Poetry Writing Lesson: Ecocriticism
Lesson Plan
1 hour 30 minutesGrades11, 12English Language Arts
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Learn about our review process →
Written by Christina Cawdery
About this lesson
In this lesson, students explore the concept of ecocriticism, analyze a brief text, and write a short poem with an ecocritical lens.
Step 1 - Inquire: Students take a virtual or actual nature walk and take notes on their observations.
Step 2 - Investigate: Students learn about literary criticism, take notes on ecocriticism, and analyze a short story through the lens of ecocriticism.
Step 3 - Inspire: Students write a short poem using notes from their nature walk and write a brief artist statement through the lens of ecocriticism.
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Positives
- This lesson aligns with Hawai‘i’s Nā Hopena A'o HĀ-Breat Framework.
- This lesson provides multiple opportunities for student choice. Students choose the type of poem they write and the emotion they wish to convey.
- This lesson allows students to use SEL skills like mindfulness when they are on their nature walk.
- This lesson has multiple opportunities for collaboration and sharing, such as writing artist statements and analyzing the short story.
Additional Prerequisites
- Students should have a solid understanding of and ability to identify literary devices.
- Students should be able to analyze texts to consider how the author’s choices affect the audience.
Differentiation
- Students can analyze the short story in small groups.
- Teacher can clarify the guidelines for the poem if needed.
- Teacher can require students to write a particular type of poem (e.g., haiku, sonnet).
- Teacher can consider publishing the student poems in a school newspaper or literary magazine.
From the scientist review
The way humans view and interact with nature may change as a result of climate change. This lesson allows students to write a poem to evoke a feeling in the reader about nature in order to encourage them to take climate action. By coming up with original ways to write about nature, they will develop the fundamental abilities needed to become ecocritics. After thoroughly fact-checking all the information, this lesson passed our review in terms of science.
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About the teacher writer
Christina Cawdery
Middle School Teacher
Christina Torres Cawdery is a middle-grade English educator at Punahou School in Honolulu, HI. In addition to teaching, Christina is a writer whose work has appeared in places like ASCD, Edutopia, Learning for Justice, NCTE's Council Chronicle, and Education Week. She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in English at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.
