Lesson Sequence
Week 1 – Introduction to Poetry Unit
Day 1: No Class
Day 2: No Class
Day 3: Introduction to Poetry Unit
1. Watch clip from movie Almost Famous
2. Read lyrics and listen to music
3. Poetry Pre-assessment
4. Homework: Bring in song lyrics that seem like poetry to you.
Day 4: Music as Poetry
2. Poetry journal: Do you consider music poetry? What types of music? What about the
music you listen to? The music your parents listen to?
3. Analyze lyrics
4. Homework: None
Day 5: Ekphrastic Poetry
1. Poetry journal: What have your previous experiences with poetry been like? Positive,
negative, difficult, interesting? Be as specific as possible, and please be honest!
2. Ekphrastic Poetry
a. Starry Starry Night
i. “The Starry Night,” by Anne Sexton
ii. “Vincent,” by Don McLean
b. Vietnam War Memorial
i. “Facing It,” by Yusef Komunyakaa
3. Homework: Bring in a picture from a magazine, newspaper, the internet, or that you
have taken, that you find intriguing.
Week 2 – SOL Preparation
Day 6: Poetry Through Photography
1. Vocabulary exercise
2. Poetry journal: Look at the picture you chose for the ekphrastic poetry exercise. What is
its significance? What emotions does it elicit? What words come to mind when you see
this picture?
3. Ekphrastic poetry exercise: Students will write poems based on the images they bring in
and will share them with the class.
a. Use this opportunity to teach about writing workshops and peer editing
4. Homework: None
Day 7: SOL Preparation
1. Vocabulary exercise
2. SOL Preparation
3. Writing Conference
4. Homework: None
Day 8: SOL Preparation
1. Vocabulary exercise
2. SOL Preparation
3. Writing Conference
4. Homework: None
Day 9: SOL Preparation
1. Vocabulary exercise
2. SOL Preparation
3. Writing Conference
4. Homework: None
Day 10: SOL Preparation
1. DUE: Journal Check 1
2. Vocabulary Test 11
3. SOL Preparation
4. Writing Conference
5. Homework: None
Week 3 – North American Poetry
Day 11: SOL Test (50 Minute Classes)
1. Slam Poetry
Day 12: Slam Poetry
1. 2 HOUR DELAY
2. Slam Poetry
Day 13: SOL Test (30 Minute Classes)
1. Write biopoems
Day 14: North American Poetry
1. Poetry Pairing
2. Parenthood in poetry
a. Poetry synthesis group: “Dear Mama,” “Mother to Son,” “Birthmother,” and
“Those Winter Sundays”
b. Students will write their own poems about parents and parenthood
3. Homework: None
Day 15: North American Poetry
1. Poetry journal: If you were to offer one piece of advice to someone to help improve his or
her life, what would it be? Why is this advice important to follow?
2. “Primer Lesson,” by Carl Sandburg
3. Students will write poetry that gives advice
4. Homework: None
Week 4 – Poetry of the World
Day 16: European Poetry
1. Vocabulary exercise
2. Poetry Synthesis Group
a. “Sonnet,” by William Shakespeare
b. “Sonnet XVII” (I Do Not Love You…), by Pablo Neruda
c. “Harlem Hopscotch,” by Maya Angelou
3. Why are sonnets so enduring?
a. They show a pattern of thought, not rhyme.
b. They are malleable.
4. Construction of a sonnet
5. Students will write a sonnet in small groups
6. Homework: None
Day 17: European Poetry
1. Vocabulary exercise
2. Poetry Pairing
3. Limericks (Edward Lear)
4. Construction of limericks
5. Class comedy contest
6. Homework: None
Day 18: European Poetry
1. Vocabulary exercise
2. Poetry journal: What is your favorite place in the whole world? Why do you love it so
much? Is it beautiful, safe, exciting, filled with people you love? Think big – you may
write about anything from sitting peacefully in your favorite chair to the best place you
ever went on vacation.
3. Joseph Brodsky
4. Favorite places poems – any form!
a. Give Nikki Giovanni poem (“Knoxville”) as an example of a short simple favorite
place poem.
5. Homework: None
Day 19: Asian and Oceanic Poetry
1. Vocabulary exercise
2. Poetry journal: Your life has changed significantly from when you were a child. You
have had to give up certain things along the way, have met people and said goodbye to
people. What/who do you miss the most from your past, and why?
3. “Kashmiri Song,” by Laurence Hope
4. “In Kyoto,” by Basho
5. Discussion of how form produces effect (in both cases, nostalgia and loss)
6. Homework: None
Day 20: Asian and Oceanic Poetry
1. DUE: Journal Check 2
2. Vocabulary Test 12
3. Poetry Pairing
4. “My Soul Is Alight,” by Rabindranath Tagore
5. “We Both Live in the Same Village…” by Rabindranath Tagore
6. What do these poems tell us about love and the person the poet loves? How do they vary
from traditional love poems (think, “My love is a red, red rose…” and “How do I love
thee? Let me count the ways…”).
7. Homework: None
Week 5 – Poetry of the World
Day 21: African and Middle Eastern Poetry
1. Vocabulary exercise
2. Introduce Poetry Analysis Presentation assignment
3. Poetry journal: What is the most significant historical event you have witnessed or lived
through? What are your feelings about the event as you think back on it? What were
your feelings at the time?
4. “Occupation 1943”
5. Read about the historical event that inspired the poem and do RAFT exercises so students
take the place of a local witnessing the arrival of “aid.”
6. Read aloud other poems from these regions (if time permits):
a. “Meeting at an Airport,” by Taha Muhammad Ali
b. “From the Artist’s Sketchbook,” by Annette M’Baye
c. “Eden,” by Ina Rousseau
7. Homework: Presentations
Day 22: South and Central American Poetry
1. Vocabulary exercise
2. Poetry Pairing
3. “Ode to my Socks,” by Pablo Neruda
4. Construction of an ode
5. Students will write an ode to someone/something they love (they may assume any tone:
humorous, mournful, etc.)
6. Homework: Presentations
Day 23: Research
1. Poetry Quiz
2. Introduce Poetry Anthology project
3. Show example anthology
4. Go to library to do research
5. Homework: Presentations, Anthology
Day 24: South and Central American Poetry
1. Vocabulary exercise
2. Poetry Pairing
3. “The Puppet,” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
a. Give context of poem.
b. What does the title mean in relation to the content of the poem?
4. Read aloud other poems from these regions (if time permits):
a. “If You Forget Me,” by Pablo Neruda
5. Homework: Presentations, Anthology
Day 25: Caribbean Poetry
1. Poetry Journal: Do you feel that people judge you because of the way you speak? How
so? Do you speak differently with your friends and family than you do with teachers or
strangers? What differences do you notice in your speech depending on your audience?
2. Vocabulary Quiz 13
3. Language in Jamaican Poetry
a. “If There Was a Jamaican Halloween,” by Margaret Juliet Bailey
b. “Song of the Banana Man,” by Evan Jones
4. Discuss effects of the language used in each poem, and the impression it creates on the
reader about Jamaican culture.
6. Read aloud other poem from this region (if time permits):
a. “A History Without Suffering,” by E.A. Markham
5. Homework: Presentations, Anthology
Week 6 – There’s No Place Like Home
Day 26: North American Poetry
1. Vocabulary exercise
2. Poetry Pairing
3. African American Poetry
a. “Still I Rise,” by Maya Angelou
b. “We Real Cool,” by Gwendolyn Brooks
4. Homework: Presentations, Anthology
Day 27: Poetry Anthology Workshop
1. Vocabulary exercise
2. Poetry journal: What is the hardest thing about writing poetry? What is the easiest?
What have you enjoyed about writing poems for your anthology, and what has been
particularly unpleasant for you?
3. Poetry Workshop
4. Homework: Presentations, Anthology
Day 28: Poetry Anthology Workshop
1. Vocabulary exercise
2. Poetry Unit Test
3. Poetry Workshop
4. Homework: Presentations, Anthology
Day 29: Poetry Presentations
1. Vocabulary exercise
2. Poetry Presentations
3. Homework: Anthology
Day 30: Poetry Presentations
1. DUE: Journal Check 3
2. DUE: Poetry Anthology
3. Vocabulary Test 14
4. Poetry Presentations
5. Homework: None