Anthology Pages

The final assessment for this unit was an anthology of original poetry put together by both 8th grade classes.

Students were responsible for writing their own poems, and working together with a partner to design the anthology page.

Some students even drew illustrations by hand.

Other Assignments

Poetry Journal Responses

When I started the unit, I wanted to have students listening and responding to poetry with their first impressions. We would begin class with Mindful Listening activities, combining their Mindful Minute with them listening to a poem.

Some responses were very superficial, especially in the beginning of the unit.

In response to some poems, I asked the students to come up with questions that came to their mind as they listened to my readings.

From time to time, I tried to include some prompts that asked the students to think deeper about the poems that they were reading. One of the prompts asked the students to look at poems or song lyrics that they had brought in, and then compare them to a poem that we had read together in class.

Figurative Language Activity

Because poetry is often rich in figurative language, I wanted to spend a decent amount of time going over the different types of figurative language that the students would encounter most. In groups, the students visited different stations and saw an example of a particular type of figurative language. Their job was to come up with five of their own examples for each type at each station.