Poets Teacher Resources

Students examine the culture and stereotypes of Muslim women and discover a combination of items have affected the role of Muslim women as a group and individually over time. Groups research a famous Muslim woman, present their...

Students compare revolutionary actions of Jose Marti and Pete Seeger. In this Cuban folk song lesson, students listen to the song "Guantanamera" and discuss the content. Students read articles on the poet and the songwriter and create a...

The crossroads, and the decisions made and entities met there, are a common theme in literature, pushing readers to examine the choices and encounters that shape life experience. The theme has also been explored in blues music, most...

Are the works of Sylvia Plath relevant to the modern reader? The narrator of a short video argues for why viewers should read the works of Sylvia Plath,  citing lines from Plath's poetry and images from her stories.

Blanket, gossip, assassination, champion, generous. What do these words have in common? They were all coined by Shakespeare (or was it Shackespe, Shaxberrd, or Shake-Speare?) and are still in use today. Fustilarian, trundletail,...

Ninth graders explore poetic technique and figurative language in this ten lesson unit. Comparisons are made between a variety of forms of poetic expressions and the lives of several poets are studied.

Pupils read the poem, Still I rise, by Maya Angelou. They examine how language, poetic devices, and format contribute to the poet's message. They identify poetic devices used in the poem.

Students read through poems in a book called Pass it On. There are 19 poems from famous African American poets contained in the book. The poems are specialized for children and after the children have learned about the author and about...

Fifth graders preview different poetry selections form different poets to narrow their criteria for a favorite poem. They use the web and written sources to find a favorite poem and then give an oral interpretation of their poem in class...

In this Kitano Takeshi worksheet, students read a passage about Kitano Takeshi and then complete worksheets such as spelling, a listening gap fill, synonym matching, scrambled sentences, and more.

Students analyze Robert Frost's poem "The Road Not Taken." In this poem analysis instructional activity, students review vocabulary for the poem and read the poem. Students discuss the meanings in each stanza, the theme, and its rhyme...

Eighth graders read the short biographical sketch and selected poems of Langston Hughes, 8th graders examine the hardships historically faced by Black Americans through class discussion, interpretation, and journaling.

Students study transportation in mid-19th-century Brooklyn. They look at several photographs of Brooklyn transport from the era and read Walt Whitman's poem "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry." In addition to making critical observations and...

Students use Langston Hughes' "Thank You Ma'am" as a reading and vocabulary improvement activity. In this reading and vocabulary activity, students review the related vocabulary and read the poem. Students discuss the story elements in...

In this reading comprehension worksheet, students respond to 6 short answer and essay questions based on "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry," by Walt Whitman.

In this reading comprehension worksheet, students respond to 5 short answer and essay questions based on "I felt a Funeral, in my Brain."

In this poetry discussion worksheet, students consider the elements of poetry as they respond to 6 short answer and essay questions based on the poem "My Life had stood – a Loaded Gun –."

Sixth graders research online various types of poetry. In this poetry analysis activity, 6th graders research different types of poetry online, their characteristics, and poets. Students create a class atlas that incorporates the seven...

Create an abundance of understanding, as your high school learners learn to analyze multiple love poems. Part one of this resource has learners define what love is, examine art that reflects the love between Robert and Elizabeth...

Integrate geography with literature in this interdisciplinary instructional activity. 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...

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.