The University of Arizona Poetry Center Lesson Plan Template
The University of Arizona Poetry Center Lesson Plan TemplateBasic Information: Grade Level, Time Frame, Topic, Objective, Prior Knowledge and Skills
Sequence of Activities
Required Resources
Optional Resources
Samples of student work
Please email lesson plans to Renee Angle, Program Coordinator at angler@email.arizona.edu or mail them to:
Poetry Center
Attn: Renee Angle, Program Coordinator
1508 E. Helen
Tucson, AZ 85721-1050
For questions, please call 520-626-3765.
Deadlines for receipt of lessons on Reading Series poets:
Peter Turchi, Februrary 1Francsisco X. Alarcon, February 12
Taha Muhammad Ali and Peter Cole, March 3
W.S. Merwin, April 1
Deadline for your "tried and true" poetry lessons:
Ongoing
Free Lesson Plans
Downloadable lesson plans- W.S. Merwin: Shoelaces & Subtleties of Story: Story and Lesson plan
- Taha Muhammad Ali and Peter Cole: Poems and Discussion Prompts
- Understanding Emotions with Personification and Dialogue featuring the work of Taha Muhammad Ali
- Spacing and Cliche: Using One, Reinventing the Other featuring the work of Peter Cole
- Poetry Imitation: What are we like? What are we not like? featuring the work of Rae Armantrout
- Power Comes from the Hips: Using the Body in a List Poem featuring the work of Lucille Clifton
- Writing Exploratory Poetry, Through Space and Time featuring the work of Albert Goldbarth
- Bringing Poetry to Life featuring the work of Frank O'Hara
Poetry Lessons
For and By High School Teachers
A Call for Lesson Plans!
For and By High School Teachers
Because we believe high school teachers are already teaching poetry in dynamic ways, we want to see what you do in the classroom and help you to share it with others.
If you are a teacher and you currently use poems in your classroom, please submit your favorite poetry lesson plans. With the help of veteran high school teachers, we will review these lessons and post the best of them on our website, so other teachers and students can benefit from your great ideas.
We are also looking for lessons to correspond with the Poetry Center Reading Series. This year’s featured readers include Rae Armantrout, Lucille Clifton, Taha Muhammad Ali, Peter Cole, W.S. Merwin, and Francisco X. Alarcon. If you already know and love the work of these poets, please try your hand at crafting a lesson that incorporates one of their poems. If you don't already know and own the poet's work, but you would like the challenge of figuring out whether or not it would work in your classroom, let us know and we will work with you to get one of their books for review.
If your poems are selected for the website, you will receive publication credit and a signed volume of poetry from one of the poets in our reading series.
All lessons should be classroom tested, that is, taught in the classroom at least once. While not required, we are particularly interested in lessons that contain accompanying student work, which we may publish alongside the lesson. Students whose work we publish will also receive a signed copy of the poet’s book.
Each lesson should focus on a single poet and their work. Lessons can be directed toward a student’s own creative writing in tandem with the study of a particular poet. Or teachers can ask students to engage with the poems using literary analysis.
