Seventh Graders Dive Deep into Poetry in English Class

There’s a lot of poetry happening in seventh grade English — and it’s more than just rhyme and rhythm.

In a three-week poetry unit, Seventh Grade English Teacher Megan Boyle has students explore poems in dynamic and meaningful ways. Each class begins with a spoken word performance, where students watch and respond through free writing and discussion. From there, daily themes guide the class as they read, annotate, and analyze a range of works.

Students examine literary elements including tone, theme, metaphor, juxtaposition, imagery, and symbolism. But instead of relying on traditional lecture, Boyle’s classroom often runs on student-led discussion using the Harkness method.

“They’re at the point where they can be really independent,” Boyle explains. “They’re able to have thoughtful conversations about the poem on their own.”

Poetry offers a unique opportunity for intensive close reading. Rather than tracking character development across an entire novel, students focus on just 10 or 13 lines at a time — asking why an author chose a specific word, placed a line break in a certain spot, or structured a stanza in a particular way.

“It’s really granular literary analysis,” Boyle says. “We can look at a small piece of text and extract so much meaning from it.”

In addition to analyzing poems, students are also participating in the Upper School’s annual poetry recitation competition. Each seventh grader will select and memorize a famous poem. After spring break, they will recite their chosen pieces, with finalists from each grade performing in front of the entire school.

While much of the school year focuses on structured reading and writing, this unit gives students space to be creative, thoughtful, and expressive. Through close reading, rich discussion, and public speaking, seventh graders are discovering that poetry isn’t just something to study, but it’s something to experience.