Lesson Plans

Poetry Portfolios: Using Poetry to Teach Reading

Students learn to read and write when they have an active interest in what they are reading and writing about. This lesson supports students’ exploration of language skills as they read and dissect poetry. Through a weekly poem, students…

Speaker & Mover 2: Advanced

There is a genre of theatre, inspired by classical traditions in many countries (China, India, Japan, Bali) and pioneered in Poland and throughout Europe in the sixties and seventies, known as ‘physical theatre’ and sometimes ‘third theatre’.…

Stretching the Imagination with Imagery

Oftentimes, poetry is viewed as an intimidating, confusing, or difficult genre to read and write in—however, sometimes a poem can be best recognized and understood by what it leaves behind in our mind: images. 

From a classic red…

A Taste of Canada

Students in grades 4-6 often do a study of Canada. In Grades 4 and 5 for example, students explore the different regions of Canada in Social Studies. They often do an in-depth study of the landforms, physical characteristics of different…

Talking Poetry with Blabberize

In this lesson students are given the opportunity to be imaginative and expressive through the writing of three types of poems:  acrostic, diamante, and theme.  Building on their creativity, students then use …

5, 6, 7, 8… Let’s Go Alliterate!

Alliteration is a fun way to get younger students exposed to poetry. Having students play with words that start with the same letter is a great addition to Early Literacy. It’s a fun and less formal way to teach students about naming words (…

Poetry for Two Voices: Reading, Writing and Performing

Using poets Phil Kaye and Sarah Kay’s YouTube performance of “When Love Arrives” as an inspiration, students will perform and write comparison poems for two voices. After a discussion of the unique structure of these poems, students will choose…

Poems for Two Voices

I’ve used this lesson with grades 8–10, but mostly with grade 9.

A two-voice poem is written in two columns. Two students read the poem, and each chooses a column to read. When there are words that appear on the same line, the students…

Animals Can Write Poetry Too

Younger students tend to have a special spot in their hearts for animals. This is the best time to introduce poetry, simple as it may be, from the perspective of animals. This unit gets students engaged in playful and descriptive words that…

Romanticism

It has been said that in 1816 Lord Byron rented a house in Geneva, “Villa Diodati” where he, Percy Byshe Shelley, and Mary Shelley met. They spent the summer together, and over a period of 3 days of rain they were forced to remain inside. In…

Occasional Poetry: Amanda Gorman on the Occasion of an Inauguration

In this lesson, students learn about the poet Amanda Gorman — how she came to write “The Hill We Climb” for President Joe Biden’s inauguration and how her poem was written in the tradition of occasional poetry. Students will also learn about Ms…

Spell Casting Through Ritual

Using Poetry in Voice’s mixtape—Spell Casting Through Rituals—this lesson allows students to explore various expressions of sacredness found in this country, within their families, culture and themselves. These activities aim to provide…

Literary Parodies: Exploring a Writer’s Style through Imitation

The popular saying “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,” coined by Charles Caleb Colton, is the basis for this lesson, which asks students to analyze the features of a poet’s work then create their own poems based on the original model…

How to DISRUPT your poem: A deep reading method to ignite the interpretive process

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Poetry is the Power to Transcend

Poet W.H. Auden said, “Poetry makes nothing happen” – implying that poetry is useless to real life. This opinion is common, and many people – including students – think, “Why should I bother with poetry? I can’t get a job out of it. It can’t help…

Poetry and The Odyssey

As they read the Odyssey, students will explore the perspectives of its characters--and particularly its women-- through poetry. In the end, they will work with a partner to write a poem that is a dialogue between two characters. What…

Ekphrasis: Using Art to Inspire Poetry

In this lesson, students explore ekphrasis—writing inspired by art. Students begin by reading and discussing several poems inspired by works of art. Through the discussion, students learn ways in which poets can approach a piece of artwork (for…

Form Poetry and Memory Work

Students are often intimidated by the idea of writing form poetry, but this type of poetry can be most enjoyable to read and memorize. By first using the skills of listening, reading, and memory work to map out the structure of formal poems…

Old & New Thinking

“The more things change, the more they stay the same.” Styles may transform over time, along with social mores, laws and priorities and even the standards by which we treat one another across cultures and genders and generations. But the ways…

A Race with Grace: Sports Poetry in Motion

Can athletes’ moves be described as beautiful? How are grace, beauty, and aesthetics expressed through movement? These and many other questions will provide the framework for students’ exploration of poetry in motion of athletes who participate…

The Ballad

To many students, the word “ballad” will call to mind a slow, probably sentimental song. In the world of poetry, however, a ballad is a lively storytelling poem written in what is called the ballad stanza.

The ballad stanza is simple to…

Building Classroom Community through the Exploration of Acrostic Poetry

Building classroom community is one of the most challenging yet most important tasks for any teacher, and it needs to be reinforced frequently throughout the year. This lesson gives students the opportunity to be innovative, creative, and…

Writing Poetry: Teamwork and Play 2

These workshops focus on reading simple but unique poems that embody the idea of play in various ways, and on group/individual writing in a spirit of exploration and spontaneity.

​​IMPORTANT: All these exercises (with the…

See, Sing, And Speak through Poetry: Odes and Anti-Odes

In this lesson, students will explore one of the oldest poetic modes, the ode, whose roots extend from Ancient Greece, where poetry’s social function was often connected to…

Strategies for Teaching Poetry to High School Students

Group Challenge: Preparing Students for a Team Recitation Contest

In this unit, students will be introduced to the art of recitation through a group challenge. In groups of three, students will select, prepare, and perform one poem each. Their scores will then be tallied with their teammates. In the spirit of…

What Is Poetry?

An excellent way to gauge student attitudes towards and experiences with poetry is to begin your poetry unit by asking students to define what…

Erasure Poems

Sometimes limiting our choices inspires incredibly creative results. This writing exercise will give your students the chance to find their own voices while working with a block of text written by someone else.

Erasures are fun, but…

Poetry from Prose

Students compose found and parallel poems based on a descriptive passage they have chosen from a piece of literature they are reading. They first work in small groups to brainstorm words to describe concrete objects and then arrange their words…

Rap a Tap Tap – Expression through Music, Movement and Drama

This lesson can be used for students ranging from Grades 1-6 (with modifications that apply to Kindergarten and Grades 7-8). It incorporates music, dance and movement, and drama with poetry to help students learn how to portray different…

Slipping, Sliding, Tumbling: Reinforcing Cause and Effect through Diamante Poems

Combine higher order thinking with creativity in this lesson that uses diamante poems to illustrate the phenomenon of cause and effect. Students define and identify instances of cause and effect to help them generate their own examples. After…

Poetry In Voice Analysis

For this project, you will explore and analyze the poem you have selected for the Poetry In Voice Contest. Ensure that this poem challenges, upsets, enriches, frightens, puzzles, and/or emboldens you.

Just Act Natural: Poetry and Play

What a poem does on the page and what it does aloud can be two very different things. Since the recital audience does not read but only listens, some of a poem’s more visually formal conventions should be deemphasized in the early stages of…

Canada in 2016

In this lesson, students will be invited to annotate Percy Bysshe Shelley’s “England in 1819” with questions, comments, and connections (preferably on a whiteboard/smart board where the poem is projected, for a collaborative process.) Through…

Pick a Perfect Poem to Perform

Students will read widely and deeply a variety of poetry from a poetry anthology. Students will develop an appreciation for variations and complexities in content, structure, theme, and overall effectiveness of individual poems. Students will…

The Poetry Video

There is a great tradition of combining poetry and film: the twentieth-century French poet, artist, and filmmaker Jean Cocteau was particularly interested in using the medium of the moving image to explore new ways to create and celebrate…

Acrostic Fun!

Students will be introduced to acrostic poems in this lesson, as a way to ease them into poetry writing. The thought of writing poetry tends to intimidate some students. We want them to feel confident and comfortable in writing simple poems as…

The Raven

This is an introduction to “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe through recitation and drama. It begins with a recitation by the teacher with the students finishing each verse either individually or as a class. The class is divided into groups of 3…

The Connection between Poetry and Music

Music helps children develop rhythmic intelligence and notice rhythm in language, which are important skills in learning how to read and developing fluency as readers. In this lesson, students listen to poems read aloud, and they discuss the…