Poetry and a Movie

The curriculum provides substantial background knowledge about poets, historical context, and literary periods through biographical and historical information.

Students read biographical, historical, and literary information from sourcebooks, watch videos about poets and their work, and create timelines to understand historical context

The curriculum exposes students to classic poetry from renowned poets, which provides appropriately complex texts for secondary students.

Students study works by William Blake, Edgar Allen Poe, Walt Whitman, Langston Hughes, William Wordsworth, and other canonical poets

Minimal teacher support is provided, with basic guidance in 'A Letter to Parents' but no comprehensive professional development.

The curriculum includes a letter explaining how to use trivia questions and timelines, and provides answer keys for poem markup exercises, but lacks robust teacher training materials

The curriculum relies heavily on independent study through web links and resources rather than direct, explicit instruction.

Lessons present information 'sort of like a smorgasbord' with students potentially skipping sections, and instruction comes primarily through external links to videos and articles

The curriculum includes some writing components but lacks systematic writing instruction across genres.

Students complete writing assignments in 'Your Turn' lessons and write a final essay with instructional links to help with the essay-writing process, but no comprehensive writing program is evident

The curriculum primarily uses excerpts and individual poems rather than whole books, though it does incorporate complete poetry collections and biographical books.

Each unit focuses on selected poems by individual poets, with students reading from books like the 'Poetry for Young People' series (48 pages each) and Poetry Matters by Ralph Fletcher

Some retrieval practice occurs through trivia questions and Khan Academy quizzes, but it's not systematically integrated throughout.

Students create trivia questions from biographical information and can access Khan Academy quizzes and tests, but this appears limited to grammar components

Limited explicit vocabulary instruction, though students encounter rich poetic language and literary terminology.

Students learn about literary devices through links to instructional information and add literary device information to their binders, but no systematic vocabulary building is described

Phonics instruction is not applicable or mentioned for this secondary-level poetry curriculum.

The curriculum targets grades 7-12 and focuses on poetry analysis and literary devices rather than foundational reading skills