CommonLit
Common Lit: Units: 6th Grade Poetry Unit: Identity
Complete teaching unit for 6th Grade Poetry Unit: "Identity." Students will read 6 poems that speak to the theme of creating an identity. They will revisit the essential question: "How do we forge an identity?", read thematically-paired...
CommonLit
Common Lit: Units: 5th Grade Author Study: Shel Silverstein
Complete teaching unit for 5th Grade Author Study: Shel Silverstein. Students will read 6 poems by Shel Silverstein that speak to the theme of how we should live our lives. Students will revisit the essential question "According to Shel...
Yale University
Yale New Haven Teachers Institute: Poetry for the Elementary Classroom
Site contains a narrative and three lesson plans. These plans are designed to assist students with various aspects of poetry. This site discusses strategies which enable students to effectively, memorize, recite, and correctly pronounce...
CommonLit
Common Lit: Units: 7th Grade Thematic Unit: Heroes
Complete teaching unit for 7th Grade Thematic Unit: "Heroes." In this unit, 7th graders will read seven texts that explore why people act heroically. Throughout this unit, students will revisit the essential question: "Why do people act...
CommonLit
Common Lit: Units: Teaching Units
Complete teaching units (12) by grade level. CommonLit units are crafted to be both engaging and rigorous, featuring a variety of literary and informational texts from diverse sources. Reading, writing, and discussion are prioritized in...
CommonLit
Common Lit: Units: 5th Grade Author Study: Gary Soto
Complete teaching unit for 5th Grade Author Study: Gary Soto. Students will read 4 short stories and 2 poems by Gary Soto that examine romantic and family love. Students will analyze these texts while considering the essential question:...
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: Poet William Blake
As part of a unit on William Blake and his poetry, this classroom activity provides a brief classroom project and includes lesson plan ideas, web links, and additional texts.
Alabama Learning Exchange
Alex: 'Batty' About Bats!! (Writing)
As a part of a week-long unit about bats, the students will identify the characteristics of a bat and write an essay about bats. Student understanding will be enhanced through the use of books, poems, lectures, discussions, individual...
Alabama Learning Exchange
Alex: Dead Poets Society: Socratic Seminar Discussion
As a springboard to an eleventh grade poetry unit, students view the movie Dead Poets Society and participate in a Socratic seminar of the themes, symbols, and life questions raised by the film. Student groups research and present one of...
Huntington Library
Huntington Library: Garden Lesson Plans: Japanese Garden Vocabulary: Haiku [Pdf]
A mini-unit on haiku where students learn about and write haiku inspired by Japanese gardens. This activity is intended to be done in conjunction with a visit to a Japanese garden, but this is not essential.
Alabama Learning Exchange
Alex: Gossip to Learn: A Juicy Approach to Research
Though teachers might use this student-centered, technology-based, one or two-day research project to introduce any author, English 12 teachers may wish to use the lesson to jump-start a unit on British literature from the Romantic...