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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Poetry SLAM: Youth Verse Competition

For Teachers 8th - 10th
Use this model, based on urban youth poetry competitions, to create an engaging venue for your poets to share their work out loud, with expression. Build class community, have fun, and celebrate your authors' original verse. Resource is...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Stage a Poetry Slam!

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Students write and perform poetry. In this poetry presentation instructional activity, students learn about the concept of a poetry slam. Students plan and hold their own poetry slam.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Poetry Slam!

For Teachers 3rd - 12th
Create poems without writing! Young poets create poems using words cut from newspapers, read their poems aloud, and compile them in a book. This lesson allows the teacher to view each learner's creative process and assess their current...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Virtual) Poetry Slam

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Pupils create a "virtual poetry slam." This project can easily be implemented at any grade level where students have created short pieces of personal writing. They write, edit, and revise a short piece of poetry or personal writing.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Qualities of a Poetry Slam

For Teachers 8th - 12th
Students discover the qualities of a poetry slam. In this poetry lesson plan, students conduct research to learn how slams are conducted and performances are scored. Students participate in their own poetry slam competition.
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Lesson Plan
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Facing History and Ourselves

Speaking Up and Speaking Out

For Teachers 6th - 12th
The final lesson in the Standing Up for Democracy unit offers class members a way they can stand up and speak out by crafting spoken word poetry, or Slam poetry. After analyzing several examples, individuals reflect on one positive...
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Lesson Plan
PBS

Pandemic Poetry

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Links to other pandemic poems are provided in the optional extensions
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Lesson Plan
K20 LEARN

The History of Spoken Word Poetry: Historical and Cultural Perspectives In Literature

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Spoken word poetry, more than almost any other form, reveals the historical and cultural perspective of the poet. High schoolers listen to various spoken word poems, select one to research in-depth, and then apply what they have learned...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Poetry and Hip Hop

For Teachers 11th - Higher Ed
High schoolers compare and contrast the genres of poetry and hip-hop. They view a poetry slam and write about it in their journals. Learners view a Lauryn Hill music video and respond to it in their journals. They compare and contrast...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Podcasting Poetry Slam

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Engage your class with a poetry slam. A poem is read aloud using a podcast. A few days are provided for learners to listen to the podcast and make a slam (connection) between the original poem and another poem. After everyone has had a...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Introduction to the Poetry Unit

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students explore, analyze and interpret one form of poetry writing called Poetry Slam. They hear several examples of unexpected poetry and view a video of "Slam Nation." The books, "Hey You! C'mere: A Poetry Slam," by Elizabeth Swados...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Borrowed Poem Performance: Practice for Slam

For Teachers 8th - 12th
Students practice for a poetry slam. For this poetry lesson, students select borrowed poems to perform in a poetry slam in order to participate in their own poetry slam competition.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Oral Directions: Practice for the Slam

For Teachers 8th - 12th
Students practice their poetry presentations. In this poetry slam lesson, students use the provided practice feedback form to prepare for presenting their poems prior to participating in their own poetry slam competition.
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Lesson Plan
K20 LEARN

#Summarize: Summarizing

For Teachers 11th - 12th Standards
What are the effects of one's life experiences? Class members view a slam poetry reading, a speech by President Obama, and read a short story by John Steinbeck about responding to tragedies. They summarize these events and then craft a...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Rhythm and Improv, Jazz and Poetry

For Teachers 11th - 12th
Connect the ideas of jazz improvisation and art to writing poetry. Learners collaborate and write different lines of poetry, imitating the jazz styles of improvisation and freewriting. Take a close look at the poems "Tenebrae" by Yusef...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Poetry Slam

For Teachers 9th
Ninth graders write a poem and participate in a poetry slam.
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Lesson Plan
Facing History and Ourselves

Identity and Place

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Build scholars' ability to understand their own values and learn about World War II at the same time. Scholars write poetry and discuss identity and place in depth with an in-depth social studies resource. 
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Lesson Plan
Poetry4kids

Alliteration and Assonance Lesson Plan

For Teachers 3rd - 8th Standards
Scholars analyze the poem My Puppy Punched Me in the Eye by Ken Nesbitt in order to locate examples of alliteration and assonance. After reading the poem, alliterative words are underlined and assonant words are circled. 
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Performance Poetry as Social Commentary

For Teachers 8th - 12th
Young scholars explore poetry that examines social concerns. In this poetry lesson, students research poems and poets. Young scholars present their findings to their classmates.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Poetry as Social Commentary

For Teachers 8th - 12th
Students read poems with social commentaries. In this poetry analysis instructional activity, students read poems selected by their instructors and complete the provided social commentary chart to determine how the poems speak out...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Civil War

For Teachers 5th - 8th Standards
Historical poetry is lyrical in form and rich with content. After examining the differences between the Northern and Southern states before and during the U.S. Civil War, learners complete a Venn diagram and create an illustration of the...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Poems with Tone and Mood

For Teachers 8th - 12th
Young scholars examine the use of tone in poetry. In this literature lesson, students read "We Real Cool," by Gwendolyn Brooks and use the provided graphic organizer to chart the poem's tone and mood.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Performance and Reflection on Listening and Speaking

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Students prepare for and evaluate their performances in poetry slams. In this literature lesson, students write personal narratives about their poetry slam experiences.
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Lesson Plan
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Curated OER

The Poetics of Hip Hop

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
The Bard, Nikki Giovanni, Mos Def? “Sonnet 18,” Ego Tripping,” and “Black on Both Sides”? Sure! It’s the poetics. Class members compare the lyrics, rhythm, and rhyme in classic poetry to hip-hop in a richly detailed resource that...