Strengthening students’ connection to their education is crucial – especially if your class is meeting virtually for the foreseeable future. When we can connect lessons to students’ everyday lives and experiences, the outcomes can be tremendous.
Poetry lessons are one way that we can do this. Studying poetry can prompt critical thinking and curiosity among your students. I have seen this first hand over the past 11 years as a high school English teacher.
I created this poetry growing bundle to foster a love of poetry among your students both during distance learning and in-person instruction. With four unique resources, this bundle provides a diverse range of authors and styles of poetry for memorable learning experiences.
Dia de los Muertos/Day of the Dead Calavera Lesson
Celebrate Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) with this engaging poetry lesson inspired by an authentic calavera! Your students will love learning about and crafting humorous calaveras based on professions that they can relate to, like chefs, dentists, and baristas. The example calavera is based on a barber, a role many of us took a stab at during lockdown, so your students will find this example very relatable.
Emily Dickinson Poetry Task for Social Distancing
In this activity, students learn about Emily Dickinson, one of America’s first writers to practice social distancing. Working with “Some Rainbow Coming from the Fair,” students analyze the poem’s title, rhyme scheme, structure, imagery, language, purpose, tone, and meaning. My students’ favorite part of this assignment was how, like Dickinson, they gaze out their windows to make observations of their surroundings. They use these observations to craft a poem inspired by “Some Rainbow Coming From the Fair.” The combination of creativity and self-awareness that this lesson inspires made it a student favorite during distance learning last spring.
Pablo Neruda Style Ode to Food (For Distance Learning and Classroom Instruction)
Encouraging students to write about everyday objects can be a great starting point for a poetry lesson. In this lesson, students think like Pablo Neruda by analyzing fruits or vegetables in their kitchens and crafting a Pablo Neruda style ode about it. To frame their understanding of odes, students analyze a stanza of John Keats’ classic “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” anticipate features of Neruda’s odes based on Keats’ famous model, and ultimately analyze a fruit or vegetable in a celebratory manner that would make Neruda proud. As an added bonus, this resource includes the classroom version, which has recommendations of produce that works particularly well for this activity, group numbers, and tips for organizing student groups.
Best of all, this is a growing bundle! When you purchase a growing bundle, you save more in the future as I add more materials. You will also be able to access all future materials for free.
All resources except the classroom version of the Pablo Neruda Style Ode to Food require students to have a Google account.
One teacher recently described this bundle as an “excellent resource for distance learning. Thorough and engaging.” I love when teachers find a resource engaging – and hope you feel the same with this resource!
Are looking for more resources for distance learning (and hoping to use something that is low- prep?) Here are a few ideas from my blog:
- Spark your students’ creativity with this unforgettable Jekyll and Hyde Escape Room!
- Bring this essay writing refresher to your middle school or high school students.
- Help your students step away from the thesaurus with these precise verb cards.
How are you navigating distance learning this year?
