Poetry Lesson Outlines
for Primary and Secondary Schools
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Poetry Lesson Outlines
Poetry Lesson Outlines
A selection of six poetry lesson plans and associated resources for use in the upper years of Primary and
throughout Secondary schools
Designed and produced by Mark Grist as part of the Well Versed Poetry in School project.
Contents
Session 1
N+7
Suitable for Years 6-9
p. 3
Session 2
Lipogram
Suitable for Years 6-8
p. 6
Session 3
Tanka
Suitable for Years 6-8
p. 8
Session 4
Sestinas
Suitable for Years 9 and 10
p. 10
Session 5
List Poems
Suitable for Years 6-9
p. 12
Session 6
Kennings Suitable for Years 5-7
p. 14
Appendix One
Extracts for N+7
p. 16
Appendix Two
An Introduction to Tankas
p. 17
Appendix Three
Two Sestinas
p. 18
Appendix Four
Blank form for writing sestinas
p. 21
Appendix Five
Bruce Lansky List Poems
p. 23
Appendix Six
50 Ways of Looking at a Sheep
p. 24
Poetry Lesson Outlines
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Session 1 - N+7
Advised Age Range
Suitable for Years 6-9
Preparation Needed
You’ll need:
- an assortment of dictionaries
- a paragraph that you want the students to work on (See Appendix One)
- each student will need to bring in a book/song lyrics/a famous speech that they can use as a stimulus.
Learning Objective
To create poetry formulas inspired by the N+7 form of poetry
To apply these formulas to a text to create own poems
Key Words
Noun
Oulipo
Dictionary
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Poetry Lesson Outlines
Time
Activity
00-10
Word Tennis.
Resources needed
Split the pupils into pairs, A and B
Choose a noun for A to say, then B has 3 seconds to say
a word that is linked to As word (it needn’t be a noun).
They will keep bouncing words backwards and forwards
until someone stumbles. The winner should raise their
hand, once the rally is over – so that you can see which
pairs have finished. Do this three times so that pairs can
have a deciding match, should they need one.
10-15
Write the three words you started each round of Word
Tennis with up on the board. In the same pairs, give the
students a minute to come up with 3 things that they all
have in common. Then get feedback from them.
15-20
Explain that all three words are nouns that today they’re
going to write a new form of poetry where nouns are
very important. Hand out a short extract from a text of
your choice. The opening chapter of Genesis/Little Red
Riding Hood/any famous text will do fine. Juliet’s balcony
speech works very well – if you include proper nouns.
20-25
Pupils have a few minutes to highlight all the nouns in the
text. When they’ve done this, talk through the text and
agree what the nouns are.
Suitable extracts can be
found in Appendix One
Poetry Lesson Outlines
25-35
They’re now going to create their N+7 poems. They
should take dictionaries – best to get a wide range of
them for this as each dictionary will create a different
poem. Once they find each noun in the dictionary, they
should replace it for the entry 7 places below. This can
create such changes as
Page 5
You’ll need an assortment
of dictionaries – one per
student (or one per pair
if you want to have them
working together).
To be or not to be? That is the question
Becoming
To beagle or not to beagle. That is the quiche.
35-55
Once the students have done this, get them to read their
poems out. Then explain that they’re going to create their
own N+ or N– formula for the text that they’ve brought
in.
Watch Ross Sutherland
performing Little Red
Riding Hood here http://
www.youtube.com/
watch?v=VhmAa19bMBI
Older students may benefit from seeing Ross Sutherland’s
Little Red Riding Hood at this point.
The students then work through their text, applying their
new rule and seeing what is produced.
Additional
notes
This session works particularly well in the library as long as the students are allowed to
talk quietly.
A range of resources to apply their rules to and a very simple noun game (which works
well on an interactive whiteboard) can be found here
http://www.softschools.com/language_arts/grammar/noun/balloon_game/
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Poetry Lesson Outlines
Session 2 – Lipogram
Advised Age Range
Suitable for Years 6-8
Preparation Needed
Purchase a copy of George Perec’s A Void for the school library.
Learning Objective
To understand what a lipogram is.
To apply the rules of a lipogram to our writing.
To create our own lipograms from scratch.
Key Words
Lipogram
Vowel
Time
Activity
00-10
Write the alphabet on the board where everyone can see. Get
students into pairs ask them to stand behind their desks. They’re
going to attempt a conversation as if they’re friends who
haven’t seen each other in years. The first person must start the
conversation with a sentence that begins with the letter A. Their
partner can then respond using a sentence that begins with
the letter B and so on. The challenge is to see whether you can
work all the way through the alphabet.
10-15
Get students to write 3 or 4 sentences that explain what they
did at the weekend. They can make the events up.
Now, get them to highlight all the letter A’s in the text. Get
students with less than three letter As to raise their hands.
For the following exercises, these students will use the letter E
instead of letter A. The others will use the letter O instead of A.
Resources
needed
Poetry Lesson Outlines
15-25
Explain that lipograms are poems where one or more letters
have been excluded. To write lipograms, the students have to try
and give the same information that they have already written
without using the letter A. So for example
I walked to Grandma’s
Could become
I skipped over to my Mum’s Mum’s house.
Notice that walking is quite different to skipping – that’s ok.
They’re just using the original text as inspiration for these new
pieces of writing.
Get the students to read their work out.
25-50
Now the students are going to write their own lipograms. Give
each table a vowel. That table are not allowed to use it from this
moment onwards. They’re going to create their own stories – of
250-300 words using one of the following first lines.
‘I was extremely scared.’
‘Slowly, he pulled out the sword.’
‘My Birthday party was crazy.’
‘I got lost on my stroll to town.’
50-60
Get the students to read their lipograms out.
Additional Particularly able students could try writing without two vowels.
notes
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Poetry Lesson Outlines
Session 3 – Tanka
Advised Age Range
Suitable for Years 6-8
Preparation Needed
Read through Appendix Two – An Introduction to Tankas
Ask students to bring in a photo of them at a time when they were happy
Learning Objective
To understand what a tanka is.
To create our own tankas based on a happy memory.
Key Words
Tanka
Syllable
Time
Activity
00-05
Discuss syllables then ask students to try and write an answer in 7 syllables for
each of the following questions.
Resources
needed
Where is your homework?
Why is your brother crying?
What would you like for dinner?
Get the students to read out their answers to the class and check together
whether they are 7 syllables long.
05-15
Explain that the students are going to be looking at a Japanese form of poetry
called a tanka. In some ways tankas are similar to Haikus as they also involve
using syllables.
An Introduction
to Tankas can
be found in
Appendix 2
Poetry Lesson Outlines
15-30
Page 9
Write the following on the board
5 syllables
7 syllables
5 syllable
7 syllables
7 syllables
Explain that we’re going to write a tanka together. The students are to think
of a moment when they were scared/nervous. They should make notes one
what happened/how they felt/what they remember. They are going to get just
one minute on each line.
For the first line, write the following on the board.
Tell us when it was
Second line
What were you doing?
Third line
What were you worried might happen?
Fourth line
What really happened?
Fifth line
What did you learn from this?
30-35
Students read their tankas out.
35-50
Students now create tankas about a memory – they should brainstorm
as many words/feelings as possible to go into their poem based upon that
memory. The pictures they’ve brought in are the inspiration. Once they have
enough words and feelings they can write their own tanka.
50-55
The students should share their tankas with others on their table and count
the syllables to see whether they’ve used the correct number.
Then read them out to the rest of the class.
Additional This lesson would work particularly well after working on Haikus. It may be a good idea to run
a haiku refresher at the end of the previous lesson to get the students ready for more work on
notes
syllables.
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Poetry Lesson Outlines
Session 4 - Sestinas
Advised Age Range
Suitable for Years 9 and 10
Preparation Needed
You need to book a computer room for the class to use
Examples of sestinas – see Appendix 3
There are blank templates in Appendix 4
You may well want to research the sestina!
Learning Objective
To understand the rules of a sestina
To begin writing our own sestinas
To retain our sanity throughout the process (optional)
Key Word
Sestina
Poetry Lesson Outlines
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Time
Activity
Resources needed
00-10
Students come in to find two copies of Sestinas on their
tables. They have to see whether, in pairs, they can come
up with three rules of sestinas, by using the poems they’ve
got to come up with their guidelines. They then share
these in discussion with the class.
Two sestinas can be
found in Appendix 3
10-15
Explain that a sestina is a form of poetry where six key
words are rearranged in each of the first 6 stanzas. The
words always feature at the end of the stanzas and they
are rotated by following a formula.
The formula is as follows, with the final word of each line
in the first stanza being labeled A through to F.
1.ABCDEF
2.FAEBDC
3.CFDABE
4.ECBFAD
5.DEACFB
6.BDFECA
7. (envoi) ECA or ACE
The most important thing is to get 6 words that you’re
happy to have feature throughout your poem.
15-50
Get students to access the following site. It allows students
to create their own sestinas by choosing their six words
and then working from a frame that’s generated for them.
http://dilute.net/sestinas/index.php
50-60
Students read out their Sestinas
Additional This lesson is for more able students – to create a full Sestina will almost certainly
take more than one session. Particularly able students may want to work without
info
the website’s frame. If they wish to do this, then they can find a more open
template in Appendix 4
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Poetry Lesson Outlines
Session 5 - List poem
Advised Age Range
Suitable for Years 6-9
Preparation Needed
There are two list poems in Appendix 5
Learning Objective
To understand what a list poem is.
To create an original list poem.
To use repetition effectively in a poem.
Key Words
List Poem
Originality
Repetition
Time
Activity
00-10
Get students to write a list of things they did this morning
before they came to school. The list needs to be boring. They
should aim for 8-10 items.
10-15
Get the student with the most to read theirs out. The other
students make a note any time something they put down gets
mentioned. Discuss whether these were successful poems.
Explain that as a writer, we want to try and say something
original, that nobody has thought of and so we’re going to
write list poems whilst using our imaginations.
Resources
needed
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Poetry Lesson Outlines
15-20
Get the students to write a list of things that they wish they
had done before they came to school. They need to try and
write a list of between 5 and 10 things that no one else will
put down. When they’ve done this, get students to read out
their lists and see whether anyone put down the same thing as
anyone else.
20-30
Read ‘What Bugs Me’ and ‘My Noisy Brother’ by Bruce Lansky
and discuss what makes them successful. Get the students to
identify any repetition.
30-55
The students are going to write a list poem with one of the
following titles
These poems
can be found in
Appendix 5
Reasons I can’t accept your friend request
Why I couldn’t come to your party
Where would you rather be?
They should try to include repetition in their work and should
aim for the poem being at least 10 lines long.
55-60
Students then read their lists out to each other.
Additional You may want to take suggestions from the students for other list topics.
notes
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Poetry Lesson Outlines
Session 6 – Kennings
Advised Age Range
Suitable for Years 5-7
Preparation Needed
You may want to print off copies of ’50 ways of looking at a sheep’ for the students to work from. This can be
found in Appendix 6
Learning Objective
To understand what kennings are.
To create our own kennings.
To share our kennings with each other.
Key Words
Kenning
Narrative
Time
Activity
00-10
Create a list of professions. The list should be 5-10
professions long.
10-15
Put these professions to one side for now and work
through the Introduction to Kennings PowerPoint as a
class.
Resources needed
An Introduction to
Kennings PowerPoint
can be downloaded
from the Writers’
Centre Norwich
website
Poetry Lesson Outlines
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15-20
Each student should look back at their professions on the
list and choose one. They should then attempt to write
a kenning poem for that profession (without writing the
profession on the poem).
20-30
The poems then get given to another student, who tries
to work out what the profession is. They then write
another kenning poem to send back to the person that
sent them theirs.
30-35
The poems go back and the students see whether they
can guess what the profession is this time.
35-55
As a class, read through the poem ’50 ways of looking at a This poem can be
sheep’ and read it through. The students can then work in found in Appendix 6
a pair to create their own kenning about an animal of their
choice.
50-60
The pupils can then read their kennings out to the class.
Additional You could also discuss the narrative that’s inside ’50 ways of looking at a sheep’.
Are there 50 ways? Why not? Which kennings were the classes favourite?
notes
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Poetry Lesson Outlines
Appendix One - Extracts for N+7
Balcony Scene from Romeo and Juliet
O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?
Deny thy father and refuse thy name;
Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
And I’ll no longer be a Capulet.
‘Tis but thy name that is my enemy;
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
What’s Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!
What’s in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
‘Little Red Cap’ from Grimms Fairy Tales
Once upon a time there was a sweet little girl. Everyone who saw her liked her, but most of all her
grandmother, who did not know what to give the child next. Once she gave her a little cap made of red velvet.
Because it suited her so well, and she wanted to wear it all the time, she came to be known as Little Red Cap.
One day her mother said to her, “Come Little Red Cap. Here is a piece of cake and a bottle of wine. Take
them to your grandmother. She is sick and weak, and they will do her well. Mind your manners and give her my
greetings. Behave yourself on the way, and do not leave the path, or you might fall down and break the glass, and
then there will be nothing for your sick grandmother.”
Little Red Cap promised to obey her mother. The grandmother lived out in the woods, a half hour from the
village. When Little Red Cap entered the woods a wolf came up to her. She did not know what a wicked animal
he was, and was not afraid of him.
Poetry Lesson Outlines
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Appendix Two – An Introduction to Tankas
What is a Tanka
- Tanka is an ancient form of Japanese poetry
- It is older than a Haiku
- It is usually used for a special event or to provoke a strong feeling
- Each line consists of one image and the whole thing together completes one thought
Lines and Syllables
- It consists of five lines
- In total it has 31 syllables
o The first line is five syllables
o The second line is seven syllables
o The third line is five syllables
o The fourth and fifth are both seven syllables
How to start
- Tankas are usually used to evoke a strong emotion or mark a special event
- The first thing you have to decide is the theme for the Tanka
- Then brainstorm about all the feelings and images that you associate with that theme
o Example: a day at the beach – warm, water, hot, fun, sand, wind, seashells, waves, surf, riptides,
towels, umbrellas etc
Next
- Think about how you felt and what you did
- Take your words and start arranging them in the 5-7-5-7-7 patter
- Congratulations! You have just written your first Tanka!
For example
The Beach
Hot sand my toes squish
Sun did shine down upon me
Red, my skin did get
My day at the beach is done
Tomorrow, another one
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Appendix Three - Two Sestinas
A Sestina for school
Remember that although the play-dough’s yummy
You aren’t supposed to eat it, so be careful
You don’t get caught. Don’t worry if the teacher
Seems scary. It’s her job. She’s really lovely.
You’re not the only kid in here who’s frightened:
It’s not so bad, though. Soon you’ll feel at home.
You’ll have so much to say when you get home.
About whether the dinners here are yummy
Or horrible. And whether you were frightened
By bigger kids, and how you were so careful
To ask about the toilet, and how lovely
It was to be told ‘well done’ by your teacher.
Some tips on how to understand the teachers:
They’re not like grown ups you would find at home.
Though some of them, admittedly, are lovely,
And give you milk at playtime which is yummy,
They’re not all nice, so please be very careful
It’s not at all unusual to be frightened
Because your teacher, probably, is frightened
Of not being as good as other teachers.
She has to be so clever and so careful
She really doesn’t want you going home
And saying that the play-dough’s really yummy.
She wants you all to know that learning’s lovely
Which means that, sometimes, she cannot be lovely.
Sometimes she will get cross. Do not be frightened.
But even when school dinners are not yummy
Do try to eat them. Try to trust your teacher
And do those things you never do at home
Like Circle Time and Number Work. Be careful
At playtime. Cos not everybody’s careful
And not all children do things that are lovely.
Poetry Lesson Outlines
Poetry Lesson Outlines
The games are different than the ones at home.
So if you find that you’re confused and frightened
Don’t panic: you can always tell a teacher
If you find that your playtime isn’t yummy.
It’s not like home at all. So do be careful
Some things are yummy. Some will make you frightened.
But some are lovely. Listen to your teacher.
Wasps In Fact
I know the facts of the story.
I was there as witness, of course
and more than that, one of the saved
during the slaying of the wasps.
My father played the hero role
armed with a spray can and ladder.
Not sturdy, it shook, the ladder
as he climbed to the top story.
I never questioned my dad’s role,
the labor of knocking off course
any homesteading plans of wasps,
nor doubted if I would be saved.
The nest was enormous; he saved
it, carried it down the ladder,
proof that the multitudes of wasps
matched the large claims of his story.
The stings he received in the course
of battle also served this role.
He insisted they played no role
in making him sick, the stings, saved
that blame for the flu cutting course
through the city. That the ladder
needed fixing fit the story
well, too, but not illness from wasps.
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Now it falls to me, fighting wasps.
My children have filled my old role.
I saw right through my dad’s story
long ago. The spin he used saved
his ego I thought. The ladder
held steady later on, of course.
Raising children has been a course
in hindsight relating to wasps
and the sturdiness of ladders.
Less a character trait than role
requirement, dad’s bravado saved
us from fear; that’s now my story.
Over the course of time, the role
of wasps did not change; also saved:
the ladder’s part in the story.
Poetry Lesson Outlines
Poetry Lesson Outlines
Appendix 4 - Blank form for writing sestinas
__________________________________________________ a
__________________________________________________ b
__________________________________________________ c
__________________________________________________ d
__________________________________________________ e
__________________________________________________ f
__________________________________________________ f
__________________________________________________ a
__________________________________________________ e
__________________________________________________ b
__________________________________________________ d
__________________________________________________ c
__________________________________________________ c
__________________________________________________ f
__________________________________________________ d
__________________________________________________ a
__________________________________________________ b
__________________________________________________ e
__________________________________________________ e
__________________________________________________ c
__________________________________________________ b
__________________________________________________ f
__________________________________________________ a
__________________________________________________ d
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Poetry Lesson Outlines
__________________________________________________ d
__________________________________________________ e
__________________________________________________ a
__________________________________________________ c
__________________________________________________ f
__________________________________________________ b
__________________________________________________ b
__________________________________________________ d
__________________________________________________ f
__________________________________________________ e
__________________________________________________ c
__________________________________________________ a
________________________________________________ b, e
________________________________________________ d, c
________________________________________________ f, a
Poetry Lesson Outlines
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Appendix 5 - Bruce Lansky Poems
What Bugs Me
When my teacher tells me to write a poem.
When my mother tells me to clean up my room.
When my sister practices her violin while I’m watching TV.
When my father tells me to turn off the TV and do my homework.
When my brother picks a fight with me and I have to go to bed early.
When my teacher asks me to get up in front of the class and read the poem I wrote on the school bus.
My Noisy Brother
My brother’s such a noisy kid,
when he eats soup he slurps.
When he drinks milk he gargles.
And after meals he burps.
He cracks his knuckles when he’s bored.
He whistles when he walks.
He snaps his fingers when he sings.
and when he’s mad he squawks.
At night my brother snores so loud
it sounds just like a riot.
Even when he sleeps
my noisy brother isn’t quiet.
Bruce Lansky
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Appendix 6 - 50 Ways of Looking at a Sheep
50 Ways of Looking at a Sheep
Grass trimmer
Bleat giver
Field roamer
Raisin dropper
Clumsy runner
Rain soaker
Ear twitcher
Unknitted jumper
Mindless muncher
Knee knobbler
Afro bobber
Clockwise chomper
Eye baller
Hair crimper
Time waster
Nothing doer
Lip licker
Jaw slider
Head tilter
Never mooer
Pointless gazer
Poem killer
Writer taunter
Show destroyer
Vacant starer
Late night watcher
Window filler
Dream invader
Benign dictator
Kenning mocker
Artist hater
Death requester
Poetry Lesson Outlines
Poetry Lesson Outlines
Early riser
Lonely walker
Flock remover
Error maker
Poet approacher
Stroke receiver
Hand nuzzle
Poison eater
Poison refuser
Alarm sounder
Ram befreiender
Horde gatherer
Bottom biter
Poet chaser
Lucky escaper
Nemesis maker.
Mark Grist
Page 25