Overview 

 
 
This teacher work sample is of a Poetry and Figurative Language Mini-Unit taught 
in 7th Grade ELA over the month of March 2018. After looking at students iReady scores 
and observing their in-class work habits I determined that I would teach a poetry unit. 
Poetry and the elements of poetry aligned with two of Ellsworth Elementary-Middle 
School’s “Power Standards” (standards chosen by the team to focus on throughout the 
year). The unit would begin with an overview of figurative language followed by a look at 
poem’s form and structure. Finally students would write and edit their own poems and 
submit them as a summative grade.  
 
Learning Goals 
 
Learning Goal 1: Students  Learning Goal 2: Students  Learning Goal 3: Students 
will read many forms of  will look at rhyme,  will have the opportunity to 
poetry and learn to identify  alliteration, and figurative  write a poem, paying 
the different forms of  language and determine  attention to form and 
poetry based on its’  the reason why the poet  structure, use of literary 
structure (i.e. sonnet,  chose to use those literary  devices, and writing 
haiku, limerick). They will  devices and how they  conventions. Students will 
then assess how this  impact the meaning of the  have the opportunity to 
contributes to the meaning  poem.   peer edit and revise their 
of the poem.   poems throughout the 
mini-unit.  
 
 
Lessons  Objectives  Activities  Assessment  Date 

Pre  Students will  Pre-Assessment  Pre-Assessment  3/1/18 

Assessment  show their  Quiz  Quiz 
understanding of 
figurative 
language and 
poetry analysis. 

Limerick  Students will be  Reading and writing  Formative Limerick  3/7/18 
able to identify a  limericks 
limerick based on 
length, rhyme 
scheme, and 
 rhythm.  

Visualizing  Students can  Reading and  Formative  3/9/18 

imagery in  identify imagery  mentally visualizing  Illustration 
poetry  examples in a  a poem 
poem.   Reading Drum 
Students can use  Dream Girl and 
examples of  creating an 
imagery to create  illustration 
both a mental 
picture and a real 
picture to help 
them understand 
the meaning of a 
poem.  

Writing a  Students will  Brainstorming   Formative Draft  3/12/18 

Poem  brainstorm and  Writing draft poem  Poem 
write a poem 
focusing on 
figurative 
devices, structure 
and form, 
conventions, and 
basic poetry 
essentials.  

Peer Editing  Students will be  Peer Edit  Summative Final  3/23/18 
and Wrap Up  able to give  Editing  Poem 
constructive  Kahoot Quiz  Summative Quiz 
criticism and 
positive feedback 
to their peer’s 
poems. 
Students will use 
peer feedback to 
edit their poems.  
Students will 
show their 
knowledge and 
understanding of 
figurative 
language. 
 
 Implementing CFA Information 
 
The ELA class I chose to work with for this assignment has a total of 21 
students. These students had not been exposed to poetry for numerous years and upon 
questioning I realized that very few of them enjoyed the reading and writing of poetry. I 
also knew according to their iReady scores that many students had vocabulary and 
literature analysis holes in their learning. I figured since poetry aligned with a few ELA 
power standards that it would be a perfect unit to expose students to poetry analysis 
and writing their own poems.