How to Teach Poetry: Lesson Plan 10 (Classroom Engagement)

Promote student conversation about personal struggles in order to form insightful poetry
Inspire students to realize that problems in their own lives are representative of the world's largest political issues

Realize that personal issues are shared by community and are aligned with larger, political issues of the country and world today

Arrange desks/chairs in the classroom in a circle to create a warm, supportive, interactive space for students and teachers to communicate

Create a list of 3-5 powerful memories that evoke intense, possible painful emotions

For the first 10 minutes of class, students and teacher(s) will review PowerPoetry's 6 Tips for Writing a Poem About Memories
Students will have 15 minutes to compose a brief poem (5-10 lines) directly related to one of the memories from their list
For the next 5-7 minutes, 2 students will be randomly selected to share their poems
For the remainder of class, students and teacher(s) will discuss how the personal themes revealed in the shared poems relate to larger, political and societal themes that affect the world as a whole

Students will branch out from writing navel-gazing poetry to broader themes by revising the poem written in class to reflect an issue in society today

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