Utah Education Network (UEN)
8th Grade Poetry: Sonnet Poem
The third instructional activity of five in an eighth-grade poetry unit has young scholars comparing Shakespearean sonnets with Petrarchan sonnets. To begin, they examine the different structures of the two forms and their different...
Utah Education Network (UEN)
7th Grade Poetry: Sonnet Poem
Two sonnets provide seventh graders with examples of Shakespearean sonnets. After discussing the story of the poems and analyzing their rhyme scheme and rhythm, young poets craft a Shakespearian sonnet and share their work with two...
Curated OER
Listening to Poetry: Sounds of the Sonnet
Students investigate how sound influences meaning in poetry by listening to sonnets. They write an analysis after listening to and reading sonnets.
Curated OER
Emmett Till: A Classroom Sonnet
Who is Emmet Till? An important historical figure, your kids will be shocked by his story! Discover the details of his life and collaborate to write a crown of sonnets in the style of Marilyn Nelson.
Curated OER
Analyzing Sonnets
Model for your class how to craft an analysis of a sonnet by examining the literary techniques used, the background of the poet, and critical reviews of the poem. As guided practice, learners are assigned a sonnet, complete a preliminary...
Curated OER
Sonnets
Explore the concept of rhyme scheme within a Shakespearean sonnet. After writing out their favorite (appropriate!) rap song and explaining why they like it, middle schoolers define a rhyme scheme. Afterward, they examine a Shakespearean...
Curated OER
From George to Martha: Writing a Sonnet Using Primary Sources
What was the relationship like between George and Martha Washington? To protect their privacy, Martha Washington destroyed all her husband’s letters after his death so historians have little evidence of their lives together. Two letters...
Curated OER
The Sonnet Challenge
Students are given information about two popular sonnet forms-English and Italian. They are given the rules for writing a sonnet. Students are asked what type of sonnet they would use. They are each given a sheet of paper and asked...
Education Oasis
Creative Writing Unit: Analyzing, Interpreting, Discussing and Writing Various Genres of African-American Literature
A six-week unit takes high schoolers through various works of African-American literature, including poems, plays, and short stories. The lesson plan format includes a week-by-week description of activities, goals, materials, and...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Sor Juana, la poetisa: Los sonetos
Examine two of Sor Juana's sonnets in depth. Learners first listen to an audio recording or a reading of the sonnets and then analyze the structure and form, paying attention to elements of the Baroque and el gongorismo. Assess student...
Curated OER
Listening to Poetry: Sounds of the Sonnet
Students experience and enjoy the sounds of poetry. They erform sound experiments with sonnets and closely read and analyze a sonnet by Shakespeare. Students write an analysis of how sound affects meaning in a sonnet chosen from the...
Curated OER
Poetry--Rhythm and Meter in Sonnets
Students identify rhyme scheme and meter in a poem and respond to the message of the poem. In this sonnet rhythm and meter lesson, students take notes on a lecture about rhythm and meter in sonnets and work in small groups to read...
Curated OER
Sonnet Form
Students explore the sonnet form. In this lesson on sonnet form, students explore various sonnets and how a sonnet can range from conventional to experimental.
Curated OER
Sonnets
Students examine the structure of sonnets. They compare and contrast them with modern day poetry. They write their own sonnet after changing the language in another sonnet to see why the author choosed certain words.
Utah Education Network (UEN)
7th Grade Poetry: Assess
To assess what scholars have learned throughout a five-lesson poetry unit, seventh graders first craft a Shakespearean sonnet based on a poem they have studied. In part two of the assessment, scholars complete a four-texts performance task.
Utah Education Network (UEN)
8th Grade Poetry: Assess
Eighth graders craft a Petrarchan sonnet and respond to a performance assessment to demonstrate what they have learned in this five-lesson plan poetry unit.
Curated OER
Exploring the Sonnet
Pupils research English/Shakespearean and Italian/Petrarchan sonnet forms. They write an original sonnet on their preferred form (English or Italian), write the poem on the wordprocessor and publish and post it on the net at the Sonnet...
Curated OER
Superb Sonnets
Students identify and compare the characteristics of both Italian and English sonnets. They read examples of each, then write an original sonnet in either the Italian or English style.
Curated OER
Close Reading of a Sonnet
Students practice reading sonnets line by line to find the message of the sonnet. In this sonnet lesson, students read a sonnet one line at a time as the teacher projects it for the entire class. As each line is shown,...
Curated OER
The English Sonnet: Michael Drayton
Young scholars discover literature by conducting a free writing experiment. For this sonnet lesson, students read the sonnet "The Parting" and compare it to modern-day songs about breaking up. Young scholars listen to pop music in...
Curated OER
Performing Sonnets
Students use Shakespearean sonnets as part of a poetry analysis instructional activity. In this sonnet instructional activity, students perform a sonnet by Shakespeare but treat it as a script to be acted out. Students work in pairs to...
Curated OER
Shakespeare Was A Black Woman
"I all alone beweep my outcast state." After a discussion of the "Shakespeare in American Life" segment in which Maya Angelou's relates her reaction to Sonnet 29, class groups create and perform a scene about an outcast that includes the...
Curated OER
The Sonnet: Renaissance Representative
Young scholars compose couplets, quatrains, and sonnets after learning about Italian and English sonnets. In this sonnets lesson plan, students read sonnets, analyze them, connect them to the Renaissance and present times, and then write...
Curated OER
"Tear him for his bad verses:" Cinna the poet and Shakespeare's Sonnets
Poor Cinna, the poet. His dream of “things unlucky” certainly comes true as the mob tears him apart, at first because they mistake him for Cinna, the conspirator, and then continue to “tear him to pieces for his bad verses.” As part of...