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

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.

Lopezland Poetry Slam
Students study the basic elements of poetry through reading, listening to musical lyrics, writing poetry, and reading poetry aloud.

Haiku - Poetry of the Samurai Warrior
Encourages students to learn about ancient Japanese Samurai through reading, repsonding to, and writing haiku.

ARTICLE	Making Numbers Count: Lesson Plan Based on Math Fables, by Greg Tang Teach math and poetry with this free lesson plan from Scholastic Book Fairs, based on the extraordinary book Math Fables, by Greg Tang.
LESSON PLAN	Poetry In Motion Practice reading comprehension; identify synonyms, antonyms, and idioms; write poetry, california
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,...