Poetry of the City

Walt Whitman's "Captain, My Captain" and Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken" provide seventh graders with examples of odes. After reading and discussing these and other examples, young poets craft an ode and respond to the ode of a...

Students read and analyze Walt Whitman's poem, "Leaves of Grass." They compare/contrast Whitman's style to artist Takamori's style, and write an original poem about their childhood and fond memories.

Learners determine if Lincoln and Whitman ever met and write a dialogue between the two men. In this Whitman and Lincoln instructional activity, students read Whitman's poem "Beat! Beat! Drums!" and connect it to the events of Lincoln's...

Tone and Mood are not synonymous! Introduce young readers to these literary devices with a series of exercises that not only point out the significant differences between the terms but also shows them how to identify both the tone and...

Students interact with texts. They are given the first four lines of Walt Whitman's poem "When I heard the learned astronomer." Students read them and discuss what they think Walt Whitman did when he heard the astronomer.

Add a strong poetry lesson to your literature unit. Middle and high schoolers investigate their writing voices with journaling and group discussion, then choose a famous poet to study. They write letters to their chosen poets, explaining...

A good poem has form and structure built into it. Middle schoolers see that the structure of a poem consists of stanza, form, rhyme, and meter. The structure also contributes to a poem's meaning. After listening to, and discussing, a few...

Students compare and contrast various versions of the story Cinderella and create their own version. They read versions of Cinderella and identify their components including setting, characters, events/plot, magic and biographical...