GRADE 8 POETRY UNIT
Time and Timelessness: Moments
To live in this world
you must be able
to do three things: to love what is mortal; to
hold it
against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it; and, when the time
comes to let it go,
to let it go. - Mary Oliver
The purpose of this unit is to engage students in an exploration of poetry that encompasses
multiple forms and modes (text, song, spoken word), and reflects diverse nationalities and
ethnicities. The unit’s selections will be linked by the theme of memory, movement, and
time. The unrelenting fluidity of time underscores the moments that are fleeting, but also
those that endure. In exploring the passage of time, students will investigate and discover
moments – moments of regret, moments of joy, moments of connection, moments of
suffering, moments of grace. The illustrated moments of shared humanity will prompt,
throughout the unit, a personal exploration, coupled also with an investigation into aspects
of social justice and responsibility.
The unit is meant to introduce 8th graders to the multiple possibilities inherent in poetry.
Poetry will be approached as a living, breathing, and dynamic art form; one that is personal
and moved by interpretation. Students will be encouraged to foster a creative and respectful
collaborative environment as they engage in the reading, creation, and appreciation of
poetry.
An experiential thrust will guide our exploration of poetry throughout the unit. This is to
say that students will be encouraged to experience poetry by reading, listening,
creating/writing, and performing poetry. By exploring their individual poetic voices
through various exercises, students will be able to make connections not only between the
‘word’ and the ‘world’ (Freire, Leggo), but also between the ‘word’ and their worlds. The
multi-modal focus of the unit will facilitate adaptations to accommodate diverse learners,
and provide various opportunities to scaffold and reinforce elements of language to EL
learners.
The unit will culminate in a final project that will allow students to synthesize the various
modalities that have been utilized throughout. Students will choose between two options.
The first is to create a personal poetry book (“chapbook”) that will feature a selection of (3)
poems by other poets with personal introductions explaining their choices, as well as a
selection of (3) individual poems and illustrations. The second option will be to create an
original spoken word piece or song, to be performed, along with a written component that
explains the student’s creative process and interpretation. The final class will be
transformed into a poetry café in which students will perform dramatic readings of selected
poems/ spoken word pieces.
Poetry 8 Unit Plan
Lesson 1: About Me
Lesson 4: Across
Generations
Lesson 7: Dis/Connections
Lesson 10: Choices
Lesson 2: Moments in
Time
Lesson 5: Dreams and
Realities
Lesson 8: Agency and
Transformation
Lesson 11: Poetry Cafe
Lesson 3: Growing and
Learning
Lesson 6: Connections
Lesson 9: Lasting
Impressions
Lesson 12: Poetry Cafe
PLOs (Learning Objectives):
A1: interact and collaborate in pairs and groups to support the learning of self and
others, explore experiences, ideas, and information, understand the perspective of
others, comprehend and respond to a variety of texts, and create a variety of texts
B10: synthesize and extend thinking about texts by personalizing ideas and
information, explaining relationships among ideas and information, apply new ideas
and information, transforming existing ideas and information
B12: Recognize and explain how structures and features of text shape readers’ and
viewers’ construction of meaning, including form and genre, functions of text, literary
elements, literary devices, use of language, non-fiction elements, visual/artistic
devices
C1: Write meaningful personal texts that explore ideas and information to
experiment, express self, make connections, reflect and respond, and remember and
recall.
Student Outcomes/Objectives:
Students will:
-
write original poetry, employing literary elements
perform poetry
analyze poetry
write succinctly on poetry, demonstrating understanding of thematic and poetic
devices
William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878) defined poetry as "the art of exciting the
imagination and touching the heart by selecting and arranging symbols and
thoughts."
Extra ideas to insert: children’s story – Ish –
- Draw something, crumple it up, throw it to the middle of the room, someone else
picks it up and writes a poem about the illustration, then returns it (meet and
greet) to the original illustrator.
-
Come up with words for each letter of the alphabet that correspond to “idea”
Lesson 1:
About Me
Opening:
What is Poetry?
-
Discuss multiplicity of responses. Introduce poetry as a form that gives
expression to personal voices. What is poetry? Why do we read poetry? Why do
we write poetry? Brainstorm in pairs. Discuss as a class. Poetry as emotional
journey: Poetry is emotion put into measure (Thomas Hardy). Poetry as
discovery: I have never started a poem whose end I knew. Writing the poem is
discovering (Robert Frost). Poetry as “babble and doodle” (Northrop Frye). The
possibilities of language (Dr. Seuss – On Beyond Zebra).
Read aloud: How to read a poem: Beginner’s Manual (Pamela Spiro Wagner)
Activity:
View film clip from V for Vendetta
Explain alliteration as it is illustrated in the clip.
Have students create their own personal introductions (one sentence) using
alliteration of the first letter of their names.
Have students write a list of things that they associate with their
home/where they come from.
Create a poem using items from this list, as metaphors
Present poems.
Closure:
Youtube clip of Billy Collins-Litany
Exit slip (1 thing you learned/enjoyed; 1 question)
Lesson 2:
Moments in time
Opening:
Write on board: “Before I die I want to…”
Song: Seasons of Love (RENT)
Free-write: most memorable moments of the year.
Students will create individual poems out of their free-write paragraphs
simply by omitting certain words, thereby reorganizing the words into a
novel form (“freedom within constraint”). Share with class.
Activity:
Song: Red (Taylor Swift), to illustrate poetic devices: metaphor, irony,
paradox, symbol.
OR: Spoken word – Taylor Mali - “Why Falling in Love is Like Owning a Dog”
to illustrate metaphor.
Read aloud: Yehuda Amichai-Tourists. Have students illustrate as they listen.
Have students discuss the poem in pairs. Discuss as a class.
In small groups, students will go back to the “moments” poem they created
in the opening. They will collaborate with their colleagues to co-create a
group poem/choral montage about “moments”, arranging and re-arranging
the order of the lines to explore differing interpretations and decide on the
most effective version. (Coleridge: “poetry is about the best words in the
best order”)
Play poetic devices “memory” game (extension; time permitting)
Closure:
Read aloud: Mary Oliver-Percy. Have students write a one-word response to
the poem. Pass along (“popcorn style”). Share. Ask students to reply (add to
index card) to the question: Which is more important/reliable, the heart or
the mind?” Pass along a second time. (gallery walk?)
Song: Turn Turn Turn (CSNY)
Lesson 3:
Growing and Learning
Opening:
Ask students how they feel about being 13-14? In grade 8? Would they like
to go back to a different age? Go forward to a different age? Why? Have they
learned anything important this year? Discuss in pairs.
Activity:
Read aloud: With Age Wisdom – Archibald MacLeish. In pairs students will
respond to guiding questions: 1. When he is young, why does he think that
the world is so bad? 2. Why does he change his mind as he gets older?
3. The name of the poem is "With Age Wisdom" -- what do you think
"wisdom" is? How is "wisdom" different than "knowledge"? Would you
rather have "wisdom" or "knowledge"? 4. What are some of the "wonders"
that you can think of? Explain why they are wonders. Each pair will write
and/or illustrate “wonders” on a sheet of paper and tape onto wall.
Students will be invited on a gallery walk of wonders and instructed to
choose one wonder they particularly like and explain why.
Hand out copies of Billy Collins’ On Turning 10. In small groups, students will
create a performance of the poem in three sequential tableaux.
Students perform. Discuss salient moments/ideas in the poem. Discuss
irony.
Closure:
Song: You Bleed You Learn (Alanis Morisette). Distribute lyrics. Have
students consider inference, denotation, and connotation, as they listen to
the song. Discuss what is to be learned from pain.
Assignment: Have students write a poem using one of the chorus lines
from the song (“you learn”) as inspiration and incorporating the line
into their poem.
Lesson 4:
Across generations
Opening:
Song: Cats in the Cradle (Cat Stevens).
Free-write/journal prompt: Regrets?
Share regrets if students wish to. What can we learn from regrets?
Activity:
Distribute copies of If by Rudyard Kipling. Ask students what character traits
they associate with being a “man”/”woman”? Are they familiar with cultural
customs that inculcate youth to “manhood/womanhood”? Read poem aloud.
Think pair share: What advice do you agree with? How would you respond if
you were Kipling’s son/daughter? Do you feel pressure to make your
parents proud?
Disappointment, regret, and moments of grace:
View The Lanyard (Billy Collins) reading.
View spoken word – Rachel McKibbens - Central Park Mother’s Day
Discuss imagery.
Divide students into small groups. Distribute copies of Carl Leggo’s poem
about his father: I Still Hear the Bell Ringing. Have each group come up with
a series of questions to fuel the discussion. Each group will write a
paragraph analysis of the poem in response to their questions and present
their interpretation to the class.
Closure:
View spoken word clip: Sarah Kay – “If I had a daughter”.
What would you want to teach your children?
Share my blog: On motherhood. Or, what I can learn from my children.
Assignment: Ask students to find a poem or song they connect with,
write a paragraph explaining their choice and a succinct analysis of the
poem/song.
Lesson 5:
Dreams and Realities
Opening:
The fairy godmother’s gift: Students will write down three wishes. Students
will then write down their whys for each wish. Repeat.
Hold fast to dreams/for if dreams die/life is a broken winged bird/that cannot
fly./Hold fast to dreams/ for when dreams go/life is a barren field/frozen with
snow (Langston Hughes-Dreams). Students will respond in their journals to
this quote and additional writing prompts: What dreams do you have for
yourself? For your community? How can dreams become reality? What role
can/do artists have in making dreams a reality?
Activity:
Tupac Shakur’s poem The Rose that Grew from Concrete.
Langston Hughes’ poem Harlem.
In small groups, students will discuss the song and the poem, juxtaposed.
Each group will have its own set of questions to consider: 1) Genre: What
makes a poem a poem? What makes a song a song? Explore stylistic
differences and thematic similarities? How would you transpose poem to
song and vice versa? 2) Critical literacy: Would these poems be different if
they were written by someone who grew up in Vancouver’s west side?
Consider the relationship of hometown, financial status, gender, and race, to
ambitions and dreams. What environmental conditions are needed for
dreams to take root and flourish? 3) Reader Response: Has anyone ever told
you that you could not do something? How did it feel? What did you do?
Describe a time when you succeeded against all odds? Have you ever
dreamed of doing anything that you did not pursue? How do you feel about
it now? Answer Hughes’ question: What happens to a dream deferred?
Group 4: Identify and explain metaphors in the poem, and their relation one
to another.
Groups will present ideas to class.
View spoken word: Daniel Beaty – “Knock Knock”.
Journal prompt: How does this piece relate to dreams and reality?
Closure:
Song: Johnny Mercer – Dream. Students free-write or illustrate personal
dreams.
Homework: Write your own personal “dream” poem.
Lesson 6:
Connections
Teacher Activity
Introduction/

Play Lion King’s “Circle of
Life”

Anticipation chat: Write
“We are all
interconnected” on the
board and give the
students a couple minutes
to respond in their
journals
Hook
5 min.
Student Activity

Students write
personal response to
song and written
prompt.
Time
5 min.
Teacher Activity
Body/Development
(Modelling,
-
Guided Practice,
Independent
Practice,
-
Application of
Strategy)
50 min.
-
-
-

Recite Donne selection
from Meditation XVII
and then have
students read aloud
together
Student Activity

8 Min.


Brief Lecture and
Discussion: on idea of
interconnectedness,
meaning of Donne’s
poem, poetic devices,
teacher will demonstrate
academic language
(bricks and mortars)

Present questions to
discuss in small groups:
What do you make of
Donne’s message? (How)
does it relate to you? Is
the message more
appropriate at the
personal, social, political
level? What are the
consequences of
following/not following
Donne’s philosophy?
Summarize group
discussions as a whole
class

Students discuss
theme and personal
reflections in groups
and subsequently as a
class.
15
min.



2 min.



5 min.


Play Simon and
Garfunkel song: “I am a
Rock”.
Discuss contrast between
song and Donne’s poem. Is
the age of poet/songwriter
when writing this significant?
Artist biographies
Time
In groups of 3 or 4,
have students create a
melody for Donne’s
poem; interpretive
dance is also an option.
Focus on tone and mood
- Present songs to the
class, discuss
choices

10
min.
10
min.

Teacher Activity
Closure
5 min.

Play Elton John’s version
(youtube)
Student Activity

Time
5 Min.
Lesson 7:
Dis/connections
Teacher Activity

Show an image (“cellular
indifference”) and ask students to
write personal responses to the
image.

Play Bob Geldof’s Great Song of
Indifference
Teacher Activity
-
Distribute copies of Brueghel’s
painting Icarus with no
explanation of painting and its
subject and divide students into
small groups.
Student Activity

Students write personal
response to image.
Student Activity

Students will study (“read”)
the painting and write down
questions that come up as well
as their own version of the
story

Small groups will present
their questions and versions
Time
5 min.
Time
10 Min.
10 min.
2 min.
-
Teacher will explain the context of
the painting: the myth of Daedalus.
8 min.

-
-
Teacher will pass out copies of
W.H. Auden’s Musee des Beaux Arts
and read the first half of the poem
aloud. Pair students up and have
them discuss the relation between
Auden’s poem and Brueghel’s
image.
Teacher will read the poem again,
this time in its entirety, as well as
William Carlos Williams’s poem
Landscape with the Fall of Icarus
and lead discussion on the poems,
highlighting the central themes and
scaffolding academic language and
literary terms.
Students will discuss the
relation between the first half
of Auden’s poem and image.
10 min.
13 min.

Write quote on the board:
“Indifference and neglect often do
much more damage than outright
dislike.” (J.K. Rowling) Have students
discuss in small groups.
In small groups, students will
discuss Rowling’s quote in the
context of their own
experience, and create an
image or a quote that is either
cautionary or inspirational.

Teacher will tape images and
quotes to wall, setting up a “gallery
walk”.
Students will walk around and
gaze at images and quotes
Teacher Activity
Student Activity
Teacher will read Martin Niemoller’s
Time
5 Min.
quote:
First they came for the Socialists, and
I did not speak out--
Because I was
not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade
Unionists, and I did not speak out-
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I
did not speak out-- Because I was
not a Jew.
Then they came for me--and there
was no one left to speak for me.
Sing along: Blowin’ in the Wind
(Bob Dylan)
Lesson 8:
Agency and Transformation
Teacher Activity

Lead a “check-in” exercise where
students stand in a circle and each
one answers in one word each of
three prompts: ‘mind’, ‘emotion’,
and ‘body’.
Student Activity

Time
10 min.
Teacher Activity
Teacher will write on board: “Never
criticize someone until you have walked
a mile in his/her shoes.”
Teacher will play “What it’s Like” by
Everlast.
Teacher will then ask each student to
write on index cards, a one-word
response to the quote and or the song.
Teacher will then have students pass the
card along (a variation on the “popcorn”
exercise) until she says “stop”. Teacher
will invite students to share some
responses (on the cards they are
holding). Teacher will then ask students
to respond on the card now in front of
them: Why does Everlast use opposition
in the chorus?
Student Activity
Time
Students will write an individual
emotional response to
quote/song and then pass on
their cards to someone else.
Students will read aloud one
another’s responses.
15 min.
I've seen a rich man beg
I've seen a good man sin
I've seen a tough man cry
I've seen a loser win
And a sad man grin
I heard an honest man lie
I've seen the good side of bad
And the down side of up
And
everything
between
Teacher will invite students to share
responses and generate discussion.
Each group is to come up with a


Teacher will ask students to
consider, in small groups, what
events/situations are going on today
-- in our society, in our schools! -where people are in need of help,
and often met with apathy. Outline
terms and concepts such as race,
ethnicity, status, gender, difference.
scenario exemplifying some
injustice or suffering.
Teacher will introduce the idea
tableaux (youtube exemplar).
Teacher will divide students into
groups by having them walk around
the class and organically group
together when she says “get into a
group of four”). Explain what a
tableau is.
Students, in small groups, will
create a tableau of their
particular scenario.
Teacher will play Greenday’s “Minority”
and ask students to write, in their
journals: Why does the
singer/songwriter want to be the
“minority”? Do you feel like a minority?
Do you want to be a minority?
Teacher Activity
10 min.
15 min.
Groups will present their
tableaux. With each
presentation, prompt the rest
of the students to voice what
they see, and to actively join
or take the place of one of the
group members in order to
create a more positive
scenario.
Students will pass along index
cards and add a response to
what’s already written. Students
will pass cards once again and
report answers.
Student Activity
5 min.

“Check-out” exercise

Students will each come up
with one word to describe their
response to the lesson’s
activity. They will form two
lines, one across from the other,
and as each student enters the
space in between the two lines
and walks to the end and back
the students on either side will
repeatedly utter their word
softy.
Homework: Students will research and find one person who stood up against
injustice. They will write a one-page report about this person and come
to class ready to present.
Lesson 9:
Lasting Impressions
Starter:
“A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.” – King
Solomon (Proverbs 25:11). Ask students to respond to this in a free-write.
Discuss in pairs. Discuss as a class, the power of words, and of actions.
Activity:
Draw/Write/Critique:
Play Tchaikovsky Symphony no. 6, first or fourth movement. Students will
illustrate on index cards, as they listen. Students will then pass on their
illustrations and will write a poem inspired by the illustration they have
before them. They will then pass on their index cards a second time and
write a critique of the poem they now have before them.
Distribute copies of The Arrow and Song – Longfellow. In small groups,
students will discuss the poem. How are our words and actions like songs
and arrows? Each group will examine symbolism and metaphor and come
up with two alternative symbols (metaphors!) that relate to the role of the
arrow and the song, respectively. Students will then create a new poem
incorporating their new symbols. Students will “breathe [their] song into the
air,” presenting their refashioned poems.
An alternative/extension to the Longfellow poem:
Students will literalize the poem’s figurative "breath[ing] a song into the air"
by writing down a poetic line that incorporates their new metaphors on an
index card, and toss their cards across the room. Students will then add
another line to the index card they have “caught”. The poem in progress will
then get tossed and picked up again, becoming transformed in the process.
In small groups students will create a dramatic interpretation of their
poems.
Students will respond, on the board, to the phrase: “If I could right a wrong I
would __” The class will create a choral montage reading of these words.
Closure:
Show some examples of haikus (5-7-5). Teacher will show a wordle creation
based on students’ “You Learn” and “Dream” poems. Students will jot down
the three words that pop out at them. Students will write a haiku inspired by
these three words.
Lesson 10:
Choices
Opening:
I am master of my fate/I am captain of my soul. (William Earnest Henley)
Bring in two wrapped boxes, one in nice wrapping paper, one in crumpled
newspaper. Ask students which they would choose and why. Open boxes
(jewel in crumpled wrapper; pepper in the other). Discuss reasons for our
choices.
Activity:
Distribute copies of The Road Not Taken-Robert Frost. Read aloud with
students (one group per stanza).
In pairs, students will discuss theme, imagery, metaphor, and irony. Lead
class discussion and analysis of poem.
Students will create a choral montage of the poem, wherein each of four
small groups represents one stanza.
Choice revisited:
Students’ individual poem/song selections will be posted on the walls
around the classroom. Students will be invited to visit the various poems
(gallery walk) and write down one line that they especially like from any of
the poems.
In small groups, students will create a new poem incorporating the lines
each has selected (a variation on a “found poem”).
Students will perform their new poems.
Closure:
Journal prompt: Which road will you take and why?
Assignment: Transpose your selected poem into another medium: art,
rap, video, spoken word, dance.
Lesson 11:
Poetry Café
Starter:
“Making rain” exercise
Students and teacher will perform:
o
o
o
o
favorite poems
original poems
spoken word
songs
Lesson 12:
Poetry Café
Starter:
Drum Circle  dance circle
More performances.
On inspiration:
Video: Dead Poets Society scene (Carpe Diem)
Sing along: Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen)
[Student choices]

Additional exercise: Metaphor poetry – “I am more like” – choose from list of
comparisons (I am like__; I am not like__); add why + action.
I.e.
I am a tug boat
Small but strong and reliable
Chugging along at a slow and steady pace
I am not a sailboat
Tall and proud and elegant
Gliding quietly through life