Students use their five senses as a prewriting tool to guide their poetry writing as they compose free-form poems using imagery to describe a color.

In this lesson, students explore how writers use sensory imagery as a literary device to make text more meaningful for the reader. They begin by using all of their senses to describe known objects such as pasta, chocolate, or grapes. Students first feel and listen to the object, in a bag, before then taking it out of the bag to look at, smell, and taste it. They then use at least three senses to write a poem about the object they've described. Next, they evaluate how this literary device functions in Pat Mora's poem “Echoes.” As students read this poem, they look for sensory images and write an explanation of how these images contribute to the meaning of Mora's poem. Finally, students think about how sensory images work in their own poems and then make appropriate revisions to their work.

In this lesson, students are introduced to Cubist and Precisionist painting, and they explore how the poetry of William Carlos Williams adapts similar artistic strategies. Students learn how to analyze a painting, create Cubist- and Precisionist-inspired drawings in response to Williams's poetry, and write an essay comparing Williams's poem “The Great Figure” to Charles Demuth's ekphrastic response to that poem in his painting The Figure 5 in Gold.

This unit introduces students to a variety of poetic forms and elements, as they compile their own collections of poetry.

Students use themed graphic organizers to compose cinquain poems on topics common in the early elementary classroom.

Reinforce student understanding of parts of speech through the analysis of sample cinquain poems followed by the creation of original cinquains.

This lesson plan is the fourth in the "Incredible Bridges: Poets Creating Community" series.It provides a video of the poet, Edward Hirsch, offering a little backstory, then reading the poem "Cotton Candy." The companion lesson contains a sequence of activities for use with secondary students before, during, and after reading to help them enter and experience the poem.

Students create poetry collections with the theme of ńgetting to know each other.î They study and then write a variety of forms of poetry to include in their collections.

"How Wood Tick Became Flat" is a tale from the Northwestern Band of Shoshone Nation. This tale helps students become familiar with cultural storytelling and its importance in Native cultures. Students will have a brief introduction to the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation and thier location in Utah. This lesson include an experience eliciting discussion and literacy activities. Students will create a diamante poem using a Native American tale. 

Students explore the idea of ńcrossing boundariesî through bilingual, spoken-word poetry, culminating in a poetry slam at school or in the community.

Students learn about personification by reading and discussing poems and then brainstorm nouns and verbs to create personification in their own poems.

This lesson helps students explore the aesthetics of poetry and music by developing their own criteria. Students begin by examining what makes a good song. They then read criteria for what makes a good poem and examine two examples of ars poetica. Next, they read about the different aesthetic elements for poetry. Finally, students develop their own aesthetic criteria by which to judge poetry by finding poems that they like, designing an aesthetic crietera they can use to evaluate future poems, and then defending their own judgment.

What's that sound? Students participate in a Directed Listening-Thinking Activity (DLTA) using "The Tell-Tale Heart," make predictions, and respond in the form of an acrostic poem or comic strip.

Students learn about memory by doing a memory-writing exercise, studying the brain to understand how it affects memory, reading Li-Young Lee's poem "Mnemonic," and creating projects to demonstrate their understanding.

Students read sonnets, charting the poems' characteristics and using their observations to deduce traditional sonnet forms. They then write original sonnets, using a poem they have analyzed as a model.

Through a study of Langston Hughes' poetry, students connect his writing to his place in history.

Students shape up their reading, writing, and listening skills in this lesson by creating original diamante, acrostic, and shape poems about science.

In this lesson, students explore ekphrasis--writing inspired by art. Students find pieces of art that inspire them and compose a booklet of poems about the pieces they have chosen.

In this interactive lesson, discover how literary techniques like figurative language, imagery, and symbolism contribute to the overall meaning of a poem. Explore how a poet establishes and builds on a theme. Learn how to tell the difference between tone and mood. Through a close reading of Maya Angelou’s famous poem “Caged Bird” (1983), practice unpacking the language of poetry while learning about some of the various tools a writer can utilize when writing a poem.

This student-directed lesson can be completed online. Students will require a login if the instructor desires that they save their work to the platform. You will find detailed instructions on how to set up and manage accounts, class rosters, and assignments in the Help section of the interactive lesson plan.