The Rose that Grew from Concrete by Tupac Shakur (ESL Suitable!)

This product includes a printable student handout as well as a detailed, step-by-step instruction guide for teachers.

After completing a warm-up activity (photo included with lesson plan), students will review common poetic devices and work together to create their own examples. Then, students will listen to several different readings of Tupac Shakur’s famous poem ’ The Rose that Grew from Concrete’ before having the chance to analyze the artist’s work on a deeper level. Instructions for how to access the external sources have been included in the lesson plan.

To wrap up the activity, students will watch an short video advertisement based on Tupac’s poem and complete a free response in their writing journals about what they see in the film. Total teaching time is between 60-90 minutes, depending on whether you conduct the final part of the lesson as an in-class or at-home assignment.

This is a lesson I have used with 14-15 year old ESL students at the B1-B2 English level; however, it would also work well with native English speakers between 7th-10th grade. If you have any questions or doubts, please don’t hesitate sending me a message! Happy teaching everyone!