Poetry resources exploring social justice and human rights through poems, classroom discussions, writing activities, history, identity, equality, and human experience.
Openly licensed Grade 8 U.S. history lesson using primary sources and a Two-Voice Poem to explore perspectives of groups during the Civil War.
A four-page poetry analysis worksheet using Langston Hughes's A Dream Deferred to teach simile, imagery, theme, historical context, personal response, and original figurative-language poetry writing.
A free Women's History Month poetry lesson using Ada Limón's 'What It Must Have Felt Like' to connect close reading and creative writing with the 19th Amendment and women's suffrage history.
A free interdisciplinary lesson on Emma Lazarus's 'The New Colossus' using historical photography, repeated reading, vocabulary, evidence, immigration history, and poetry analysis.
Free Grade 9 interdisciplinary lesson connecting Harlem Renaissance poetry with art, music, dance, research, museum exhibits, and historical context.
Free high-school poetry lesson using Langston Hughes to connect poetry analysis, historical context, research, social issues, and original writing.
Free middle-school poetry lesson using Maya Angelou's writing and primary-source photographs to connect poetry with civil rights, history, research, and visual literacy.
A substantial classroom unit introducing students to women's voices in poetry through thematic reading, research, technology, creative writing, critical writing, discussion, and cultural stereotypes.
A curated collection of free poetry lesson plans for Women's History Month featuring women poets including Lucille Clifton, Emma Lazarus, Adrienne Rich, Joy Harjo, Rita Dove, Maya Angelou, and others.
A free poetry lesson centered on Katharine Rolston Fisher's poem about suffragist Alice Paul, with primary-source imagery, close reading, women's suffrage research, writing, and extension projects.
A free poetry and civil-rights lesson using Mahogany L. Browne's poem about Fannie Lou Hamer to explore voting rights, activism, history, close reading, discussion, and research.
A free poetry lesson using Kwoya Fagin Maples's 'Invisible Work' to explore care, family labor, women's work, imagery, close reading, creative writing, comparison, and visual culture.
A free collection connecting poetry with the centennial of the 19th Amendment, women's suffrage, women's history and rights, and new work commissioned from women poets.
A free poetry and history lesson using Aimee Nezhukumatathil's 'One Vote' to explore voting, the women's suffrage movement, the 19th Amendment, visual sources, creative writing, and civic research.
A free poetry lesson using Paisley Rekdal's 'Wild Horses' to explore persona poetry, Seraph Young Ford, voting, women's suffrage, the 19th Amendment, creative work, and research.
A free lesson on Alice Duer Miller's satirical suffrage poem 'Our Own Twelve Anti-suffragist Reasons,' using a political cartoon, close reading, satire, women's suffrage history, comparison, and research.
Openly licensed Grade 8 history lesson that uses primary sources and Two-Voice Poetry to compare competing perspectives on Manifest Destiny.
A grades 9–12 lesson exploring how poets engage with social justice through close reading, discussion, current events, and elegy writing.
Openly licensed Grades 9–12 U.S. history lesson connecting civil-rights primary texts, segregation and integration, paired-text analysis, and creation of a two-voice poem.
Project Gutenberg collection of Walt Whitman's patriotic, Civil War, democracy, and American poems, including O Captain! My Captain!, When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd, I Hear America Singing, and other works.
Openly licensed Grade 9–10 poetry lesson in which students compare poetry and speeches, analyze word choice and rhetorical strategies, compose a poem, and consider poetry as a vehicle for change.
Openly licensed high-school lesson using Woody Guthrie, song lyrics, historical context, and blackout poetry to explore social commentary, figurative meaning, and poetic expression.
PoetrySoup's teacher resources are designed to help educators find useful poetry lesson plans, worksheets, writing activities, poetry analysis materials, and classroom resources for students at different grade levels.
Resources may include original PoetrySoup teaching materials, openly licensed educational resources, and carefully selected links to trusted educational organizations. Downloadable materials can be printed and used in the classroom according to the license and attribution information provided with each resource.