Reading and Analyzing Poetry
Now that National
Poetry Month is underway, it's a great time to focus your classroom activities
on reading and analyzing poetry. These lesson plans and classroom-ready resources can get you started.
- Choosing One Word: Summarizing Shel Silverstein’s "Sick" (E)
Ask students to select the most important word in a poem that they have read in this K-2 ReadWriteThink
lesson plan. As they explain their choices, students analyze and explore the poem's meaning.
- Compiling
Poetry Collections and a Working Definition of Poetry (E)
Introduce poetry forms and craft elements as
students explore poetry about everyday topics or themes by creating their own
poetry collections in this 3-5 ReadWriteThink
lesson plan.
- Weaving
the Threads: Integrating Poetry Annotation and Web Technology (M)
Engage students in meaningful research using poetry
as a focal point. Students identify words and phrases in a poem by a Native
American and, in the process, learn about Native American culture and history
in this 6-8 ReadWriteThink
lesson plan.
- Varying Views of America (S)
Explore how perspective
affects tone in this lesson plan that focuses on an analysis
of Walt Whitman's “I Hear America Singing,” Langston Hughes' “I, Too, Sing America,” and
Maya Angelou's “On the Pulse of the Morning” in this 9-12 ReadWriteThink
lesson plan
- "Anthologizing
Transformation: Breaking Down Students' 'Private Theories' about Poetry" (C)
Challenge students to look through a handful of poetry collections or anthologies,
seeking 20 poems they like and thus understand or want to understand to some
extent with the ideas outlined in this Teaching English in the Two-Year
College article.
- "The
Free Verse Spectrum"
(C)
Articulate the diversity of free verse by pairing poems that demonstrate
the range of poetic expression that free verse encompasses with the strategies
explored in this College English article.
For more ideas for teaching poetry, see the Poetry
Teacher Resource Collection, which includes links to additional articles,
lesson plans, and other resources.
NOTE: Free access to journal articles mentioned in this Inbox is provided
for 21 days. After this free access period expires, articles are available
to journal subscribers only. This Inbox Idea was published 04-05-2005.
Initials in annotations indicate academic level of the resource (E=Elementary,
M=Middle, S=Secondary, C=College, G=General).
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