The Poetry Journey: Exploring Poets & Their Craft

Course Summary

Join our ongoing class on major poets! Explore poetic devices, read poetry weekly, and write your own. This literature curriculum is a perfect addition to your current ELA program for enhancing your English literature skills while sparking creativity.

Course Description

Join our engaging ongoing class focused on the greats of English and American poetry! Students will learn about influential poets, explore poetic devices, and read and write poetry together. Each class focuses on the poet's life and then explores their most famous poetry, focusing on 3-4 poems and the techniques used to write the poetry. This course is the perfect introduction to poetry for middle school and junior high students. Through engaging lectures using Google Slides, group readings, and hands-on writing activities, students will explore the lives of poets and enhance their understanding of poetic forms in an age-appropriate manner. There is a weekly assignment of writing a poem in the style of the week (haiku, narrative poem, etc.). Reviews of this course from parents: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ This was a great class, and the teacher is very professional and knowledgeable! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ My daughter looked forward to this class every week! I appreciated the depth of study and the weekly assignments that got my daughter excited about exploring different types of poetry. The teacher was very knowledgeable and always encouraging and responsive. Highly recommend! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Excellent class! My reluctant reading learner came back to me telling me all about poetry! Thanks! A+! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ My daughter enjoyed this class. She could not stop talking about what she learned. She would like to take more classes with this teacher in the future. The teacher was wonderful.

Content Considerations

The material will all be presented in a straightforward and age-appropriate manner for middle school and junior high school students. Some portions of poet's lives may be left out or summarized to make biographical information appropriate for all students. Since a portion of each class is a biographical discussion of the poet's life, there are mentions of death, divorce, having children, some family disasters or tragic events, and poor life choices such as alcoholism. If there are any sensitive topics that a parent would like to avoid or discuss, please message me so I can be aware.

Syllabus

Poets and Poetic Styles to be covered: Lewis Carroll and humorous poetry Dylan Thomas and villanelle Christopher Marlowe and pastoral poetry Billy Collins and modern free verse Mary Oliver and personal poetry and many more to come!

Supplies

Students will receive pdf handouts via the Session Resource section each week to aid them with note-taking during the lesson. Students should print these out prior to class time.