Music Without the Melody

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The key to teaching a successful poetry unit is to make the learning experience relevant to the students. Although using well-written lyrics as examples of poetry is a good idea, this does not necessarily insinuate teaching the lyrics to a pop song. Allowing students to explore elements of poetry within structures of their comfort level affords an enriching academic experience. The following poetry unit is developmentally appropriate for elementary through high school students while infusing traditional methodology with fresh, motivating strategies.

OBJECTIVE
Students will:

1. Identify the elements of a poem: form, rhyme scheme, author’s purpose, speaker, and mood of the poem
2. Identify author’s purpose in writing a poem
3. Establish a personal strategy for analyzing poetry
4. Evaluate poetry to form an opinion of personal preference of poetic style
5. Identify the theme of a set of poems

LESSONS FOR THIS UNIT
Lesson 1: Stanza Shopping
Lesson 2: Classify by Topic

REPRODUCIBLES
Become a Telescope (PDF)

CULMINATING ACTIVITY

Students will complete a poetry portfolio to demonstrate acquired learning objectives during the unit. This portfolio may include the writing activity from Lesson Two and other critiques of poems, including some student-chosen poetry.

SUPPORTING BOOKS

Books for Teaching Poetry

We Are Family
Let your students share stories about their own unique families with an underlying theme of all families, whether traditional or not, as loving...

The New and Improved "What I Did on My Summer Vacation"
Introduces a lesson unit enaging students in sharing about themselves, their families, and their summer vacations through a mock museum exhibit.

Ideas for Teaching Creative Poetry
Reading and writing poetry of various forms and genres is the learning objective of this in-depth unit.

ARTICLE	You're a Poet and You Want to Show It Whether your teacher is doing a unit on poetry or you just feel the urge to express yourself, this comprehensive guide can help you become the class poetry pro.
LESSON PLAN	Be the Poet Offers a lesson plan requiring students to write their own Haiku poetry based on past readings and research.
ONLINE ACTIVITY	Home | Write It Write It is the premiere site for kids' and teens' writing instruction and online publishing. In genres like poetry, essays, short fiction,...