Poetry Lesson Plan: Craft and Structure

*Click to open and customize your own copy of the Poetry Lesson Plan. 

This lesson accompanies the BrainPOP topic Poetry, and supports the standard of explaining structural elements of poems. Students demonstrate understanding through a variety of  projects.

Step 1: ACTIVATE PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

Invite students to think of a poem they’ve heard or read before that they like. Ask: What is the poem? What do you like about it?  

Step 2: BUILD KNOWLEDGE

• Read aloud the description on the Poetry topic page.
• Play the Movie, pausing to check for understanding.
• Have students read one of the following Related Reading articles: “Famous Faces,” “Around the World,” or “Way Back When.” Partner them with someone who read a different article to share what they learned with each other.
  

Step 3: APPLY and ASSESS 

Students take the Poetry Quiz, applying essential literacy skills while demonstrating what they learned about this topic.

Step 4:  DEEPEN and EXTEND

Students express what they learned about poetry while practicing essential literacy skills with one or more of the following activities. Differentiate by assigning ones that meet individual student needs.

• Make-a-Movie: Make a movie of a poem you write. In your movie, show how you can answer this question: How can visual images and narration bring a poem to life?
• Make-a-Map: Make a concept map identifying the structural features and poetic devices in your favorite poem. 
• Creative Coding: Code a game challenging players to sort literary elements as typical of poetry or prose. 

More to Explore

Time Zone X: Poetry: Challenge students to put historical events in chronological order in this interactive timeline game.

Related BrainPOP Topics: Deepen understanding of poetry with these topics: Similes and Metaphors, Figurative Language, Emily Dickinson, and Edgar Allan Poe.

Teacher Support Resources:

• Pause Point Overview: Video tutorial showing how Pause Points actively engage students  to stop, think, and express ideas. 
• Learning Activities Modifications: Strategies to meet ELL and other instructional and student needs.
• Learning Activities Support: Resources for best practices using BrainPOP.