Unit of work: The Poetry of Things We Love

This unit, taught to a high ability Year 8 (13-14 years) class, is suitable for high-school students of all ages. It focuses on the poetry of loved things: people; food; objects, and experiences, and presents both traditional forms (the ode, the sonnet), and free-form contemporary poetry. Structured into eight parts, the unit covers:

• Love is in the head
• I love this feeling
• Things we love - stuff
• More Stuff
• I love eating
• I love you
• I love doing this
• Poetry, and loving it
  There is also an assessment paper requiring written responses to three poems.
  Students are introduced to poetic and literary concepts such as the four types of love, modern materialism, and parody. The written responses cover comprehension, analysis, personal discussion and evaluation, creative writing, and comparison with other provided poems.

Please note: because recent works are protected by copyright, it is prohibitively expensive to place the texts themselves in the unit. However, to share the love of these poems, teachers should visit thecraftofwriting.org and look at the downloadable document indicated in the menu bar.