ELA / 7th Grade / Unit 15: American Poetry (2020)
Through an analysis of figurative language, imagery and historical context, students will explore questions of race, immigration, poverty and self-realization in a plethora of American poetry.
ELA
Unit 15
7th Grade
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In the poetry unit, students will continue to grapple with themes of race, class, immigration, and identity in the American experience. Poetry can be a game-changer for adolescent readers and writers. Once they see the freedom taken by poets such as Langston Hughes or E. E. Cummings, who express themselves without the grammatical restrictions of prose, a whole new pathway opens up as young readers and writers learn to interpret the language of the heart.
Through an analysis of figurative language, imagery, and historical context, students will explore questions of race, immigration, poverty, and self-realization in a plethora of American poetry. Students will dive deeply into Langston Hughes’s poetry from the Harlem Renaissance. They will examine his powerful call of a more just and beautiful world. Other poets students will read from the Harlem Renaissance include James Weldon and Georgia Johnson. Students will also read contemporary American poets such as Maya Angelou, Pedro Pietri, Martín Espada, and Gloria Anzaldúa.
The unit will culminate in a poetry slam (see composition project) in which students write personal poems in the spirit of a mentor text they have read from their poetry packets. Here, students get an opportunity to share their own experiences in a way that feels true to their deepest selves. Students must abide by specific guidelines requiring them to incorporate allusions, advanced vocabulary, imagery, and figurative language. Finally, they will perform their poetry in front of an audience, focusing on public speaking skills such as volume, eye contact, and body language. Students will be assessed for both their poetry and performance.
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Video: “The Harlem Renaissance”
Poem: “One-Way Ticket” by Langston Hughes
Poem: “The South” by Langston Hughes
Poem: “And 2morrow” by Tupac Shakur
Poem: “Dreams” by Langston Hughes
Poem: “We Wear the Mask” by Paul Laurence Dunbar
Poem: “First Love” by Carl Linder
Poem: “maggie and milly and molly and may” by E.E. Cummings
Poem: I Love the Look of Words by Maya Angelou
Poem: “The Weary Blues” by Langston Hughes
Visual: The Piano Man by Sidney Carter
Poem: “Suicide Note from a Cockroach in a Low Income Housing Project” by Pedro Pietri
Poem: I Apologize for Giving You Poison Ivy by Smacking You in the Eye with the Crayfish at the End of My Fishing Line by Martin Espada
Poem: “Life Doesn’t Frighten Me” by Maya Angelou
Poem: “The Suicide” by James Weldon Johnson
Poem: “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” by Langston Hughes
Poem: “Ego-Tripping” by Nikki Giovanni
Poem: “Motto” by Langston Hughes
Poem: “The Heart of a Woman” by Georgia Douglas Johnson
Poem: “Those Two Boys” by Franklin Adams
Poem: “To Live in the Borderlands” by Gloria Anzaldúa
Poem: “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost
Poem: “Mr. Brown the Circus Clown” by Kenn Nesbitt
Poem: “My Penmanship is Pretty Bad” by Kenn Nesbitt
Poem: “All My Great Excuses” by Kenn Nesbitt
Poem: “Today I Had a Rotten Day” by Kenn Nesbitt
Poem: “Good Hair” by Sherman Alexie
Video: “Black is Beautiful”
Video: “G. Yamazawa - "Elementary" (NPS 2014)” by Button Poetry
Article: “Nuyorican Poets Cafe: History & Awards”
This assessment accompanies Unit 15 and should be given on the suggested assessment day or after completing the unit.
Download Content Assessment
Suggestions for how to prepare to teach this unit
The central thematic questions addressed in the unit or across units
Specific skills to focus on when giving feedback on writing assignments
Students will continue to write short responses (5–7 sentences) to most Target Tasks. They will work on organization of their thoughts, finding relevant evidence, and analyzing poet’s diction and structure. Grammatically, students will focus on using commas to set off introductory parts of sentences.
See poetry slam guidelines in lessons 17-18 below.
Organization
Elaboration
Punctuation
Literary terms, text-based vocabulary, idioms and word parts to be taught with the text
verse, prose, rhyme scheme, stanza, free verse, alliteration, speaker, imagery, mood, tone, point of view, metaphor, onomatopoeia, theme, personification, structure, contrast, figurative language, hyperbole, sensory details
Renaissance (Harlem Renaissance), barren (“Dreams” by Langston Hughes)
In order to ensure that all students are able to access the texts and tasks in this unit, it is incredibly important to intellectually prepare to teach the unit prior to launching the unit. Use the intellectual preparation protocol and the Unit Launch to determine which support students will need. To learn more, visit the Supporting all Students teacher tool.
Fishtank ELA units related to the content in this unit.
Explain the historical significance of the Harlem Renaissance.
Explain the benefits of writing in verse as opposed to prose.
RL.7.2 RL.7.7
Identify and explain the purpose of rhyme scheme.
RL.7.5
Explain why Carl Linder would choose to use free verse rather than verse for his poem.
Identify and analyze how an author uses imagery to convey a theme.
Assess students on basic fluidity of poetry terms: rhyme scheme, verse, free verse, stanzas, lines, alliteration, mood, imagery, sensory details.
RL.7.2
Explain how the imagery affects the mood.
RL.7.3
Compare and contrast the imagery used to convey mood in a poem and in a painting.
RL.7.7
Identify and explain how personification affects the tone in “Suicide Note from a Cockroach.”
RL.7.3 RL.7.4
Explain how the poet uses imagery to develop his point of view.
Explain how the author uses repetition to develop the tone in "Life Doesn't Frighten Me."
RL.7.4 RL.7.5
Identify and analyze the use of onomatopoeia in “The Suicide.”
RL.7.4
Explain the purpose of a staggered line structure in “The Negro Speaks of Rivers.”
Identify and analyze how the historical context influences the speaker’s point of view in “Ego-Tripping.”
Explain what the lack of grammatical rules reveals about the speaker’s perspective.
RL.7.5 RL.7.6
Explain how the structure of the poem supports the theme.
RL.7.2 RL.7.5
Analyze how Franklin Adams develops theme in his poem “Those Two Boys.”
Explain how Anzaldúa uses contrast to develop her theme.
RL.7.2 RL.7.3
Explain how the author uses metaphor to develop the theme.
RL.7.2 RL.7.4
Write a personal poem using imagery, figurative language, allusion, and theme.
W.7.3 W.7.3.d W.7.3.e
Publicly present poems focusing on volume, eye contact, and body language.
SL.7.4 SL.7.6
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The content standards covered in this unit
RI.7.1 — Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
RI.7.2 — Determine two or more central ideas in a text and analyze their development over the course of the text; provide an objective summary of the text.
RL.7.1 — Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
RL.7.2 — Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text; provide an objective summary of the text.
RL.7.3 — Analyze how particular elements of a story or drama interact (e.g., how setting shapes the characters or plot).
RL.7.4 — Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of rhymes and other repetitions of sounds (e.g., alliteration) on a specific verse or stanza of a poem or section of a story or drama.
RL.7.5 — Analyze how a drama's or poem's form or structure (e.g., soliloquy, sonnet) contributes to its meaning.
RL.7.6 — Analyze how an author develops and contrasts the points of view of different characters or narrators in a text.
RL.7.7 — Compare and contrast a written story, drama, or poem to its audio, filmed, staged, or multimedia version, analyzing the effects of techniques unique to each medium (e.g., lighting, sound, color, or camera focus and angles in a film).
SL.7.4 — Present claims and findings, emphasizing salient points in a focused, coherent manner with pertinent descriptions, facts, details, and examples; use appropriate eye contact, adequate volume, and clear pronunciation.
SL.7.6 — Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate.
W.7.1 — Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence.
W.7.3 — Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences.
W.7.3.d — Use precise words and phrases, relevant descriptive details, and sensory language to capture the action and convey experiences and events.
W.7.3.e — Provide a conclusion that follows from and reflects on the narrated experiences or events.
Unit 6
Claiming Our Place: LGBTQ+ Experiences in the United States
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