Dear Poetry Teacher,

I am the elusive English teacher that hates poetry.

Actually, I don't HATE poetry. I love rupi kaur poems, song lyrics, and Pablo Neruda. I just hate everything education has done to ruin poetry. For the kids. For myself. 
Which is why I was a bit hesitant to take on AP Literature and Composition last year - where half the test is poetry! (#cringe)

Nonetheless, I have managed to find my way around the hated scansion and poetic form bits so that I can hate it a little less. For instance, last year we focused on global voices and poets. Below is my little crash course version of the unit.
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Global Voices: The Danger of a Single Story

#1. The Dangers of a Single Story

I LOVE this Ted Talk (almost as much as I just love Chimimanda Adichi, author of Purple Hibiscus and many other terrific novels). 
In the talk, she warns against that a white washing of narrative robs us of a global story. It's a great intro to the unit.

#2. Poetry FRQs

There are two terrific poetry (Question 1) Free Response Questions by foreign born poets that I used with this unit to great success: 2011's "A Story" by Li-Young Lee and "XIV" by Derek Walcott from the 2015 exam. Below are prewriting templates I used with students.

#3. PUrple Hibiscus Prose Analysis

Yes. I realize this isn't really poetry practice, but this is a short prose analysis activity I brought in to review Question 2 as well. 

Prompt

My Sample

Student Sample

#4. COnflict in Poetry

I wanted to review conflict with my students at some point in this lesson last year, so I put together a gallery walk. Below are the poems and the handout they completed:

#5. Abstract Relationships

This is a lesson I added on this year. Another gallery walk, this one is helping students think about the "broader context" that is required of them for the sophistication point. I went through my own sample of analyzing abstract ideas

#6. Emoji Annotation

This was a minilesson I did with students who were struggling to analyze tone. I asked them to bring the lyrics for a song that really moved them. Then, we talked about how emojis are really icons that depict different feelings, or tones.
As you can see, I marked mine up by just quickly drawing the emojis. However, you could also allow them to use their phones. SnapChat would allow them to place emojis right on an image of the poem.

And that's what I got! Like I said, I am a very reluctant poetry teacher, but these activities have worked well for me and my students. Hope it helps!

Sincerely, Cwik