Lesson Plans

92 Result(s)
Grade Range
9-12
Lesson 2: The Metamorphoses and Modern Poetry: A Comparison of Mythic Characters

Students compare two versions of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth. Ovid’s version in (Bk X: 1–85) tells the story primarily from an androcentric point of view through the character, Orpheus. In the version expressed by 20th –century a poet H.D. offers the story from a woman’s point of view and articulates the emotions of a broken-hearted, and downright angry, Eurydice.

Grade Range
K-5
Can You Haiku?

Students learn the rules and conventions of haiku, study examples by Japanese masters, and create haiku of their own.

Grade Range
9-12
Tanka: Japanese Poetry

This unit on the Japanese poetic form tanka encourages students to explore the structure and content of the form and to arrive at a definition of the tanka’s structure in English. Students will read and analyze the tanka form and compare it to English structures of poetry, and will finally compose their own tankas.

Grade Range
6-8
Not Only Paul Revere: Other Riders of the American Revolution

While Paul Revere's ride is the most famous event of its kind in American history, other Americans made similar rides during the Revolutionary period.  After learning about some less well known but no less colorful rides that occurred in other locations, students gather evidence to support an argument about why at least one of these "other riders" does or does not deserve to be better known.

Grade Range
9-12
Sor Juana, la monja y la escritora: Las Redondillas y La Respuesta

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, la primer gran poeta de América Latina, es considerada una de la figuras literarias más importantes del continente americano y una de las primeras feministas. En el siglo XVII, defendió su derecho a la educación, proponiendo la mayor participación de las mujeres en la cultura y la pedagogía en una sociedad dominada por los hombres.

Grade Range
9-12
Lu Shih—The Couplets of T’ang

The T'ang Dynasty(c. 600-900 CE), the period when the lu shih came to the fore as a poetic form is considered by some to be the peak of classical of Chinese culture.

Grade Range
K-5
Edward Lear, Limericks, and Nonsense: A Little Nonsense

This lesson plan explores the characteristics of the nonsense poem as developed by British poet Edward Lear and focuses on Lear’s well-known poem “The Owl and the Pussy Cat.” Students learn to recognize poetic devices such as rhyme, syllabification, and meter, and figures of speech such as alliteration, onomatopoeia, and personification, by analyzing nonsense poems and writing one of their own.

Grade Range
9-12
Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet: ‘You Kiss by the Book’

As one of literature's most iconic figures, both Shakespeare's plays and poetry provide an interesting glimpse into a variety of essential themes. In this lesson, students will examine how Shakespeare used the sonnet tradition to enhance his stagecraft by performing a scene from his play Romeo and Juliet.

Grade Range
K-5
Play with Words: Rhyme & Verse

Poetry provides us with a rich vehicle for helping children explore how language sounds and works. Students will use their senses to experience poetry.