Difficulty: Moderately Easy
Instructions
Step1
Start by sharing poetry you have brought. Share poems on a wide variety of topics written in different styles with your students. Your students will have interests all over the place; so you want to make sure to have something that appeals to everyone.
Step2
Have your students react to the poems they read. Mix informal discussion and writing assignments. Keep everything low pressure. Use this as an opportunity to get your students thinking about poetry while evaluating their interests.
Step3
Have each student choose a favorite poem and write a reaction to it. The reaction can be a poem written in the same style, a poem responding to some issue the poet has brought up or even an attempt to rewrite the original poem.
Step4
Have your students give each other feedback. This can either be done in small groups or as a class, depending upon how many people you have.
Step5
Focus on quantity rather than quality at first. This may sound wrong; but most middle school students have little to no experience writing poetry. It is important that they get a lot of practice! Make sure that your students get to try at least one new poetry writing exercise every class.
Step6
Have each student pick one or two favorite poems (more if there is enough time). In addition to having your students give feedback to each other on these poems, meet one on one with each student to discuss her poetry.
Step7
Once the students have finished editing their poems, bind them together into a poetry book, put them up online, or both. Make sure that every student has a copy!
Novice 
