Poetry Lesson Plans

As a teacher, I had a difficult time finding poetry lesson plans.

Use this free lesson plan for the poem "Columbus" by Joaquin Miller, and follow this step by step guide for teaching kids poetry.

1. Before you read the poem aloud…

Sometimes it is helpful to set the stage for a poem, especially if it is written about a context that children do not have experience with.

This poem is written about a time before airplanes, cell phones, and GPS systems. There were no cars, trucks, or highways. At the time that this poem takes place, people did not know the geography of the world. They did not know how much ocean or land lay between Europe and Asia.

The men in this poem are sailing in a 15th century ship. They are out on a discovery mission sailing their ship through unknown waters and exploring the world.

Imagine how scary it would be to set sail without knowing where you were going- or what was even out there! Many people during this time believe that there were monsters in the ocean or other strange creatures waiting to attack them.

They did not know how long it would be until they reached land. They had no accurate world map to look at because no one knew what the world looked like yet!

Setting sail as a discoverer must have taken a lot of courage and determination as you sailed through storms and fog not really knowing what you would find.

(P.S. The admiral in the poem is Columbus.)

2. Read the poem aloud to your students.

You may want them to follow along with a copy while you read, or you may want them to only focus on only your reading. You may choose.

3. Identify and define words that students do not know.

At this point, hand out the poems and the charts to students. I have included a chart with definitions of some troublesome words. I would encourage you to have students copy the definitions on their poem sheets.

Download the full lesson plan with the charts here.

4. Read the poem aloud again now that the students are familiar with the vocabulary.

You can ask them to focus on the difference between the admiral and the mate and crew. What do the mate and crew want? Why? What does the admiral tell them?

5. Have students tell you in their own words what each stanza means.

You may have to help “translate” this poem for your students. I have included a chart with a section titled, “In Other Words.” Feel free to use this as your guide. Again, I would recommend that students write this information in their charts.

Download the full lesson plan with the charts here.

6. Discuss the poem.

Key Questions:

1. Why are the mate and crew scared?

• They fear that the ship is lost and headed into unknown waters.

2. What do the mate and crew want?

• They want to sail back home! They know what the seas are like on the way home. Since they know the geography of the coastlines of Europe, they would not be scared of the unknown.

3. What does the admiral tell them?

• He does not show any emotion, and simply tells the crew to continue sailing through the unknown waters.

4. Choose one word to describe the admiral.

• I would accept words like brave, courageous, persistent, and determined.

5. Why did you choose that word? (Use quotes from the poem.)

6. Choose one word to describe the mate and crew.

• I would accept words like scared, timid, and nervous.

7. Why did you choose that word? (Use quotes from the poem.)

6. Ask students for personal experiences and make connections to other areas of curriculum.

• Does the admiral remind you of any characters from books or movies? Why?

• Does the mate and crew remind you of any characters from books or movies? Why?

7. Assign the poem for students to memorize.

Break the poem into manageable chunks for your students - maybe they have three days to memorize each of the stanzas- you can decide!

It is really helpful for the students to recite it as a class a few times throughout the day.

8. Students recite the poem.

You could have them recite each section as it is due and also have them recite the whole poem at the end. (I would recommend this.)

You can download the complete poetry lesson plan of "Columbus."

The best thing about it?

You won't have to do any work except follow this lesson plan!

Details:

• 9 pages

• PDF download (You can print it off in minutes!)

• It contains all of the information on this page.

• It also contains a copy of the actual poem.

• It contains a chart with vocabulary words and a current "translation" of the poem for teachers.

• It contains a blank chart for your students. They can fill in the information as you go through it.

• Only $4.99!

Poetry lesson plans are easy to make when you follow the 8 steps listed on this page. I hope this helped.

If you have any poems that you would like me to make into poetry lesson plans, just let me know!