Poetry
Unit Plan
Anne Leache

Grade Level:  Middle School 6-8 grades

Curriculum Area: Language Arts

Learning Objectives:
1. Students will be able to identify simile, metaphor, and alliteration in poetry.
2. Students will analyze poetry by Robert Frost, Maya Angelou, or Langston Hughes.
3. Students will write their own poem and publish it.

Standards and Benchmarks:

STANDARD ONE
Students read, comprehend, and respond to a range of materials, using a variety of strategies for different purposes.
ELA-1-M3 reading, comprehending, and responding to written, spoken, and visual texts in
extended passages;
(1, 3, 4)

STANDARD TWO
Students write competently for a variety of purposes and audiences.
ELA-2-M3 applying the steps of the writing process;
ELA-2-M4 using narration, description, exposition, and persuasion to develop various
modes of writing (e.g., notes, stories, poems, letters, essays, logs)
ELA-2-M5 recognizing and applying literary devices (e.g., figurative language, symbolism,
dialogue)

STANDARD THREE
Students communicate using standard English grammar, usage, sentence structure,
punctuation, capitalization, spelling, and handwriting.
BENCHMARKS 5-8
As students in Grades 5-8 extend their knowledge, what they know and are able to do includes:
ELA-3-M1 writing legibly;
ELA-3-M2 demonstrating use of punctuation (e.g., comma, apostrophe, colon, semicolon,
quotation marks, dashes, parentheses), capitalization, and abbreviations;
ELA-3-M3 demonstrating standard English structure and usage;
ELA-3-M4 demonstrating understanding of the parts of speech to make choices for writing;
ELA-3-M5 spelling accurately using strategies and resources (e.g., glossary, dictionary,
thesaurus, spell check) when necessary.

STANDARD FIVE
Students locate, select, and synthesize information from a variety of texts, media, references, and technological sources to acquire and communicate knowledge.
ELA-5-M4 using available technology to produce, revise, and publish a variety of works;
(1, 3, 4)

STANDARD SIX
Students read, analyze, and respond to literature as a record of life experiences.
ELA-6-M2 identifying, comparing, and responding to a variety of classic and contemporary
literature from many genres (e.g., folktales, legends, myths, biography,
autobiography, poetry, fiction, nonfiction, novels, drama);
(1, 2, 4, 5)

Technology Connection:

Technology will be used to enhance the lesson.  It will not be the focus of the unit, but a complementary used to motivate the students to increase student achievement.  Students will use Trackstar on the Internet to complete an assignment on analyzing poetry and identifying some of the basic characteristics of a poem.   Students will also use a word processing program to construct and revise their own poems.  They will put the finished piece in a publishing program with graphics and design.  This is important for the students because it will motivate them to work more diligently.  The word processing program will allow the students to make corrections and changes in their work.  The publishing program will provide them with a finished product to proudly display in the classroom.

Unit Overview:

The unit is designed to introduce the students to poetry and some of the basic components.  Students will work with the teacher to learn background knowledge, read and analyze poems.  Students will learn to identify and write simile, metaphor and alliteration.  The topic is chosen because students rarely choose to read poetry on their own and it is needed to provide a well-rounded education and increase exposure.  As students learn about poetry it develops their interest, and hopefully they will look at it in a new light in the future.

Time:  One week.

Resources/materials:
rubric
assignment sheet
“Passing Time” by Maya Angelou
“The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost
Trackstar.

Activities & Procedures:

Monday: Introduction to poetry – teacher led to whole class, reading, sharing background information of Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou, and Robert Frost.  Notes on simile, metaphor, and alliteration.

Tuesday: Students identify alliteration, simile, and metaphor in poem on the board.  Students work with a partner to create their own examples of simile, alliteration, and metaphor, and share examples with the class.  Students work independently to write examples of simile, alliteration, and metaphor about a specific topic.  We will brainstorm the topic together as a class.

Wednesday: As a class we work to analyze a poem entitled, “Passing Time,” by Maya Angelou.  We identify simile, alliteration, and metaphor.  We dissect the meaning of each line together as a class and then the meaning of the entire poem.  Students copy this into their writers notebooks.  We then work together as a class to analyze the poem, “A Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost.  We will do the first half together and the students will finish the rest independently.

Thursday: Students spend half of the period working on the Trackstar assignment.
The second half of the period is writing the first draft of their poem in Word.  Students will be given a rubric and assignment sheet.

Friday: Students revise each other’s work in Word.  When they are finished, and think their work is perfect, they raise their hand.  Teacher will come around and check work.  When work has no mistakes, student can prepare the final draft in Publisher and print it out.
 

Assessment: Students will be required to create their own poem, write and revise it in Word, and Publish it in Publisher.  It will be graded based on the rubric given.

A Sample Student Product:
First Draft in Word
Final Draft in Publisher