Poets have a unique gift for capturing unique, bold, and memorable characters in a brief number of lines and syllables. For teachers, this means poetry is a great vehicle for analyzing characterization and character development. In particular, I've designed this bundle with my own ninth and tenth graders in mind.

That's why I've put together this bundle of 5 unique poems that are ideal for helping students analyze characterization and character development.

This character study is also a good way to bring several contemporary, living poets into your classroom!

To make this resource as useful as possible, I've also included a suggested unit planner or pacing guide! As a new teacher, this is the kind of tool I longed for, so I wanted to make sure to include some suggestions for exactly how to use and pace this unit!

Each poem features a characterization questions, analysis questions, and an extension activity. As a bundle *bonus,* I've also collected 10 synthesis writing prompts and a rubric!

To make sure these resources are ready for distance learning, each includes a fillable .pdf, Google Slides, and Google Forms. 

Features:

• “Blueprints?” by Sara Holbrook is a great starting point for students new to analyzing character. The first-person point of view and language make this poem an ideal starting point for this collection. In addition to helping students analyze character development, this is also a good text for teaching text structure, main idea, inference, and syntax.

• “Dothead”by Amit Majumdar: This poem is a great text for developing readers because the tone is conversational, the poem has a plot, and the character development is clear. In addition to helping students analyze character development, this is a great poem to teach allusion, main idea, tone, and figurative language. Finally, this poem promotes great classroom discussion, which is why I included 10 writing prompts and a rubric.

• "Senior Discount” by Ali Liebegott: Of the poems included in this bundle, this one is the closest to my heart. This is a charming character study that will also help students analyze setting, flashback, main idea, inference, tone, and using evidence to support claims.

• “The Sign in My Father’s Hands” by Martin Espada: Racial and social injustice was such a big part of the summer of 2020. While it is difficult to have conversations about social justice in the classroom, it is also critically important. Espada's poem focuses on civil disobedience from a perspective we do not often consider. This is also a good text for teaching irony, historical context, text structure, point of view, main idea, and using evidence to support claims.

• "The Difference Between Pepsi and Coke” by David Lehman is, in my opinion, the most ambiguous poem in this collection. For this reason, this poem is a great culminating text that helps students bring together the skills they have developed through the four previous poems. In addition, this is also a good text for teaching text structure, main idea, inference, and point of view.

If you were to buy all of these poems separately, you'd spend $15. But with the bundle, you can get one of the resources for free and save $3! Plus, with the bundle, you get *bonus* writing prompts! All together, you get almost 40 pages of poetry questions! These resources can become an entire unit or the focus of an intervention cycle. To be clear, you're getting the resources, lessons, and questions to teach these poems. For poems that are in the public domain, I have included the text, and any text that is not in the public domain is available online.

Since these are Google resources, when you purchase this resource, TPT will create a file in your Google Drive where you will find the fillable .pdf, Google Forms, and Google Slides.

Check out more resources for teaching poetry!

The 9-10 Poetry Inference Bundle includes:

• "We Lived Happily During the War" by Ilya Kaminsky
• "Making a Fist" by Naomi Shihab Nye
• "To Kill a Deer" by Carol Frost
• "Deer Hunt" by Judson Jerome
• "Traveling through the Dark" by William E. Stafford

The 9-10 Poetry Main Idea Bundle includes:

• "What I Carried" by Maggie Smith
• "I Have a Time Machine" by Brenda Shaughnessy
• "The World is Too Much with Us" by William Wordsworth
• "To the Virgins to Make Much of Time" by Robert Herrick
• "Time does not bring relief; you all have lied" by Edna St. Vincent Millay

The 9-10 Text Structure Poetry Bundle includes:

• "[i carry your heart with me (i carry it in]” by E.E. Cummings
• “'Hope’ is the thing with feathers -" by Emily Dickinson
• “Before a Painting” by James Weldon Johnson
• "Social Distancing” by Juan Felipe Herrera
• "Easter Wings” by George Herbert

The 11-12 Inference Poetry Bundle includes:

• "Respiration" by Jamaal May
• "The Summer Day" by Mary Oliver
• "I heard a Fly buzz--when I died" by Emily Dickinson
• "For the Consideration of Poets" by Haki R. Madhubuti
• "You Could Never Take a Car to Greenland" by Maggie Smith

The 11-12 Main Idea Poetry Bundle includes:

• "Tula ['Books are door shaped']" by Margarita Engle
• "To Lucasta, Going to the Wars" by Richard Lovelace
• "A Litany for Survival" by Audre Lorde
• "Burning a Book" by William Stafford
• "Ode to Teachers" by Pat Mora

The 11-12 Text Structure Poetry Bundle includes:

• "If-" by Rudyard Kipling
• “One Art” by Elizabeth Bishop
• "One-Word Poem" by David R. Slavitt
• “Deer Dance Exhibition” by Ofelia Zepeda
• "God's Grandeur" by Gerard Manley Hopkins

The 11-12 Story Elements Bundle includes:

• "Old Love" by Pat Mora
• "December" by Jaquira Diaz
• "Long Distance II" by Tony Harrison
• "Introduction to Poetry" by Billy Collins
• "Miniver Cheevy" by Edwin Arlington Robinson

Keep in touch and get more great ideas for teaching secondary ELA!

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Check out these related posts on Moore English

4 Steps for Pre-Reading Poetry

How Not to Kill a Love of Poetry

Make the Most of Poetry Instruction by Teaching Meter

5 Lessons to Make the Most of Poetry in the Classroom

Credit for Comments

Thank you for downloading this product. I’d love your feedback, and for each rating and comment you provide, TpT will give you credit toward a future purchase! Login in to your TpT account, click My Purchases, and beside each purchase, you’ll find a link to Provide Feedback! Rate, comment, and earn TpT credit! Let me know how you use this product in your classroom, what resources I should work on next, and ideas you have for Moore English.

Artwork by Pigknit.