Ekphrasis: From Photographs to Poems

Merry Ostheimer

This four-week unit will implement the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts, Reading Literature, Writing, Speaking & Listening, and Vocabulary. Emphasis will be placed on acquiring and using unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases and demonstrating understanding of figurative language, word relationships and nuances in word meanings. Students will write poems through reflecting on a photograph that depicts their vocabulary word, thereby enhancing their vocabulary acquisition. By the end of this unit, students will be familiar with writing acrostic, concrete, cinquain, free verse, and narrative poems. With continued poetry journaling, reading, and instruction, students will be ready to write haiku and diamante poems later in the year.