NESA--Athens--2012

1. Activities for Teaching
Poetry in the Content Areas
Kathleen McKim
Al Bayan Bilingual School

2. Activity 1: 5 minutes 4 poetry
• Make an overhead transparency of the poem
and enough copies for pairs to share.
• Pass out copies and project the poem. Read it
aloud twice.
• Invite students to jot down an immediate
response by noting words and phrases that
popped into their minds as you read aloud.
• Have students exchange thoughts with their
partners, looking for connections.
• If time permits, students use their notebooks to
write down connections, issues or insights.

3. Why poetry?
1. Poems bring a human element and a personal,
often humorous touch to the topics you are
studying, helping students retain info and
vocab by giving vivid mental images that forge
remembering connections (Robb, 2007).
2. Poems are short and cut to the heart of the
topic (Robb).
3. Poems help students explore important issues
in your content area, issues that extend
beyond the classroom into their lives,
communities, and the world (Robb).

4. Sridevi, Shanmugan © 2005. Simple machines.
Sridevi, Shanmugan © 2005. Simple machines.

5. Activity 2: “Inclined” to
Acting
• Divide the class into five groups.
• Assign one stanza to each group.
• Each group must memorize their stanza and
determine a way to “act out” the machine being
described.
• Each group will then perform their stanza in the
order of the poem, retelling the poem from
beginning to end as a whole class.

6. NASA © 2002. Hurricane Ike. Public Domain.

7. Activity 3: Science
Soundscapes
• Assign one stanza for each small group.
• Assign one person to read the stanza while the
others brainstorm sounds to accompany the
action in the stanza.
• Lower the lighting in the room. Each group
takes a position in a spot where they feel
comfortable.
• The teacher begins with a rain stick. Each group
performs their stanza.

9. Activity 4: Shape Up with
Math Poems
• Read “What’s My Angle?” and point out that the
poem is in the shape of an angle.
• Have students create poems in the shapes of
one of these: a trapezoid, a square, a rectangle,
a circle, or a right or isosceles triangle.
• First, brainstorm a list of ideas you can use.
Then think-pair-share.
• Draft a poem that describes the geometric shape
you’ve chosen.

10. Series_no_3660_1_67707.jpg.Noknoi.com

11. Activity 5: It Can’t Talk Back
• Write a poem about something in science that
can’t talk back, such as a cell, the moon, a bat, a
black hole, a comet, or a giant squid.
• These are called apostrophe poems.
• Brainstorm a list of ideas from the point of view
of the scientific thing you chose, then write your
poem.