Free Poetry Activities for Pre-AP Students

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I have never really felt comfortable studying poetry with my students, but I knew that I needed to tackle it in my pre-AP classes if I wanted to give my students a fair shot at success when they got to their AP lit class.

Below are the lessons & activities that I used with my pre-AP/pre-IB sophomores. Most of the analysis handouts have directions on how to annotate as well as discussion questions. These we would do as a class or in small groups.

Next are many matching terms assessments. I used these a while back when I was working to get my National Board Certification and needed concrete data on the students' baseline knowledge of poetic terms. There's a few versions because I always switched them around over the years.

After the assessments are the timed timed writing prompts. In our school, the 10 Intensified classes contain a very concentrated mix of bright students who need a challenge. They are also planning on taking AP or IB classes in their junior year and need to experience writing under pressure. I would never use all of these in one year, but I like to have some options. I would also give different classes different poems. The prompts also contain rough rubrics.

Lastly, there are some materials to get the kids writing on their own. This was always my favorite part. The kids hated it but they always came up with some great stuff.

Analysis

• "Still I Rise" Analysis

• Group Poetry Analysis Presentation

• "Humanity 101" by Denise Duhamel-Analysis Handout

• Analysis Questions for "Humanity 101" by Denise Duhamel

• Poem in a Photo

• Jane Kenyon Analysis (paid product):

Pre-AP Poetry Analysis Activity

• "Poem on Your Own" Analysis

• "How To" Poem Analysis Presentation -"Vietnam Memorial"

• "Vietnam Memorial" Example Annotations

• "Vietnam Memorial" Example Poem Analysis

Assessments

When I was doing boards, I needed to measure growth during my poetry unit, so I have a lot of terms tests that I used that particular year. They are below if you need them, in order of increasing difficulty.

• Literary Terms Matching Pretest (Version 1A)

• Literary Terms Matching Pretest Answer Key (Version 1A)

• Literary Terms Matching Test (Version B)

• Literary Terms Matching Test Answer Key (Version B)

• Match Literary Terms to Examples Practice Quiz

• Match Literary Terms to Examples

• Poetry Terms Learning Style

Timed Writing Prompts Featuring Poem Analysis

• Timed Writing # 1-Poem Analysis-"To The Woman..." by Bianca Lynne Springs

• Timed Writing # 2-Poem Analysis- "Normal" by Reginald Harris

• Timed Writing # 3-Poem Analysis -"Abandoned Farmhouse"

• Timed Writing # 4-Poem Analysis- "Radium Dream" by Sheila Black

• Timed Writing # 5-Poem Analysis- "The Chair That No One Sits In" by Billy Collins

• Timed Writing # 6-Poem Analysis-"The Darklin' Thrush"

• Timed Writing # 7-Poem Analysis-Billy Collins "The Lanyard"

Poetry Writing

• Student poetry assignment sheet

• Imitation Poems Introduction & Practice featuring Thomas Lux's "A Poem in Thanks"

• Imitation Poems

• "The Lady or The Tiger" Found Poem

Other Materials

• Introduction to types of poetry

• Limerick PowerPoint

Poetry Books For People Who Don't Life Poetry

As I've said, I don't really like poetry, but every once in a while I would get a stray hair and buy one that looked interesting. I've found a few books over the years that I thought were accessible and had good poems to use in the classroom.

Bicycles by Nikki Giovanni

The Trouble With Poetry by Billy Collins

I hope you enjoy these free poetry activities for pre-AP students!