I have dreamed of creating a middle school poetry unit. Lesson plans, poetry analysis reading responses, and verse novels book club and activities.
I love teaching poetry and can't wait to share these fun ideas with you! This post is full of ways you can make poetry fun in your middle school classroom.
Adding a Reading Literature Journal to Your Instruction Sometimes, as English/Literature teachers, we have a hard time making room for short stories in our instruction. There is a focus on novels and longer texts. However, it
POEMS? That 5-letter word will send shivers down the spines of middle school students. Add in the suggestion of "poetry analysis," and the moans and groans can be heard throughout the hallways! If all this sounds familiar, I have a few teacher tips to help you boost engagement with poems that middle schoolers actually enjoy!
Engage students in meaningful poetry reading and writing activities. Here are SEVEN assignments both secondary teachers and students will enjoy.
Help bring poetry to life for our older students!
Do you hate to teach poetry? Do you want your students to learn and enjoy poetry? Try these simple ways to learn how to teach poetry...
Teaching blackout poetry is an engaging way to help spruce up your poetry unit. Show a few examples, and your students will be eager to create a blackout masterpiece of their own. Keep reading to learn what blackout poetry is and just what you need to do to teach it. So, you’re thinking about teaching… Read More »A Beginner’s Guide To Teaching Blackout Poetry
Great Ideas And Tips For Teaching Poetry. Poetry reveals many aspects of life that they may not get to experience or witness first hand. Poetry may speak some ‘truth’ about how others live and that helps build empathy with our students. Read on for 6 ways you can set your students interest ablaze for poetry! Grades 4-12 | Middle School ELA | High School English
I have dreamed of creating a middle school poetry unit. Lesson plans, poetry analysis reading responses, and verse novels book club and activities.
Dig deep to really get to know the characters.
Looking for some fresh ideas for how to use the "I am" Poem in your secondary ELA classroom? Check out this quick post where I share a whole list of ideas for meaningful ways to add this poetry activity into your classroom today.
Short stories and poetry are great, but it's usually a novel that fosters a true love for reading in the English classroom.This #2ndaryELA Twitter chat was all about teaching novels. Middle school and high school English Language Arts teachers discussed the novels they use at different grade levels. Teachers also shared their methods of reading: whole class or literature circles, in-class or independently as homework. Read through the chat for ideas to implement in your own classroom.
S – STRUCTURE: How is this poem organized? How many stanzas? How is the idea developed? What words or phrases give the images or theme emphasis or clarity? What is the structure? Line length / rhyme scheme? Is there any rhythm / repetition? M – MEANING: What is the poem about? Does it have a message? What is the poet discussing? Is there an overall theme and idea in the poem? Does is contain symbolism? I – IMAGERY: What pictures do you get in your mind when you read the poem? Does the poem contain similes, metaphors , or personification? Why do you think the poet has included these images in the poem? L – LANGUAGE: What words has the poet used to create an image? Are there are complicated words? Is the language simple to understand? Which words and phases create the images? E – EFFECT: What is the effect of the poem? What does the poem make you feel or think about? What opinion does it show about the subject? What is the poet trying to say about their subject?
Use poetry to encourage reluctant readers! Novels in verse are
Note: Copy and paste images into a Word document, then make the images larger to be able to read all of the content.
William Wordsworth Explains Personification: Poetry Comics Activities Included This comic teaches students the concept of personification using Wordsworth's poem "Daffodils." The comic and poem are accompanied by questions as well as a second poem with activities. If you like this resource, you might be interested in these: Parts of Speech: Grammar Bundle Sentence Problems (Common Writing Mistakes) Middle School Language Arts Bundle Vocabulary Cartoons: Roots and Affixes Poetry Comics Bundle Hamlet: Comic Summaries and Activities A Midsummer Night's Dream: Comic Summaries and Activities Macbeth: Comic Summaries and Activities Romeo and Juliet: Comic Summaries and Actvities Romeo and Juliet: Comic Summaries and Actvities Intro to Shakespeare Activity Bundle Connect with Me! Visit my Teachers Pay Teachers StoreVisit my BlogFollow me on Facebook Thanks, David Rickert © 2014 David Rickert All rights reserved by author. Duplication limited to single classroom use only. Electronic distribution limited to single classroom use only.
Hello? Hello? Is this mic on? Anyone out there? Friends, it has been a MINUTE!! The end of the school year was, as always, bonkers. The first two weeks of summer was double bonkers!! And
Attention all teachers! Are you looking for an effective way to teach your students how to analyze documents? Look no further than SOAPSTone! SOAPSTone analysis worksheets provide a comprehensive framework for analyzing any type of document, from poetry and literature analysis to historical speeches and scientific articles. By breaking down the document into its key components, students can gain a deeper understanding of its purpose, audience, and message. This analysis tool is often used in classrooms as young as middle school & high school but is also widely used on college campuses. With SOAPSTone worksheets, your students will learn how to: Identify the speaker or author of the document Determine the occasion or context in which the document was written Analyze the audience to whom the document is addressed Evaluate the purpose of the document Identify the tone or attitude of the author Analyze the structure and organization of the document Determine the main points and arguments presented in the document By mastering these skills, your students will become more critical readers and writers, able to analyze and evaluate any document they encounter. So why wait? Start incorporating SOAPSTone analysis worksheets into your lesson plans today and watch your students' analytical skills soar!
When attention spans are short, these do the trick!
Looking for fun activities to explore the art of poetry and use it to support language learning? Try these simple and fun activities!
HAVE YOU EVER....needed something and wished you had it right on hand?! This resource is for you! I'm telling you- I looked at the CCSS exemplar texts for poetry and knew I needed to kick my butt into gear to get my kids ready for some rigorous poetry but still have a meaningful experience! I set out research public domain poems that would be great and challenging for my students. This resource saved my poetry teaching. The ones with our reading series (if any!) are small and not given much attention!!! This was a huge wake up call. I chose to study this in December not April (National Poetry Month) because we need to get in the vocabulary surrounding poems and practicing the skills used to analyze much longer before state testing. I LOVE fun rhyming poetry but obviously that was not going to get my students to where they needed to be - much to my dismay :( This labor of love is packed with so many truly great poems by classic authors - just ready for students! Check out the many uses below. Comparing 2 William Blake poems (hello CCSS.RL.9 - SO TRICKY!!) There are more comparisons included as well! For the few poems I couldn't include the text there are QR codes (and just web links!) to reach these poems! This made CENTERS a breeze for poetry month!! The questions are tricky but I let them work with pairs at centers for plenty of practice as a class, in pairs, and independently as well. Here we are comparing "The Eagle" by Tennyson and "How Doth the Little Crocodile" by Lewis Carroll. This was one we worked on as a class so they understand the vocabulary in the question and what it was asking. We brainstormed ideas together and they wrote the paragraph answer in their notebooks which I went around and checked as their exit slip while they moved onto reading rotations (spelling choices, grammar, literacy skill) Click any of the pictures to get more info! This is truly something that saved my poetry unit and really vamped up the rigor! Check it out if yours could use some updating too! The sheets work great for CENTERS, homework, independent class work, assessments, and I included answer keys for all sheets along with small copies for interactive notebooks! Below is another sample page of the type of questions and poem selection. We spent about 3 weeks in December on poetry studying and analyzing while creating some of our own.
Poetry is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and rhythmic qualities of language. Click for more facts or worksheets.
Read about how, when, and why to use one pagers in the ELA classroom as a response to reading. Templates, examples, and scaffolding help!
Poetry is a great way to help students practice inference because so much of poetry lives between the lines. Poets have to be so precise with words and phrases that a great deal of emotion is only ever implied. To help students practice inference, I've put together this collection of 10 engaging poems!
[Infographic provided by Grammar.net ] https://www.kaplaninternational.com/blog/english-idioms-love
This guide will accompany any unit on Beowulf for students in grade 5-8. The guide follows the story written by Michael Morpurgo and illustrated by Michael Foreman, Candlewick Press. Morpurgo's retelling is perfect for the middle school students and this guide helps to bring epic poetry and literary...
I LOVE POETRY! I love to read it, write it, and teach it, and above all, I want my students to love it too! In order for them to love it, ho...
I love this poem. I love the imagery, the title, the metaphor, but most of all, I love how teachable it is. The poem has a great deal of mystery and room for debatable discussions about author’s intent, but it’s also accessible to students who might feel intimidated by poetry - or even just inti
Thematic Occurrences in the Poetry Texts Prescribed Texts: SONGS OF OURSELVES:THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE INTERNATIONAL EXAMINATIONSANTHOLOGY OF POETRY IN ENGLISH IGCSE SYLLABUS 0486O LEVEL SYLLABU…
I LOVE POETRY! I love to read it, write it, and teach it, and above all, I want my students to love it too! In order for them to love it, however, they have to understand it. I've always had a difficult time getting students to think deeply when it comes to poetry analysis, so I decided to develop a new process this year to help them practice. I ended up with a seven step process. To practice, I put together a packet of six of my personal favorite poems. We went through the packet together, in groups, individually, etc. until I felt confident that my students were getting it. Then, I gave them a pop quiz using the same process! I have put this packet on my Teachers Pay Teachers account for free, so go download it and use it! One thing that isn't on TPT, though, is the Google Presentation I used with the packet. You can check that out here! Here are the seven steps: Number the lines in each poem, and label the rhyme scheme if there is one. Read the poem several times. Circle any unknown words. Summarize each stanza. Annotate the poem by noticing and labeling any literary devices, figurative language, symbolism, imagery, etc. Identify the major theme of the poem, and provide evidence to support your choice. Identify your favorite line or phrase from the poem, and explain why you chose it as your favorite. Choose one of the unknown words you circled and develop a definition (in your own words!) based on context clues from the poem. And here are some examples of the poems once they have been analyzed!
Teaching prose, drama, and poetry is quick and easy. Your third and fourth grade students just need a little vocabulary and practice.
Well, friends… We have had oodles of Pirate-y fun! The children are absolutely wonderful and I am thrilled to be working with such a great group! 🙂 We made pirate glyphs this week and they turned out great! This idea came from Mrs. Jump’s Class. We also read this book: The students really liked...Read More »
Figurative language is one of my favorite things to teach! Since it is found everywhere, it is one of the first standards we focus on in class. I thank if we can start off the year with a deep understanding of this concept, I can refer back to it again and again as we go through the year. Here are the 5 easy to implement lessons that I use to help students dig deep into their understanding of figurative language.
Teaching Figurative Language can be fun and meaningful for your students. Teaching figurative language through poetry can make it even better! Here are my best tips for teaching similes, metaphors, idioms, hyperbole, onomatopoeia, imagery, alliteration, and personification.
Elevate learning with Dictogloss: Integrated language practice for listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Explore benefits and top tips!
