Teaching Poetry

 While poems are beautiful, students do not necessarily enjoy reading them. Instead, they often find them boring and confusing. However, students have to learn different ways to read poems to gain strong interpretation skills. This means they may need to read the poem two or three times and look up unknown words. Additionally, it means they need to break down stanzas to understand the deeper meaning. Since this takes a lot of time and practice, there are many activities for teaching poetry. Thankfully, this will help with lesson planning and ensuring there are enjoyable activities for each student!

Out My Window Poetry Writing Activity FREEBIE

Poetry often involves imagery and figurative language. These are great ways to set the tone and allow readers to understand the words better. So, after analyzing these aspects, it is time for students to apply their skills to their writing! 

Students will write an original poem based on a view out of a window. This could be their bedroom window, a window at school, or a window they find a photo of online. Honestly, it can be a window anywhere! While they write, they will include imagery and figurative language to help set the tone for the poem. 

Since every classroom is different, there are print versions and a link to a digital version. 

Digital Poetry Activities 

This resource contains so much poetry inspiration! Honestly, students will be eager to embrace their poetic side after completing all of these fun, hands-on activities. Best of all, teaching poetry will be enjoyable as students are excited about lessons instead of groaning about reading poems. 

Poetry Writing: Students will analyze and read multiple poems. Then, they will apply the styles as they write their own. This includes poems about pet peeves filled with similes, imagery, and limericks. 

My Life in 30 Words: Students will love the challenge in this assignment. They write a poem about themselves, but it can only be 30 words! This will be tricky, so there are examples to help. 

Comparing Prose to Poetry: Students will learn about the difference between prose and poetry. To do this, they will use short newspaper articles as a prompt and write a poem based on the images and ideas. This can result in really moving poems! 

Hero Music: Students will be amazed at how poetry is a form of music! So, they will explore songs that exemplify the ideas of a hero. There are even suggestions for students to pick from. 

Digital Poetry Poster Review: Poetry contains so much figurative language. So, there is a fun review activity to practice similes, metaphors, hyperboles, onomatopoeia, rhyme, alliteration, and personification. 

Best of all, these activities are perfect for different ages and abilities! They even include lesson plans, brainstorming sheets, rubrics, and examples. 

ELA Bundle: Writing, Poetry, and Novel Study 

There are so many standards to teach in ELA. Thankfully, this bundle includes so many incredible resources for writing, novel studies, and poetry. It is perfect for any middle school or high school ELA teacher, with plenty of differentiation available. 

In total, there are 18 different activities and over 150 pages.

Writing Activities: There are templates, rubrics, and mentor texts for narrative, expository, persuasive, descriptive, and creative writing! There are plenty of options for easy differentiation. 

Poetry Activities: Teaching poetry is hard! Teachers must plan fun and engaging activities to show students poems are not dull. Thankfully, this resource includes many exciting lessons, such as pet peeve and hero music poetry. 

Novel Study: Honestly, novels are a fantastic way to show students how excellent books are. However, teachers also have to ensure they understand the meaning. So, this activity works for ANY novel! It has many creative projects, character studies, literature circle responses, and chapter responses. It even has a book review activity. 

Whether teaching poetry or novels, engagement is critical! When students are interested, they become invested in their learning. Thankfully, these fantastic activities will draw in even your most reluctant learners! 

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