Overview

__Week 1__: Activate background knowledge/Immersion
 * The 6th grade poetry unit will be at least five weeks in length. The lesson I will be focusing on is poetry analysis. **
 * Day 1: Discuss "What is poetry?"
 * Day 2: Introduce rhythm and rhyme
 * Day 3: Introduce literary devices (similes, metaphors, personification)
 * Day 4: Introduce imagery
 * Day 5: Introduce sound devices (alliteration, repetition, onomatopoeia).
 * Read/listen to a lot of free-choice poetry!

__ Week 2 __ : Continue immersion/**Poetry analysis**
 * Day 6: Introduce different poetic forms (free verse, limerick, haiku, concrete) and practice paraphrasing
 * Read/listen to recordings of poems as a class and individually
 * Continue to identify literary and sound devices
 * Investigate/analyze meanings

__ Week 3 - 4 __ : **Continue poetry analysis**
 * **Poetry analysis project/presentation**

__ Week 5 __ : Create poetry and “perform” it
 * Use art and instrumental recordings to inspire poetry
 * Practice how to read a poem


 * The 8th grade poetry unit will be approximately 5 weeks in length. The lesson I will be focusing on is poetry analysis. **

__ Week 1 __ : Activate background knowledge
 * Reach consensus on the definition of poetry
 * Learn the concepts/recognize the patterns of meter (iambic tetrameter-walking/clapping the rhythm) and rhyme scheme (must understand these concepts in order to be able to identify the different poetry forms)
 * What Was I Sacred Of? – Dr. Suess
 * Sick – Shel Silverstein (rhymed couplets – aa,bb,cc))
 * Talking – Judith Viorst
 * Review literary elements: alliteration, consonance, personification, repetition, simile, metaphor, extended metaphor, imagery, and emotional expression.

__ Week 2 __ : Discuss the characteristics of the different forms (ballads, lyrics, couplet, epics, elegies, odes, and sonnets**)** __ Week 3 __ : **Poetry explication**
 * Ballads (introduce first) and sonnets (introduce second) -These have stricter meter and rhyme schemes. Ballads are more regular and songlike and often put to music.
 * Elegies
 * Odes
 * Examples
 * Frost – Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
 * Whitman – O Captain, My Captain
 * Poetry Explication assignment

__ Week 4+ __ : **Poetry explication project/presentation**