Poetry Activities for Personification w/ Emily Dickinson & 'The Wind'

This all-encompassing resource for poetry analysis explores the riveting literary device of personification through Emily Dickinson's profound poem, "The Wind — tapped like a tired Man." A harmonious combination of guided annotation, literary assessment (in the form of short answer and essay tasks), and an inventive activity of composing poetry offers a dynamic and intriguing dive into the application of personification in literature.

Highly versatile, this material can be employed as bell ringers, brief writing tasks, or even as part of substitute teaching plans, by segmenting it into its various components. Conversely, teachers can effortlessly amalgamate the trio of activities to formulate a structured poetry lesson, potentially spanning 1-2 weeks, thus allowing students to deeply engage with the mesmerizing application of personification in the literary world.

Teaching this resource is simple! Start by presenting and discussing the poem with the poem analysis activity, which makes an excellent bell ringer. Then, give students time to complete the guided annotation activity and answer the analysis question that accompany the lesson (answer key included!). Next, students have the opportunity to write their own poem using the poetic concept analyzed earlier. Finally, you can assess students understanding of the poem and its poetic concepts with a literary analysis essay. That essay assignment comes with a prompt, writing tips, peer review, and Common Core-aligned rubric!

Your TeachSimple download includes:

• A POEM ANALYSIS ACTIVITY: Give students the opportunity to read Emily Dickinson's “The Wind — tapped like a tired Man” (text included) and analyze the poem via an annotation activity and accompanying analysis questions (answer key included). Ideal for a bell ringer!

• A CREATIVE WRITING ASSIGNMENT: Provide students the opportunity to further develop their understanding of personification with a creative poem writing assignment (tied to one Common Core Writing Standard). Ideal for sub plans!

• A LITERARY ANALYSIS ESSAY: This essay assignment builds on students' thematic understanding of personification and Emily Dickinson's “The Wind — tapped like a tired Man” The assignment handout includes essay guidelines, analysis prompt, literary analysis writing tips, and a peer review checklist. The included rubric is tied to 4 Common Core ELA Standards and includes a link to an editable rubric that allows for grading customization and seamless integration into Google Classroom and many other Learning Management Systems (LMS's)

Although this resource can be fitted for any secondary Language Arts classroom, it has been carefully designed to work best in grades 9 through 12. The included rubric is subtly but specifically tied to Common Core ELA Standards for Language (1 and 2) and Writing (2 and 4). This resource is provided in print-ready, bookmarked, and adjustable PDF files and PowerPoint Show files.

This resource contains 5 pages and 1 Google Sheet.