Japanese Poetry: Tanka? You're Welcome!

Free verse poetry is often regarded as poetry without structure, but in reality, it is a poetic form that adheres to its own poet's thought and breath patterns. Delve into the rules and famous examples of free-verse poetry with a short...

Do your language arts students love to draw? Use this activity to reinforce poetic techniques with illustration. After drawing what they think poem would look like with no words, middle and high schoolers work on several different...

Young scholars explore the structure and content of the Tanka form and to arrive at a definition of the structure in English. They analyze a tanka to determine its structure and intent and compose two Tanka; one in traditional form and...

Students create and perform Corridos which are oral tradition ballads. In this Passing Down Family History Through Oral Tradition lesson, students interview family members using a predetermined list of questions. In addition, students...

An introduction to bunraku--the traditional puppet theater of Japan. Find clear explanations of the history of the art form and details of the music, props, and puppets used. Illustrated with beautiful pictures. Includes several video...

This lesson allows learners read various sonnets and chart the basic characteristics of the poem, using their observations about traditional sonnet forms. After, students write original sonnets, using one of the poems they have analyzed...

This large, wonderful site includes so much information on Asia that it is hard to showcase each element. It is easiest to enter Waka into the keyword box in order to access all the provided information. You will find an essay that...

Students analyze Japanese tanka poetry. In this Japanese poetry lesson, students identify analyze the structure of tanka poetry. Students complete the activities at the given links for the lesson and compose two tanka poems.

Spice up your traditional approach to teaching poetic structure with a wonderful animated video, which not only covers such terms as foot, meter, verse, but also stresses Shakespeare's unique use of iambic pentameter to convey emotion...

Students analyze American essayists Mark Twain and Frederick Douglass in an introduction to American literary non-fiction writing. In this essay history lesson, students identify methods for writing essays. Students read and analyze...