Creating Classroom Community by Crafting Themed Poetry Collections

Lesson Plans

Student Interactives

Calendar Activities

Professional Library

 

LESSON PLANS

Grades   7 – 10  |  Lesson Plan  |  Standard Lesson

Engineering the Perfect Poem by Using the Vocabulary of STEM

Students research engineering careers and create poetry to understand the vocabulary of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics).

 

Grades   2 – 5  |  Lesson Plan  |  Standard Lesson

Name Tag Glyphs

In this lesson, students practice a way to communicate without words by using a glyph. They create a name card using information about themselves. Students also interpret glyphs made by others.

 

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STUDENT INTERACTIVES

Grades   K – 12  |  Student Interactive  |  Writing Poetry

Diamante Poems

This online tool enables students to learn about and write diamante poems.

 

Grades   K – 12  |  Student Interactive  |  Writing & Publishing Prose

Printing Press

The interactive Printing Press is designed to assist students in creating newspapers, brochures, and flyers.

 

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CALENDAR ACTIVITIES

Grades   3 – 12  |  Calendar Activity  |  October 3

Gwendolyn Brooks published Bronzeville Boys and Girls in 1956.

After students have read and discussed several poems from Brooks' collection, they create a poetry anthology for their own family, neighborhood, or classroom.

 

Grades   3 – 12  |  Calendar Activity  |  March 21

Today is World Poetry Day.

Students read and respond to Billy Collins' poem "Introduction to Poetry." Students then write about a favorite poem and imagine the perfect way to read it.

 

Grades   5 – 12  |  Calendar Activity  |  July 10

The Scopes Trial began today in 1925.

Students brainstorm a list of objects and processes that have changed over time and use the Timeline tool to sketch out the evolution of the item they have chosen. A giant class timeline can be created to show the evolution of the items students have investigated.

 

Grades   1 – 12  |  Calendar Activity  |  September 5

In 1952, Paul Fleischman was born on this day.

Some of Fleishman's memories in his essay "My House of Voices" are shared with the class. Students then write a descriptive essay that gives a tour of the voices in their homes, school, etc.

 

Grades   3 – 6  |  Calendar Activity  |  August 2

Get ready to go back to school!

Students share details about their lives with one another using the interactive Graphic Map and share their memories in small groups or with the whole class.

 

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PROFESSIONAL LIBRARY

Grades   9 – 12  |  Professional Library  |  Book

Teaching Poetry in High School

Albert Somers offers teachers a vast compendium of resources for teaching poetry in a highly accessible format.

 

Grades   6 – 12  |  Professional Library  |  Book

Getting the Knack: 20 Poetry Writing Exercises

Dunning and Stafford, both widely known poets and educators, offer this delightful manual of exercises for beginning poets.

 

Professional Library  |  Journal

Joyful Noises: Creating Poems for Voices and Ears

This article discusses the efforts of a fifth-grade teacher and a visiting poet to rekindle students' sense of poetic passion and pleasure and describes how the authors introduced students to poems for two voices.

 

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