Lesson Plan

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Poetry Unit
Lesson Plan for Grade 12, English
Prepared by Ms. Parker
OVERVIEW & PURPOSE

The purpose of this unit is for students to have a better concept and understanding
of poetry as a genre. This unit was designed for twelfth grade level students;
however, it could be easily adapted to suit other secondary grade levels.
Throughout the unit we will focus on reading, writing, and language skills as
outlined in the California State Standards. On a daily and weekly basis, students will
be reading poetry from our anchor text, writing their own poems, and discussing a
wide variety of poetic conventions. They will also be provided with a supplemental
reading packet to support their comprehension.
ANCHOR TEXT RATIONALE

I chose Good Bones, written by Maggie Smith, as my anchor text for this unit
because of its simple complexity. By this I mean, Smith uses language that is easy
for readers to understand and digest without being overly abstract in her language
use. Despite this simpler language use, there are still many themes throughout the
book that readers have to stop and really think about to fully unpack. The book also
has a main plot line that is comprehensible and can be clearly followed. I believe
this book could be used in both eleventh and twelfth grade; however, I have
designed my unit plan as if I would be teaching it to twelfth grade seniors. This is a
great introductory book into poetry because as previously mentioned, it’s not overly
complicated. Students should be able to read through it and pick up on the wide
variety of themes that are presented throughout the duration of the book. In
addition to Good Bones, I will also be giving my students a supplemental reading
packet on the first day of our unit that will consist of an article on how to read,
analyze, and understand poetry for beginners, as well as three poems from some
more well known poets. I will use this packet to help introduce the unit to my
students and expose them to poetry right away.
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MATERIALS NEEDED
1. Class set of Maggie Smith’s, Good Bones

2. Supplemental text packet copies for classes
CA STATE STANDARDS
Reading Standards Addressed in Unit:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.1
Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical
inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to
support conclusions drawn from the text.
Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development;

summarize the key supporting details and ideas.
Analyze how and why individuals, events, or ideas develop and interact over the
course of a text.
Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining
technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word
choices shape meaning or tone.
Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and
larger portions of the text (e.g., a section, chapter, scene, or stanza) relate to each
other and the whole.
Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media and formats, including
visually and quantitatively, as well as in words.
Analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics in order to build
knowledge or to compare the approaches the authors take.
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Read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and
proficiently.
Writing Standards Addressed in Unit:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.W.2
Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas and

information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and
analysis of content.
Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and
style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting,

or trying a new approach.
Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and to
interact and collaborate with others.
demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.
Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, assess the
credibility and accuracy of each source, and integrate the information while
avoiding plagiarism.
Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection,

and research.
Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and
revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of
tasks, purposes, and audiences.
Language Standards Addressed in Unit:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.L.1
4
Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage

when writing or speaking.
Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization,

punctuation, and spelling when writing.
Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different

contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more
fully when reading or listening.
Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and

phrases by using context clues, analyzing meaningful word parts, and consulting
general and specialized reference materials, as appropriate.
Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances

in word meanings.
Acquire and use accurately a range of general academic and domain-specific words
and phrases sufficient for reading, writing, speaking, and listening at the college
and career readiness level; demonstrate independence in gathering vocabulary
knowledge when encountering an unknown term important to comprehension or
expression.
ACTIVITIES AND ASSIGNMENTS

● Poetry Word Ticket Activity: Adapted from Sarah Pape
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- At the beginning of this unit, I want to show my students that poetry

isn’t as intimidating and daunting as people make it out to be. On Day
1 of this unit, first thing, I will give each of my students little plastic
bags with ten tickets in each bag. On the back of each ticket will be a
random word. Using these ten tickets, students will manually organize
them to create a poem of their own. The goal of this activity is to
simply break the “poetry” ice. After everyone has had a chance to
make something out of the random words, I will first share what I came
up with my ten words. Next, I will ask for a few students to volunteer
and share their poems. This introductory activity will hopefully get
students in the right frame of mind moving forward into the wonderful
world of poetry.
● Writing Notebook:
- My students will use a writing notebook for a wide variety of writing
activities throughout this unit. This will be a space for them to practice
writing poetry, taking notes on poetic forms, tracking themes
throughout our anchor text, and so much more. Everyday while I am
taking attendance, I would like to see students writing down any
creative thoughts that come to their minds. This could be anything
really. For example, they could write down a list of words that could be
used to inspire a poem, or even write a short two sentence poem
during this time. The main goal of using this writing notebook is to
spark creative thoughts. The more practice they have in this, the
better writers they will become. They will also use their writing
notebooks to identify the 6 steps to analyzing a poem concept that will
be introduced during the first week of class. This will be an assignment
we will do frequently, as in two or more times per week. I will be
checking in periodically to ensure they are completing this assignment.
● Partner Artifact Project:
- Students will be put into pairs and will exchange a recent piece of
poetry that they have written. This assignment will be given on a
Friday so they have the entire weekend to work on it. After Partner A
and Partner B have exchanged poems, they will read each other's
poems at home and create some kind of art project inspired by their
partner’s poem. This art project can take many forms such as a
drawing, a painting, or even some type of 3-D construction. Be creative
with this! I believe that it is important to recognize that all art forms
are connected and I want my students to be able to recognize this
concept as well. When we reconvene as a class the following monday,
the students will get back with their partners and exchange what they
have created.
● Blackout Poetry Activity:

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- Students will learn about blackout poetry as a means to get even more
comfortable playing around with poetry. Blackout poetry is a very
simple and fun way to reorganize poems and make them your own.
One would take a poem, and literally take a black marker to “black
out” some of the words in a sentence in order to create a new poem
with the words that are not blacked out. At one point in our unit, my
students will be put into groups and will be assigned one of Smith’s
poems from, Good Bones, to perform Blackout Poetry on. They will
work as a team and collaborate with one another to create a new piece
of their own. After having done this, they will share aloud with the class
what new creation they have come up with. In order to get even more
practice with Blackout Poetry, students will do the same thing as
homework that night with another one of Smith’s poems.
● Snippy Bits Workshop Activity: Adapted from Jeanne Clark
- In Week 2 of our unit, my students will be introduced to a new form of
poetry and will write their own poem mimicking the conventions of that
type of poem. After writing their poem, they will print out and bring to
class, a hard copy of their poem. In class, students will have the
chance to do a mini workshop of their own poem. They will cut their
poem up into lines, rearrange the pieces on their desks randomly, and
flip all the lines upside down. Next, at random, they will pull one line at
a time forming a new poem. I think many of them will be surprised by
what they end up with. This is a great way to see our poems in
different ways that challenge our normal thought processes.
● Songs as Poetry Essay: Adapted from Matt Brown
- Transitioning from Week 3 to Week 4, students will have the
opportunity to compare different art forms and see how they can all be
interconnected. On the Friday of Week 3, I will explain this concept to
my students and have them select one of their favorite poems that
they have read so far in Smith’s, Good Bones. After they have selected
a favorite poem, I want them to find a song that could be paired with
the poem that they have chosen. I want to emphasize that songs are
really just poems with music behind them. Once they have both a
poem and a song to go along with it, I will want them to write a 500
word essay explaining their selections. Why do the two go together? I
want my students to be able to justify their reasoning in a longer essay
style format. After they have all shared their songs, I will create a class
Spotify playlist that we can listen to throughout the rest of the
semester.
● Final Group Workshop: Adapted from Chico State’s Creative Writing
Classes
- The last day of this unit we will be doing a group style workshop. This
will give students the opportunity to both give and receive feedback
with their peers. Poetry can often be a solitary act, so this workshop
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will hopefully help the students to collaborate with each other. It will
also give them the chance to be able to get some constructive
feedback in order to improve their individual pieces of work. As a part
of this group workshop, students will choose one of the three poems
that they have written in our unit and give a copy of it to each of their
group members. They will then take the poems they have received
from their group members, read them, and give their peers some
feedback. I will provide a list of ideas that they can use to help them
get started in their feedback process.
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April: Happy National Poetry Month!
Unit Dates: April 6th - May 1st (This Unit will cover 4 weeks)
Week 1:
*Day 1: Introduction to unit. Hand out supplemental reading packets.
Homework: Read other two poems in their packets and identify the 6 steps to
analyzing a poem.
Day 2: Introduce anchor text, Good Bones, and author, Maggie Smith. Also
introduce Writing Notebooks and what students will be doing with them.
Homework: Read pages 3-7 and choose one of the poems to identify the 6 steps to
analyzing a poem in their writing notebooks.
Day 3: Review and discuss the poems the students read for homework the previous
night and clarify any questions they may have. Ask them what stood out to them.
Homework: Read pages 8-15 and choose one of the poems to identify the 6 steps to
analyzing a poem in their writing notebooks.
night and clarify any questions they may have. Ask them if they are able to identify
any themes that may be beginning to emerge. Go over what a couplet is since all
the poems from their homework are couplets.
Homework: Following Smith’s examples of couplets, write your own couplet style
poem and bring a hard copy of it to class.
Day 5: Ask students how their first attempt at writing a couplet style poem went.
Go over “Partner Artifact Assignment”.
Homework: Over the weekend, read your partner’s poem, and create a piece of art
that is inspired by your partner’s poem.
Week 2:
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Day 6: Have students exchange their poetry artifacts with each other. Ask for the
partner pairs to share their artifacts and poems with the entire class.
Homework: Read pages 16-23 and choose one of the poems to identify the 6 steps
to analyzing a poem in their writing notebooks.
Day 7: Review and discuss the poems the students read for homework the
previous night and clarify any questions they may have. At this point, students
should be able to identify some of the themes that the book is based on. Let’s
discuss the significance of these.
Homework: Read pages 27- 31 and choose one of the poems to identify the 6 steps
Day 8: Last nights’ reading had a couple poems that were very loaded and intense.
Put students into groups. Each group will be assigned a poem from the previous
nights’ reading to unpack as a team. Break these tough poems down and make
them easier to digest. Hearing our peers’ perspectives can often help us with our
own interpretations. Share findings with the entire class.
night and clarify any questions they may have. Discuss more themes that they are
noticing and their significance. Review “You Could Never Take a Car To Greenland”
and introduce why formatting in a prose style poem, or having one long stanza is
significant in poetry. How is having one longer stanza more or less effective
compared to breaking the poem up?
Homework: Following a similar style as Smith’s, “You Could Never Take a Car To
Greenland”, write your own poem, in your writing notebook, that is organized into
one long stanza or in prose style. Bring a typed, hard copy of your poem to class
tomorrow.
Day 10: Snippy Bits individual workshop day! Give a brief overview of what a
writing workshop looks like. Then, have students take the hard copies of their
poems and cut them up into lines. Next, tell them to scramble them around, mix
them up, and flip them upside down so they can’t see the lines. Next, make a new
poem by choosing random scraps at a time. See what magic happens! Adapted
from Jeanne Clark.
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Week 3:
previous night and clarify any questions they may have. Let’s identify some more
emerging themes. Introduce what Blackout Poetry is and have students do this in
groups. Each group will be assigned one of Smith’s poems from Good Bones. At the
end of class, have groups share their new poems.
Homework: Read pages 49- 56 and choose one of the poems to use for Blackout
Poetry. Have students rewrite their selected poem in their writing notebooks and
make a new poem using Blackout Poetry.
Day 12: Ask for a few volunteers to share their Blackout poems with the class.
After, review and discuss the poems the students read for homework the previous
night and clarify any questions they may have. Up until this point in the book, we
can see that family is a huge, recurring theme. Let’s dive deeper into this and track
some of these relationships. Assign and explain family theme poem assignment.
Homework: In the past couple of weeks, we have focused more on writing in specific
forms. For this week’s poem, we are going to focus on theme writing. Write your
own poem, in your writing notebook, in whatever form you’d like, about family. It
can be your own family, where you come from, or it can even be a fictitious family.
Also, read pages 57-60 in GB.
Day 13: Reflect and get feedback from students as to how the writing of their
family poem went. Students will do some reflective writing in their writing
notebooks as well. What was easy? What was difficult? How can we connect your
poems back to the text? What ideas do you have moving forward to revise your
poem? Next, we will review the three poems that the students read for homework
and I’ll clarify any question they might have.
Homework: Read pages 61-68 in GB and choose one of the poems to identify the 6
steps to analyzing a poem in their writing notebooks.
*Day 14: Review and discuss the poems the students read for homework the
previous night and clarify any questions they may have. Let’s have a conversation
about imagery today. Throughout Smith’s book, she consistently uses amazing
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imagery. Let’s close read “Splinter” in GB. Drawing activity will follow. Explain and
assign imagery poem.
Homework: Students will write their own imagery poem in your writing notebook.
Also, read pages 69-77 in GB.
Day 15: Discuss the poems students wrote for homework. What was easy? What
was more difficult? Then, we will discuss the poems that they read for homework
the previous night and clarify any questions they may have. Introduce Songs as
Poetry Essay. Explain to students that songs are simply poetry with music behind
them. Assign and explain Songs as Poetry Assignment.
Homework: Tell students to choose one of their favorite poems thus far into the
book and find a song that would pair nicely with it. In a short 500 word essay,
explain your reasoning as to why the two go together. Please bring a typed, hard
copy of this to class on Monday. I will tell them that I will also participate and pick a
poem to pair with a song.
Week 4:
Day 16: Have each student share with the class what poem and song they chose
and a brief explanation of their pairings. Next, I will take a few volunteers from the
class whose poems and songs we will closely analyze together as a class on the
whiteboard. I’ll pull up the songs’ lyrics so we can close read them with the poems. I
will then collect my students’ papers and share my song and poem. I’ll compile
everyone’s songs into a class Spotify playlist.
Homework: Read pages 78-84 in GB and choose one of the poems to identify the 6
steps to analyzing a poem in their writing notebooks.
previous night and clarify any questions they may have. Introduce Group Workshop
activity to class and split students into groups. Tell them that our class workshop
will be on Friday.
Homework: Finish reading Good Bones. Also, type up and bring a hard copy of the
poem you want to workshop to class tomorrow.
previous night and clarify any questions they may have. Let’s have a final
discussion about Good Bones and wrap up our final thoughts. Towards the end of
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class, students will get back into groups and exchange their poems with each other.
They will give a verbal author’s note to their group that includes what they’re
hoping to receive feedback on.
Homework: Read group members’ poems.
Day 19: In class work day where students will prepare for the workshop. I will give
them a list of things to look for in their peers’ poems and different ways that they
could offer some feedback. Students will write their group members’ comments and
ask any questions they may have regarding any of their peers’ poems.
Homework: Type up each of your group members’ feedback and print one copy for
the original author and one copy for me.
Day 20: Workshop Day! Have students get into their groups, read their poems, and
exchange feedback. I’ll provide fun snacks that everyone can enjoy while discussing
each other’s poetry.
Homework: None
DAY 1: INTRODUCTION TO UNIT (60 Minute Class Period)

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● Introductory Activity: Poetry Tickets (~15 mins) Adapted from Sarah Pape
- Give every student a small plastic bag with ten tickets. On the back of
every ticket there will be a random word.
- Explain to the students that they will now create their own poem out of
their ten tickets. Have them manually organize them on their desks.
- Emphasize that their poems are all going to be unique and different.
Be creative!
- Tell them that I will be participating in the activity as well.
● Share Poetry Creations with Class: (~5 mins)
- Once all of the students have finished creating their own poems, read
my poem aloud that I have created from my tickets.
- Next, ask for a few volunteers to share their poems with the rest of the
class.
- Now students can see that poetry is something fun and isn’t really that
intimidating.
● Powerpoint Overview of Poetry as a Genre: (~25 mins)
- Now that the students have played around a little bit with creating
poetry, hand out supplemental reading packets that include:
- Teach for America: “How to Analyze a Poem in 6 Steps”
https://www.teachforamerica.org/stories/how-to-analyze-a-poem-in-6-
steps
- William Carlos Williams: “This is Just to Say”
https://poets.org/poem/just-say
- Charles Bukowski: “so you want to be a writer?”
https://poets.org/poem/so-you-want-be-writer
- Langston Hughes: “Mother to Son”
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47559/mother-to-son
- After handing out the packets, go over the steps and other helpful tips
to successfully read and interpret a poem. This will take the form of a
Powerpoint that has similar information that is on the first page of their
packets (Teach for America handout). Also in this powerpoint I’ll
explain why we read and write poetry. What are the benefits of reading
and writing in this genre?
● Let’s Practice! (~10 mins)
- Using one of the poems in the students’ packets, as a class, we will
read the poem and analyze the poems using our new knowledge of
breaking down a poem. I will first prompt the students to get
conversation going, then I'll take notes on the whiteboard as the
students lead our discussion.
- Step 1: Read
- Step 2: Title- First impression? How does it connect to the body of the
poem?
- Step 3: Speaker: Who is the speaker in this poem? How do you know?
- Step 4: Tone/ Felt Ideas: How does the poem make you feel?
- Step 5: Paraphrase: In 1-2 sentences, how would you sum up this
piece?
- Step 6: Theme: What is this poem speaking about? What is the
core/underlying issue?
● Explain Homework Assignment: (~5 mins)
- Due tomorrow in class
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- Do this same activity with the other two poems in the packet. Students
can just do this in the margins of the poems. Explain to them that I
know this is going to be weird and different than any other reading
they’ve done before, but just give it a shot. The nice thing about
poetry, is that there is so much room for interpretation! We’ll go over
their interpretations tomorrow at the beginning of class.
Day 14: LESSON ON IMAGERY (60 Minute Class Period)
● Introductory Activity: Listen, Imagine, Draw (~15 mins)

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- As a way to introduce this lesson on imagery, I want students to get in

the right frame of mind for when it comes to images.
- I will open our class by passing out blank pieces of white paper and
instruct my students not to touch them quite yet.
- I will tell them that I want them to close their eyes as I read aloud the
poem “Splinter” from Good Bones. After I am done reading it, I will tell
them to choose one of the images from the poem that stuck with them
the most, and draw this image on their blank piece of paper. The
students will then draw what images emerged from the text. I will
emphasize that we are not in art class here, so it’s totally okay if they
don’t think they are good at drawing. This is just for fun and they will
not be graded on this.
- After everyone has finished drawing, I will ask them what images stood
out to them from the poem and why. The hope here is that they will
say the more description the speaker used, the better they were able
to draw a clearer picture. This will help us segway into a conversation
about the importance of vivid descriptions and why they are important
for reader comprehension.
● Powerpoint on Imagery: (~15 mins)
- After we have concluded our drawing activity, I will present a short
powerpoint about what imagery is. I’ll first give them the dictionary
definition and then as a class we’ll work together to put that definition
into simpler language that we can use for the purposes of our class.
- As we are working through this, I will periodically stop to check for
understanding.
● Let’s Practice! (~10 mins)
- Now that we have a better idea of what imagery is, I will instruct my
students to try it out for themselves. I will tell them to think of one of
their favorite people and describe them using the best descriptions and
imagery as possible. What does their hair look like? What color are
their eyes? What’s their personality like? The goal here is for the
students to go completely overboard and really exaggerate their
descriptions. I will also do the activity with my students.
● Share Aloud: (~10 mins)
- After each student has had a chance to describe one of their favorite
people, I will ask for a few volunteers to share their descriptions with
the rest of the class as we record some of their descriptions on the
whiteboard.
● Explain Homework Assignment: (~10 mins)
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- For homework, students will be asked to write an imagery poem in

their writing notebook. They will take all of the images that they have
thought of regarding their favorite person and write a poem based on
those images. I just really want them to really focus on their imagery
use.

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1

OVERVIEW & PURPOSE

ANCHOR TEXT RATIONALE

1. Class set of Maggie Smith’s, Good Bones

Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development;

Writing Standards Addressed in Unit:

Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas and

Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting,

demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.

Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection,

Language Standards Addressed in Unit:

Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage

Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization,

Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different

Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and

Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances

ACTIVITIES AND ASSIGNMENTS

- At the beginning of this unit, I want to show my students that poetry

● Blackout Poetry Activity:

April: Happy National Poetry Month!

*Day 1: Introduction to unit. Hand out supplemental reading packets.

Homework: Read group members’ poems.

DAY 1: INTRODUCTION TO UNIT (60 Minute Class Period)

Day 14: LESSON ON IMAGERY (60 Minute Class Period)

● Introductory Activity: Listen, Imagine, Draw (~15 mins)

- As a way to introduce this lesson on imagery, I want students to get in

- For homework, students will be asked to write an imagery poem in

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