Poets Teacher Resources

Integrate geography with literature in this interdisciplinary lesson. Begin by reading a poem such as The Time We Climbed Snake Mountain by Leslie Marmon Silko. On a large map, place push pins in the cities or states mentioned. An...

Students examine the contributions of the author Gwendolyn Brooks. They create a journal, read and discuss poems by Brooks, write a poem about themselves, and create a timeline of their own lives.

Do your fourth graders need a little help with punctuation? Use this run-on paragraph to demonstrate proofreading for capitalization, punctuation, and separating ideas into separate paragraphs. At the end of the activity, learners...

Students identify similarities between Hughes' poetry and music (jazz and the blues).

Students examine how an exhibition of an author's writings can become a portrait or biography of that author . They work in small groups, analyzing various poems by Yeats.

In this world history worksheet, students read a brief history about William Wallace, the Guardian of Scotland. Following this story, students construct a timeline to show the key events in the life and times of Scotland's hero. They...

Students experience the different types of poetry in order to classify them. In this poetry lesson, students discover the multiple types of poetry while reading in the library. Ultimately, the students create their own poetry and share...

Rock stars are cool, but not as cool as the ones from the nineteenth century Romantic Movement. Present critical biographical information on the big three, Byron, Shelly, and Keats, before you dive into analysis of their major poems. The...

Students examine the historical and cultural context in Sandburg's poem. The poetic devices of personification and apostrophe are utilized in the poem and identified by Students.

In this everyday editing activity, students correct grammatical mistakes in a short paragraph about Elizabeth Barrett Browning. The errors range from capitalization, punctuation, spelling, and grammar.

Carl Sandburg composed poetry that conveyed a time and place in American Literature and history. Learners identify the literary techniques he uses to describe the historical and cultural context of living in Chicago. They define the...

Tumbling tumbleweeds! Scholars work with video clips, primary and secondary documents, and song lyrics to uncover life in the Old West. They examine song's lyrics to uncover myths told in the 1930s about life in the Wild West. 

Celebrate International Children's Book Day using this resource. Learners complete activities, such as reading a passage, sequencing, unscrambling sentences, writing questions, conducting surveys, and writing. Students complete twelve...

Three animators provide different visual interpretations of Walt Whitman's "A Noiseless Patient Spider." What a great way to generate a discussion of interpretation, mood, and tone.

The tale of Arachne is spun for viewers of a short video that details the fate of the beautiful, vain, young spinner who challenged Athena and was caught in the web of her arrogance.

One of the greatest tricks of all time is so well known that it has become its own colloquialism. Introduce elementary readers to "The Wooden Horse," an adaptation of the legendary story from Homer's Odyssey and Virgil's Aeneid, with a...

Here is a complex lesson plan that interweaves the history of the Jim Crow South and the Great Migration with the study of poetry, art, and blues music from the Harlem Renaissance. The plan helps young historians develop a deep...

High schoolers examine World War I poetry for historical context, poetic devices, and participate in a class discussion. They write an analysis of the poetry's form and its content.

Learners explore the cultures and civilizations of Mesopotamia. They take a look at the factors that shaped the region, and study the history of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, and other ancient wonders of the world. The class is divided...

While originally created to accompany The Cay, this poetry lesson could be used on it's own, especially if you are working on dialect. Class members conduct a close reading of "When Malindy Sings" by Paul Laurence Dunbar and listen to an...

Using the graphic novel version of The Odyssey? Here' s just the thing. A teacher's guide complete with background information, discussion questions, and activities.

Helen of Troy is one of the most prevalent figures in poetry, mythology, and literature. Discover how the Trojan War began with her journey to Troy with an engaging audiobook accompanied by a written background and transcript.

Because the monsters Scylla, Charybdis, and Polyphemus in Homer's Odyssey are fictional, scholars may assume the Iliad is also entirely fictional. A carefully researched video describes Heinrich Schliemann's discovery of the historical...

Writers compose an original shape poem. Scholars choose a subject to write about and create a visual representation by forming a corresponding picture using the poem's words.