Lesson Plan: How to Read and Analyze Poetry

Here is a step-by-step guide to using this lesson plan in the classroom/laboratory. We have suggested these steps as a possible plan of action. You may customize the lesson plan according to your preferences and requirements.

Step 1: Topic introduction and discussion

1. Use the module, ‘Preparing for Poetry: A Reader’s First Steps’ by Jason Rhody, published by EDSITEment, National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), to take your students through a step-by-step guide to reading poetry.
2. Follow the instructions to facilitate the students’ understanding of the techniques involved in reading and analyzing poetry.
3. Use this teaching resource to also enable your students to learn how to prepare an essay about a poem.

Go to the Resource

Step 2: Apply the understanding in written and spoken discussions

1. Choose one or more poems from the list of 21 poems, ‘’Our melting, shifting, liquid world’: celebrities read poems on climate change’ curated by UK poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy and published by the Guardian, to read in class.
2. The poems can be downloaded, and copies prepared beforehand for classroom reading.
3. You can also choose to engage your students further by playing audio files (mp3 format) of the chosen poems read out by celebrities- James Franco, Jeremy Irons, Ruth Wilson, Gabriel Byrne, Michael Sheen, Kelly Macdonald, Maxine Peake, Tamsin Greig, Ian Glen, and Iwan Rheon.
4. Use the worksheet (from the first resource), ‘Preparing for Poetry’ by NEH to ask your students to analyze the chosen poems.
5. Use the completed worksheets to facilitate a classroom discussion on the theme of climate change poetry.
6. Further, encourage your students to employ the techniques learnt to prepare an essay on the chosen poem/s.

Note: In order to improve your students’ understanding of the climate change theme beforehand, you can give a brief overview using this educators’ resource by CLEAN Foundation, Canada.

The curated list of climate change poems can be accessed here.

Suggested questions/assignments for learning evaluation :

1. How is poetry read?
2. What are the essential components of poetry?
3. How is a poetry analysis done?
4. How is climate change portrayed in modern poetry?

The tools in this lesson plan will enable students to:

1. learn how to read poetry
2. identify different elements of poetry
3. analyze poetry and prepare an essay on it
4. draw comparisons between poetry from different times and themes
5. learn about climate change through poetry

If you or your students would like to explore the topic further, these additional resources will be useful.

1	Classroom Activity	Teaching resources by Poetry Society, UK, to encourage your students to create poetry related to change climate.   http://poetryclass.poetrysociety.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Tackling-climate-change-Karen-McCarthy-Woolf.pdf   http://poetryclass.poetrysociety.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Vanishing-Acts-Poetry-and-Climate-Change-Helen-Mort-2.pdf
2	Website	NASA’s website to explore and encourage your students to gain an understanding of the theme of climate change.
3	Reading	A collection of poems related to climate change commissioned by the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA).   Go to the Reading

1	Reading; “Preparing for Poetry: A Reader’s First Steps”	By Jason Rhody, published by EDSITEment, National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).
2	Reading, “’Our melting, shifting, liquid world’: celebrities read poems on climate change”	Curated by UK poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy, published in the Guardian, UK.
3	Reading; “Climate change background info”	By CLEAN Foundation, Canada.
4	Additional Resources	The Poetry Society, UK.   Global Climate Change, NASA.   Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA)
5	Image	TROP ICSU