Poetry Curriculum
Middle and High School Poetry Curriculum
Are you an educator seeking curriculum for your poetry classroom or workshop? Below, we've put together slides for ten lessons written by the National Youth Poet Laureate program. We've also linked a Google Drive below that includes all written lessons, copies of poems, and links to videos. First, you'll encounter our slide decks for Google Slides. Then, you'll see our Google Drive link which includes all materials for the YPL curriculum.
Youth Poet Laureate Curriculum
Lesson One: Writing a Self-Portrait
Lesson One: Writing a Self-Portrait
Session Theme: Personal history, background, and/or origin story.
Student Outcome: To write well-crafted poems about the places, people, movements, hobbies, blocks,
neighborhoods, communities, backgrounds, and experiences from which students come.
Lesson Two: Celebration of Self
Session Theme: Self-esteem, self-empowerment, imagery.
Student Outcome: To use writing and poetry as a tool for building self-esteem and empowerment and
celebrating one’s self. To use imagery as a way to elevate that celebration.
Lesson Three: Point of View
Session Theme: Students learn about point of view (first, second, third person; singular and plural) and perspectives when writing poetry and other kinds of creative writing. Students will think about how changing from first person to second and third person affects the meaning of a poem.
Lesson Four: Writing About Identity
Session Theme: Social and cultural identity, heritage, ancestry, intersectionality. Students will learn how words shape identities and learn about Greek aeidein or ode. Students will practice close reading and annotation, discussion, performance.
Lesson Five: Writing to Change the World
Session Theme: Social justice, social change, anti-oppression, liberation, equity. Students write poems that can be used as a form of activism towards social change.
Lesson Six: Writing about the Environment
Session Theme: Climate change, animal rights, nature, the environment. Students write poems and practice incorporating persona into their poetry.
Lesson Seven: Writing from the Heart
Session Theme: Vulnerability, bravery, courage, taking risks, gratitude, appreciation, praise. Students write poems as letters that allow them to encounter personal challenges.
Lesson Eight: Anaphora, Repetition, and Found Poetry
Session Theme: Poetic forms and devices, found poetry, erasure poetry. Students write "found" poems and practice anaphora and repetition as they write about what surprises them and brings them moments of awe.
Lesson Nine: Breaking the Rules (of Grammar & Punctuation)
Session Theme: Creative expression, taking artistic risks. Students will write poetry that experiments with linguistic and literary conventions.
Lesson Ten: Reimagining the World
Session Theme: Revolutionary movements, futurism, equity, equality, creative expression. Students will write poetry that includes imagery.
Lesson 11: Editing & Polishing the Poem
Lesson 11: Editing & Polishing the Poem
Session Theme:
Editing and revision. Students
learn techniques for editing and revising student work.