This ready-to-use poetry unit breaks down the most essential types of poems for middle school students—while building their skills in literary analysis, creative writing, and speaking & listening.
You’ll guide students through seven scaffolded mini-lessons that introduce and explore haikus, limericks, acrostics, odes, narrative poems, and ballads—plus poetry terms and structure. Each lesson includes done-for-you slides, interactive student pages, mentor poem examples, and a hands-on task where students analyze and write in that form.
By the end of the unit, students will:
- Understand key poetic devices and structural elements
- Identify and analyze various types of poems
- Write their own original poems using mentor models
- Apply their learning in an engaging end-of-unit assessment
This 7-day unit is designed to help your 6th–8th grade students explore poetic structure and style while writing their own creative works. Whether you're looking for a low-prep poetry introduction or a focused skill-building unit, this resource is flexible enough for whole-class, small group, or station-based instruction.
🔍 Overview of the Unit Structure:
Each lesson dives into a different poetic form—giving students meaningful exposure to a wide range of poetic structures and techniques. Over the course of this unit, students will study and write:
- Haikus
- Limericks
- Acrostic poems
- Odes
- Narrative poems
- Ballads
The unit also includes a foundational lesson on poetry terms and devices, plus an assessment day for students to apply their learning. Lessons are structured to be completed in one day each but can be stretched or condensed based on your schedule.
What’s Included:
- 7 fully-planned mini-lessons
- Teaching slides for each lesson (PDF + digital)
- Student worksheets + examples
- End-of-unit poetry assessment
- Interactive review and writing tasks
💡 Tips for Implementation:
- Kick off the unit with the “Intro to Poetry Terms” to build vocabulary and confidence.
- Encourage creativity and flexibility—students will thrive when given voice and choice in their writing.
- Use the final assessment to review key concepts or as a performance task showcasing their growth as poets.
🎯 Standards-Aligned:
This unit is aligned to Common Core literature and writing standards for grades 6–8, covering skills like analyzing poetic structure, word choice, tone, and figurative language.
Lessons at a Glance:
- Introduction to Poetry Terms + Vocabulary
- Types of Poems: Haikus
- Types of Poems: Limericks
- Types of Poems: Acrostic
- Types of Poems: Odes
- Types of Poems: Narrative Poems
- Types of Poems: Ballads
- Application + Assessments
Perfect as a standalone poetry unit or a supplement to your existing curriculum, this resource makes poetry fun, approachable, and standards-aligned—without requiring hours of prep.
Simply print the student pages or assign digitally, display the slides, and teach!
TEACHERS LIKE YOU SAID…
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Brandi G. says, "Best unit ever! I never really loved teaching poetry that much, but this unit changed my mind! I love that you can do a great book club option for poetry in verse and I feel it kept my students engaged and motivated to keep reading because we did the book Crossover. Amazing unit! A must have!"
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Nancy M. says, "We have just finished this unit and my students and I both LOVED it! Your unit is so well organized and thorough and really helps develop a solid foundation of poetry vocabulary and strategies while exposing them to multiple novels throughout the unit (their own as well as the mentor text in class). I appreciate the models of each skill for students and the building up of difficulty (for example, examining structure early in the novel and building up to comparing structure in multiple poems). It was a fabulous month of instruction and so thorough--while you could certainly add outside resources or activities, none are needed to offer a thorough, challenging, engaging learning experience! Thank you!!"
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Mallory H. says, "This is an amazing way to get students engaged with poetry and it's super fun too. Not only did my students love it, but it was so fun to teach and work along with them too. This was also amazing because it was so well prepared that I did not have to do much extra work at all! I loved this and will use it again! "
