Teaching Shakespeare Sonnets in High School

Personally, I love anything Shakespeare. But I’ve also been teaching long enough to know that just hearing me say “No, I promise, it’s going to be so good!” is not enough to get the average teen to wade into the depth of a his sonnets. Shakespeare’s sonnets are great for teaching for so many reasons—they’re master classes on why humans use figurative language; they’re dense enough to reward close reading without forcing students through chapters and chapters of text; and

Lesson Plans for Teaching Poetry: Fun Activities and Ideas for Poetry Month

April is national poetry month, which means that teachers all over will feel obligated to dust off their ancient books of rhyme. But poetry doesn’t have to be full of archaic words and stuffy meter. With engaging and innovative unit plans, poetry can be fun and challenging and the best part of the year. Here are 7 ideas to experience poetry in April or any month. Do some Madlibs. One of my favorite low-key ways to get students experiencing poetry

End of the Year Poetry Unit for ELA: Slam Poetry, Analysis Activities, and an Independent Poetry Project

The last few days before summer vacation can feel like a slow, painful countdown interrupted by bursts of chaos. Students are desperate to check out, the beautiful weather is beckoning, and you really don’t want to plan around yet another poorly announced award ceremony during your F period class. Mustering the energy to drag your students through a full novel or play just isn’t worth the effort anymore—and yet you’re not ready to give up on meaningful learning altogether. That’s

Poetry Lesson Plans: A Thematic List of Poems for High School

One resource that I have always wanted as a teacher is a list of poems arranged by theme so I could easily find a great piece to add to any unit. Well, here’s that list. If you see a link in the title to the poem, that’s because I sell a resource for teaching that poem. (Think about it as a great choice if it’s nine o’clock on a Wednesday night and you’d rather go to bed than sit up

How To Teach Poetry So Students Actually Read, Analyze, and Enjoy It Independently

April is National Poetry Month, and while I could happily spend hours analyzing a poem with a group of seventeen-year-olds, I know that not everyone feels that way. Poetry is not always an easy sell. Students might not have much experience with poetry, or they don’t like it, or they think that it’s going to be too hard. But by the end of my introductory unit, I have won (almost) all of them over. They look back on the poetry

Injustice, Hope, Paradox: An American Dream Poem

I don’t think that I will ever be able to hear the words “great” and “America” together again without cringing. And yet, I want to continue the discussion about how we can all achieve the American Dream. I guess that what I most want my students to understand about the place they live is this: It’s complicated. It’s not really about whether America was or ever will be great—it’s about looking at what does work and looking even more closely

Opium Dreams and Author’s Intent: Kubla Khan Lesson Plan

You know you have a good poetry lesson when it grabs students in the first days of school. One of my favorite and most effective poetry lessons of all time is my two-day lesson on Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem “Kubla Khan; or, A Vision in a Dream: A Fragment.” It’s a great lesson because I get to employ some of my favorite comprehension strategies, and because I get students writing and thinking about big questions early on. (You can

Teaching Sonnet 73: Exploring Death and Old Age with Shakespeare

Not sure if it is the almost-bare trees outside the window or the dying embers of the warm winter fire in the fireplace that reminded me today of one of my favorite poems to teach. William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 73, usually known as “[That Time of Year Thou Mayst In Me Behold],” has been a go-to poem for me for years. (You can find a ready-to-go lesson plan on this poem by clicking here.) It’s a typical Shakespeare sonnet in many ways: an