In their month-long poetry unit, 8th graders learned strategies for decoding challenging figurative language in poems through close reading, annotation, and discussion. They explored poetry forms like odes, elegies, villanelles, and sonnets, unpacking the specific rhyme schemes and common thematic trends of each form. As they worked through a range of poems together, students practiced slowing down their reading and closely analyzing word choice to better understand each poet’s meaning while deepening their appreciation for the craft, creativity, and intention behind poetry.

To culminate the unit, each student became the teacher—truly—and led an interactive class presentation in the form of a mini-lesson to their peers! They started by choosing a poem—either one that they researched or one that they wrote themselves—and analyzing it for figurative language. Then, each student self-selected several different strategies in order to engage and unpack their respective poems with their audience. Their mini-lessons incorporated hands-on elements like collaborative annotation, guided discussion questions, and personal reflections.