While astronomy and other sciences may be commonly viewed as having little to do with poetry, this lesson unit from ReadWriteThink provides a pathway to combine them. Created with students in grades six to eight in mind, this standards-aligned lesson unit is designed to take place over approximately three weeks, concurrent with an astronomy unit. Over the course of the Astronomy Poetry lessons, students "listen to and discuss poetry that pertains to the study of astronomy and write their own poems to enhance their learning of the subject." Several supplementary resources are available to download, including a sample handout reviewing different poetry forms, a short overview of the poetry writing process for students, and a list of suggested books containing astronomy-themed poems. It also includes a suggested final project for the unit in which students create booklets of their own poetry using ReadWriteThink's free online Printing Press tool. Although this lesson unit uses astronomy as its model, educators who would like to try a cross-disciplinary approach to engage their students should feel free to modify and adapt it to incorporate other disciplines and content areas. This lesson plan was written by Che-Mai Gray, a middle school literacy teacher in Marysville, Washington.
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