6-12th- ADD ARTICLES HERE — TeachWriting.org

Writing Activities for Your Next Unit Hero Unit

Heroes and heroism have always been captivating subjects, transcending time and culture. In an English class, these themes offer an excellent opportunity to engage middle school and high school students in meaningful discussions, critical thinking, and creative expression. This blog post will provide a range of activities and lessons to inspire and educate students about heroes and heroism.

12 Super Fun Poetry Lesson Plans for Middle and High School

Here you'll find 12 engaging mini lessons to integrate teaching reading and writing poetry. Each lesson includes an objective, hook, and activity. There are lots of links to other resources too!

Creative Writing, Poetry, Writing Mini-lessonsAmanda WernerMarch 25, 2023Poetry writing, poetry, Poetry Lessons, April Poetry MonthComment

4 Reasons to Write Bio Poems

Poetryjeanine schneiderMarch 13, 2023Poetry writing, Poetry LessonsComment

How to Teach Descriptive Writing

Descriptive writing does not come naturally to most of us. This is because when we tell stories orally, we often leave out the details (because we’ve forgotten them in most cases). It takes effort, bravery and a lot practice to master the art of descriptive writing. In this blog post you’ll learn three simple things you can do to get your students on the path to writing more descriptively! And no, none of these strategies involve saying to your students, “show, don’t tell”. That strategy hasn’t really worked for me and I’m assuming it hasn’t for you either...

Creative Writing, PoetryAmanda WernerSeptember 25, 2021descriptive writingComment

5 Poetry Activities to Heal Trauma

The entire world has been traumatized. Amidst a pandemic, many other tumultuous events have occurred. Most teachers I know are wondering how to make room for all this in their classrooms. Some may be wondering, should I just plow forward with content? Absolutely not. In this blog post you’ll find five creative poetry activities that will allow you to make space for teachers and students to write about the hardships they’ve faced during these tough times.

Creative Writing, PoetryAmanda WernerMarch 21, 2021Poetry writing, Poetry LessonsComment

A Creative Poetry Stations Activity

During poetry stations, students move around the classroom doing various activities related to poetry. The station activity in this blog post has students read an engaging poem and respond to the poem in an unconventional way. If you’d like to replicate this activity in your classroom here are the steps to follow…

PoetryAmanda WernerMarch 3, 2020poetry, stationsComment

Poetry Writing That Supports Reading Standards - Found Poetry and Blackout Poetry

Learn more about using Found Poetry and Blackout Poetry as a creative assessment for those reading standards!

Tone Tunes: Using Music to Teach Tone in Poetry

Being able to decipher the tone of a piece of writing is crucial to being able to decipher the thematic message of a text. This is absolutely true for analyzing poetry.

Poetry Collage: Poetry Meets Art

One of my favorite openers is to have students create a poetry collage using striking images they find in modern poets' work. I send them on an online journey through Billy Collins' beautiful project, Poetry 180: A Poem a Day for American High Schools.

Creative Writing, PoetryGuest UserMarch 20, 2018poetry, creative writingComment

For Teachers Who Hate Teaching Poetry: Teach Poetry Emulation, Here's How...

As a teacher who loves teaching writing it is hard for me to admit I don't love teaching poetry. But here it goes...I don't enjoy teaching poetry. But I can't just skip teaching poetry! That would be writing teacher sacrilege!

PoetryAmanda WernerMarch 15, 2018Poetry, poetic devices, poetry activitiesComment