Composition & Essays

Lord of the Flies

Other Studies

Poetry

Shakespeare

To Kill A Mockingbird

Pam Haugland

Grade: 9

Unit Overview

This unit is designed to allow students to explore the world of poetry with enough guidance and as little restriction as possible. Students will be asked to look at a wide variety of poetry and explore its content and form, to experiment with their own words and ideas through various writing activities, and to read poetry aloud within small groups and in a “Poetry Slam” celebrating the beginning of their adventures within the poetic world.

The unit starts out with the generation of a working definition of what poetry is, moves on through a number of form poetry to free verse poetry and comes back to other semi-structured types of poetry. It involves a variety of reader response activities that allow the student to bring their own influences to the meaning of the text. This unit also involves a wide variety of activities that have students explore different types of form and free verse poetry. The unit concludes with student portfolios that will encompass all of their work over the term and with a unit test.