COEPD LESSON PLAN TEMPLATE – Poetry Lesson Plans

Teacher Candidate: Summer Burns

Content Area & Grade: Lesson Topic and Rationale: Creative Writing; I am choosing to do creative writing for my Length (timing) of Lesson:
English Language Arts poetry unit because I want students to see the different forms their freewriting can take. I 50 min.
8th Grade also believe that poetry can be essential to students who work better with images
because poems allow you to form your work into your own image. This is also a good way
to begin writing in any class because there are less rules and less structural boundaries in
poetry.
INSTRUCTIONAL OUTCOMES
WV Standard/s (daily): https://wvde.us/tree/middlesecondary-learning/english-language-arts/

ELA.8.8.

Learning Objective/s (SWBATS):

 Students will be able to compare two forms of poetry, that aim to be creative, in order to see the effectiveness of style and structure.
 Students will be able to analyze different works of writing in order to determine methods that assisted the author in their creative piece.
Formative Assessment:
 Students will write about which poem was their favorite, and what made drew them to the poem. Students need to be able to explain aspects of
structure as well as content.
 Students will also have a bell ringer at the beginning of class answering the following question: What does creative writing look like?
PREPARATION
Materials/Resources:
 “Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll
 “Windigo” by Louise Erdrich
 Notebooks
 Pen
 Highlighter
 Pencil
INSTRUCTIONAL PROCEDURES
*Highlight BLUE for materials/GREEN for technology
*Highlight PINK for instructional strategies
*Highlight YELLOW for discipline-specific academic language/vocabulary
 Procedural Steps Questions Differentiated Instruction

Activating Strategy/ Time  Students will come in and have a bell ringer ready  How do you work creatively?  For students who I
Introduction for them on the board.  What do you think about know have a
8:00-  Students are given their allotted amount of time when you are day dreaming? harder time
8:10 (it is written on the board and there is a timer), to thinking on the
get the bell ringer completed. spot, I will have a
 Students will complete the bell ringer in their sheet of paper that
Daily Writing Journals. lists different ideas
 Bell Ringer: Think of something creative. It can (to help jog their
be a dream you once had, something you want to creative thinking)
draw, something you’ve heard about, etc. Take laid out on each of
your “something creative” and write about it in their desks.
as much detail as possible.

Core Instruction Time  Have students volunteer to share their stories (no  Is there any confusion on  For students who
8:10- more than 5). how to properly annotate? work better with
8:15  Students will then assist in making a list (that I  Why do you think these the list in their
will write on the board) for what they think goes authors created their pieces hands, I will type
into creative writing. the way that they did? the list while the
students are
8:15-  Students will be given both poems – “Windigo” reading in order for
8:25 and “Jabberwocky” - to read and annotate. each student to
have their own
 Directions for annotation: Students must find 5 copy.
details they believe make the piece creative, they  Students who
must have one thing they find odd about the come into class late
creative piece and be able to tell the class what will complete their
each poem is about. readings during the
small group time
8:25-  I will conduct a quick mini lesson about form in and into the whole
8:30 poetry. This will assist students in their creative class discussion
writing assignment by allowing their shape to time (they will
depict their writing. either be set in the
 8:30-  Students will be given a sheet of directions (and it back of the class or
8:35 will be posted on the board) as to their formative sat in the hall for
assessment. Students will be creating their own their reading).
8:35- creative writing piece’s in the form of a poem. I  If a student knows
8:47 will take the first two minutes to verbally they aren’t going to
communicate the directions to students to make be at school
sure there are no issues in comprehension. (This tomorrow, they
is not homework. Students will work more on this must either turn in
in class tomorrow.) their poems by
email before the
end of the class the
following day, or
turn in the poem in
person upon arrival
the next class
session they are
there.

Closure Time  Students will fill out an index card before leaving  Students who need
class answering the following question: What is more time with the
8:47- your poem going to be about and where did you index cards can
8:50 get your inspiration? begin working on
this approximately
2 minutes before
the other students
begin.
Contingency Time If there is additional time, have students go ahead and
read “Song of the Witches: “Double, double toil and
trouble” by William Shakespeare

COEPD LESSON PLAN TEMPLATE – Poetry Lesson Plans

Teacher Candidate: Summer Burns
Content Area & Grade:
English Language Arts
8th Grade
Lesson Topic and Rationale: Creative Writing: I believe that having students mix their Length (timing) of Lesson:
previous poetry lesson with the works of writer such as William Shakespeare allows them 50 min.
to see the diversity in writing among authors and provides them with a variation of
models in order to mimic their own personal writings. It is important that students be
pushed into new and unusually types of writing so that they can be more likely to write
and express themselves accurately.

INSTRUCTIONAL OUTCOMES
WV Standard/s (daily): https://wvde.us/tree/middlesecondary-learning/english-language-arts/
ELA.8.8.

Learning Objective/s (SWBATS):

 Students will be able to read and understand a piece of creative writing with little to no assistance from the teacher.
 Students will be able to produce their own creative pieces in the form of a poem by modeling the poems they have read thus far.
Formative Assessment:
 Students will complete and submit their finished poems by the end of the class period.

PREPARATION
Materials/Resources:
 Song of the Witches: “Double, double toil and trouble” by William Shakespeare
 Their poems they begun in the previous class period
 Pens
 Paper
 The copies they were given of the poems from the previous class period
INSTRUCTIONAL PROCEDURES
*Highlight BLUE for materials/GREEN for technology
*Highlight PINK for instructional strategies
*Highlight YELLOW for discipline-specific academic language/vocabulary

Procedural Steps Questions Differentiated Instruction

Activating Strategy/ Time  Students will come in with their bell ringer  Would you like to continue  There will be a
 Introduction written on the board. working with this piece, and physical copy of
8:00-  They have their allotted time written out and a turn it into something else? suggested things to
8:07 timer is set to let them know how much time turn their creative
they have left. poem into on their
 Bell Ringer: If you could turn your creative poem desks. There will
into any type of writing (short story, a creative also be a list on the
essay, a children’s book, etc.) what would you board.
turn it into and why?
Core Instruction Time  Students will get into a circle with their bell ringer  What is imagery to you?  For students who
in hand (it should be on a single sheet of  What do you know about come in late, they
8:07- notebook paper so that students can participate onomatopoeia’s? will use the activity
8:15 in the activity).  What do you know about time to complete
 Students will crumple their papers up and throw alliterations? their bell ringer.
them into the middle of the circle.  How can these elements This will be turned
 Students will then each grab a crumpled sheet of enhance your writing into me so they can
paper. I will randomly pick students to read what (especially in something like a receive their
it says on their piece of paper. (No more than 6) poem)? participation grade
8:15-  We will have a quick mini lesson/review to go  How is William Shakespeare’s for the day.
8:22 over the usage of imagery, alliterations, and poem different from the two  If for some reason
onomatopoeia’s within poems. we read yesterday? the grouping does
8:22-  Students will read the poem by William work out, or
8:25 Shakespeare for one last model before students aren’t
completing their own poems. able to chose their
 Students will have this time to finish their poems. own partners to
8:25- There should be no finishing early, because if get the work done,
8:35 students complete their poem, they are to reread I will assign groups.
and look for any errors or if they could make their  If a student has to
poem better by changing it in some way. leave before class
is over, I will have
 Students will be in groups of 2-3 in order to do a them submit it to
8:35- quick peer review. me via email by
8:45 midnight.
 Students will turn in poems via email or by  If the computers
8:45- handing them in at this time. aren’t working,
 8:47 students will have
a printed draft
from the previous
day already with
them and they will
finish it by hand.
Closure Time  Before students leave, they will answer the  How can I be better at
8:47- following question(s) on an index card as their teaching this lesson?
8:50 exit slip: What part of this process did you  Are there things you wished I
struggle with the most? If you feel like you didn’t would’ve done?
struggle, then what part did you enjoy?  What did you specifically
enjoy?
Contingency Time  Student will have the chance to volunteer to read
their poem aloud to the rest of the class.
 Jabberwocky
BY  LEW IS C AR ROLL
’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
      Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
      And the mome raths outgrabe.
“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
      The jaws that bite, the claws that
catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
      The frumious Bandersnatch!”
He took his vorpal sword in hand;
      Long time the manxome foe he
sought—
So rested he by the Tumtum tree
      And stood awhile in thought.
One, two! One, two! And through and
through
      The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
      He went galumphing back.
“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
      Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
      He chortled in his joy.
’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
      Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
      And the mome raths outgrabe.

And, as in uffish thought he stood,

      The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
      And burbled as it came!
 Windigo
BY  LOU ISE E RD RI CH

For Angela

The Windigo is a flesh-eating, wintry demon with a man buried deep inside of it. In
some Chippewa stories, a young girl vanquishes this monster by forcing boiling lard
down its throat, thereby releasing the human at the core of ice.
You knew I was coming for you, little one,
when the kettle jumped into the fire.
Towels flapped on the hooks,
and the dog crept off, groaning,
to the deepest part of the woods.

In the hackles of dry brush a thin laughter started up.

Mother scolded the food warm and smooth in the pot
and called you to eat.
But I spoke in the cold trees:
New one, I have come for you, child hide and lie still.

The sumac pushed sour red cones through the air.

Copper burned in the raw wood.
You saw me drag toward you.
Oh touch me, I murmured, and licked the soles of your feet.
You dug your hands into my pale, melting fur.

I stole you off, a huge thing in my bristling armor.

Steam rolled from my wintry arms, each leaf shivered
from the bushes we passed
until they stood, naked, spread like the cleaned spines of fish.

Then your warm hands hummed over and shoveled themselves full
of the ice and the snow. I would darken and spill
all night running, until at last morning broke the cold earth
and I carried you home,
a river shaking in the sun.
 Song of the Witches: “Double, double toil and
trouble”
BY  W ILLI AM SHA KE SP EA RE

(from Macbeth)
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and caldron bubble.
Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the caldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg and howlet's wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.

Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire burn and caldron bubble.
Cool it with a baboon's blood,
Then the charm is firm and good.