and write poems for two voices about the Civil Rights Movement.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Spoken Word Poetry

For Teachers 9th - 12th
High schoolers examine the spoken work poetry of Abiodun Oyewole. They discuss the West African Griot tradition, listen to spoken word poetry, write and perform a poem, and watch a video excerpt of a poetry workshop.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Ode to the Earth: Magnetic Poetry

For Teachers 3rd - 6th
Young scholars explore Earth Day by creating an arts and crafts project. In this nature appreciation lesson, students utilize nature related vocabulary terms on magnets and put them in different orders to create interesting poetry. Young...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Shel Silverstein Poetry Math

For Teachers 5th
Fifth graders explore the connection between poetry and math by reading poems that involve numbers.  In this Shel Silverstein poetry math lesson, 5th graders listen to 5 poems read aloud and discuss how math was used in the...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Reflecting/Writing after a field trip or other experience

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Young scholars reflect on field trips in writing. In this journal writing lesson, students write about a recent experience by using 4 of their senses to tell what they remember. They turn these into poetry. 
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Parts of Speech Poetry

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students replace nouns, verbs, pronouns, and adjectives in a poem. They identify the parts of speech, and rewrite the poem using their own selection of parts of speech.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Understanding Immigration Through the Use of Triante Poetry

For Teachers 3rd
Third graders read a book about emigrating to America. They create and illustrate a triante poem using sensory words, depicting something they liked about the story.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

What a Garden Can Teach

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students read about land and gardening and create found poems from the text. They use the poems to design interpretation quilts of communal text.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Character Found Poems: Investigating Language in Twelfth Night

For Teachers 8th - 12th
Students create found poems to represent characters in Twelfth Night. In this Shakespeare instructional activity, students discuss how to compose found poems and select characters from the play to write their poems about. 
Lesson Plan
Read Write Think

What Am I? Teaching Poetry through Riddles

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students explore, analyze, and discuss how metaphor, simile, and metonymy are used in riddle poems. They use metaphor, simile, and metonymy to write original riddle poems.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

A Little Mystery and Intrigue in Writing Short Detective Stories

For Teachers 7th - 8th
Students read and analyze the twelve short stories in the novel "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes." They create their own detective that has to solve a new kind of crime, and write and edit a short story with their original detective as...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

It's All Poetry to Me!

For Teachers 4th
Fourth graders explore language arts by analyzing poetry styles. In this writing analysis lesson plan, 4th graders read several sample poems in class and identify similes, metaphors and other figurative language within them. Students...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Oceans-A Fact Haiku

For Teachers K - 4th
Students create haiku poems. In this poetry lesson, students listen to the sound of the ocean from an audio file and write a haiku poem about oceans.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Oceans: A Sensory Haiku

For Teachers 4th - 5th
Learners create an ocean haiku. In this haiku lesson, students use their five senses to write a haiku. Learners watch videos about the ocean, make a sensory portrait, and create a class haiku.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Show You Care

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Young scholars construct a four-line poem to be used on the inside of a Valentine's Day card. They use a digital camera to show themselves to their "buddies" (local nursing home patients) who receive the cards on Valentine's Day.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Circle Justice—Lesson 1: The Anger Within

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students examine the emotion of anger through the poem 'A Poison Tree'. In this poetry analysis lesson, students identify and decode unfamiliar vocabulary they encounter, engage in groups discussions and complete several writing...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Lessons of the Indian Epics: Following the Dharma

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students examine how the epic poem, "Ramayana" teaches dharma, one of Hinduism's most important tenets. They read the abridged version of the "Ramayana," identify the main plot points, complete a chart, and write an essay on a moral...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Poetry Immersion

For Teachers 1st - 2nd
Students explore the genre of poetry through centers. They listen to the sound of poems being read aloud, visualize individual poems and observe and apply line breaks in poetry.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Powerful Poetry

For Teachers 4th - 5th
Students examine Haiku poems and analyze their meanings. They create a whole class Haiku, then develop their own poems.
Lesson Plan
National Endowment for the Humanities

The Poet's Voice: Langston Hughes and You

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Middle schoolers complete a unit of lessons that explore the poetic voice of Langston Hughes. They define voice, read and analyze various poems by Langston Hughes, and complete journal entries for each instructional activity.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Dance: Sharp and Smooth Energy Qualities

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students use different qualities of movement to express themselves. For this lesson on movement, students use different qualities of energy and then use their experience as an inspiration for writing poetry.
Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Performance Task: Performing a Narrative

For Teachers 6th Standards
Calling all performers! Scholars present a modern-day theme of adversity by performing their narratives for the class. As individuals watch their peers, they take notes on each performance using an Audience Note Sheet.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

What a Garden Can Teach Us

For Teachers 3rd
Third graders read "Seedfolks" and "What a Garden Can Teach Us" and discuss how a garden is like a community. They create a class quilt illustrating how their classroom community the lines of the poem.