Poetry Archives - The Teachers' Library

Sympathy and Caged Bird by Paul Laurence Dunbar and Maya Angelou

admin — Mon, 12 Mar 2018 18:22:06 +0000

This poetry resource includes a handout that contains lined versions of the poems, guiding questions and graphic organizers regarding theme, imagery, symbolism, and tone; and writing assignments to compare, contrast, and interpret allusion and intertextuality.

PowerPoint contains essential vocabulary and literary terms, historical context, discussion questions, three writing assignments.

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Interpreting Imagery with Harlem by Langston Hughes

Lauren Crowley — Fri, 10 Mar 2017 16:20:21 +0000

My students of all ages have a difficult time incorporating textual evidence into their writing. Once we get past the punctuation hurdles, not to mention choosing evidence that actually works as such towards their claims, I have had real trouble getting them to make the step from paraphrasing to gritty analysis and interpretation.

For example, I get a lot of:

The author states, “The sun beat down like a heavy burden on her shoulders.” This shows that the sun was hot.

Or if we’re lucky:

The author states, “The sun beat down like a heavy burden on her shoulders.” This use of personification shows that the sun was hot.

I realized many of them didn’t even understand that difference between paraphrasing and interpretation. Determined to get my students to think a little deeper, I have them work in pairs to paraphrase the literal meaning of the imagery in Langston Hughes’s poem Harlem. I then model for them the what analysis and interpretation looks like in comparison. Because the learning objectives are specifically set around textual evidence, I only give a few points of historical context.

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We take the notes into a foldable that separates the poem’s pieces of imagery so the students can focus on them one at a time. They think-pair-share to paraphrase each piece of imagery and then compare it to the rest of the class’s efforts and then to the PowerPoint. With a more able group of students, they could try to interpret each piece of imagery before comparing it to the PowerPoint. With a less experienced group of literary analysts, we will take the notes directly into our foldables while discussing each one.

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Students next use the P.E.E.L. format to answer the directed writing question, incorporating textual evidence and interpreting that textual evidence to go beyond literal restatements of quotes. It’s not an immediate fix, but the students keep their foldable in their binders for reference, and the depth of their analysis is making quicker improvements.

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array(“https://www.theteacherslibrary.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/lh-harlem-textual-evidence.pptx”,”Download Harlem textual evidence”,”pptx”,”925kb”),
array(“https://www.theteacherslibrary.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/harlem-foldable.pub”,”Download Harlem imagery foldable graphic organizer as Publisher doc”,”pub”,”115kb”),
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One Art by Elizabeth Bishop

Lauren Crowley — Sat, 13 Aug 2016 12:43:25 +0000

Below are the resources I use to teach One Art by Elizabeth Bishop, a poem from the first list of set texts from the Cambridge IGCSE Literature syllabus. The PowerPoint includes a warm-up quick write activity, key vocabulary (many of my students are ELL, so pre-teaching vocabulary is a MUST), pre, during, and post reading discussion questions, an explanation of the poetic form, and a writing prompt.

The reading companion goes along with the PowerPoint and can be used as a formative assessment.

I have also included the graphic organizer that I use to teach individual poems (go here for a deeper explanation).

Use the materials as-is, or change them to better fit your students needs or teaching style.

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array(“https://www.theteacherslibrary.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/poetry-graphic-organizer.docx”,”Download poetry graphic organizer”,”docx”,”435kb”),
array(“https://www.theteacherslibrary.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/poetry-graphic-organizer.pdf”,”Download poetry graphic organizer”,”pdf”,”629kb”)
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For Heidi With Blue Hair

Lauren Crowley — Wed, 10 Aug 2016 13:33:02 +0000

Below are resources the I’ve put together for the poem, ‘For Heidi With Blue Hair’ by Fleur Adcock. This is one the poems from in the set texts lists from the Cambridge IGCSE syllabus. As an American teacher at a British international school, this my first experience teaching texts that have been mandated, rather than texts I’ve chosen with a particular learning objective in mind.

This is not a lesson plan, but I’ve included my powerpoint with discussion questions (which can also be used as journal prompts) and pre, during, and post reading activities. I have also included a handout to go along with the poem which includes comprehension questions and a writing task.

When the entire poetry unit is tidied up and fit for posting, it will include essential questions and summative assessment ideas, but for now, feel free to use these or change as you need to fit your students or teaching styles!

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Because I Could Not Stop For Death Lined Poem and Handout

Lauren Crowley — Sat, 06 Aug 2016 10:41:11 +0000

This is a ready-made handout of one of Emily Dickinson’s most commonly studied poems. The poem is lined, has some vocabulary break-down, comprehension questions, symbolism chart, and a short paragraph response. Feel free to use as-is, or change it to fit your students or your own classroom.

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$downloads = array(
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array(“https://www.theteacherslibrary.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/becuase-i-could-not-stop-for-death-lined-poem-1.pdf”,”Download handout”,”pdf”,”219kb”)
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Poetry Graphic Organizer

Lauren Crowley — Sat, 06 Aug 2016 07:31:19 +0000

This is a very general graphic organizer that I use to encourage students to engage more deeply with a poem. Students tend to be more passive when they read poetry, for all kinds of reasons, and often need to be explicitly (and repeatedly) asked to use all the tools in their arsenal to access a poem.

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This graphic organizer is never used as a summative assessment, rather it’s a way for students to:

Engage with the language and analyze the effects of the language
Use existing knowledge to draw inferences
Break down the dense, moving parts of a poem in manageable pieces
Record textual evidence for written responses (which may be used as summative assessments)

This organizer requires a bit of explanation to the students:

DO NOT write in complete sentences. This is a brainstorming tool.
There’s no one perfect place to start. Start with the title, start with the rhyme, start with whatever jumps out at you and see where it takes you.
Yes, it’s small. I only ask students to give me the line of poetry as textual evidence for a literary device, not to copy out the entire quote. Accurately citing textual evidence is its own lesson.

For example, if a student identifies the use of imagery, they must only write imagery and l. 19 as textual evidence.

Because the organizer is quite small, I often project it and have students create larger, colorful, even illustrated versions on flip-chart paper in groups of 2-4.

Differentiation Idea: Assign different roles in the group

The beginner students identify literary title, author, rhyme, and literary devices.
Intermediate learners can begin to draw inferences and make hypothesis from title, author, historical context, etc.
More proficient poetry readers can begin to interpret and articulate the effects.

Extra: I have found Annabel Lee, by Edgar Allan Poe, to be a great first piece of poetry for middle and high school. It’s accessible and beautiful.

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