Reading and writing poetry engages us with language, ideas, sounds, images, and emotions in ways that life might not otherwise offer us very often. Poems can be long or short, dramatic or lyric, serious or funny. Some may appeal to us at certain ages or stages in life, while others we can return to again and again, finding new meaning each time we read and reread them.
Sample Lesson Plans with Poetry
and Other Resources from the Great Books Foundation
At the Great Books Foundation, poetry has long been an integral part of our anthologies for young students, middle-grade readers, secondary students, and even for adults. Sample lesson plans including poetry for all of these age groups can be downloaded from this page!
Junior Great Books Inspire Series
Our brand-new series for grades 2–5 includes selections across genres, with two poems at every grade level, along with fiction, narrative nonfiction, and drama for grades 3–5. Download Inspire sample lesson plans to access “How to Paint a Donkey” by Naomi Shihab Nye. We publish this poem in Series 3, but students at every grade level can discuss this rich, thought-provoking poem.
Additional Poetry Resources
Our team has created free lesson plans featuring contemporary poems on current events by poets such as Amanda Gorman, as well as lesson plans on classic poets and topics such as Kahlil Gibran’s “On Friendship” and Emma Lazarus’s “The New Colossus.” A sample unit from the Foundation’s Modern American Poetry anthology includes the introduction “How to Read A Poem,” which shares examples of questions to ask when reading and discussing poetry.
Download any of them right now!
