NEW! Lesson Plans from NEH Teachers 2009

In 2009 the Emily Dickinson Museum hosted a National Endowment for the Humanities Landmarks of American History and Culture Workshop for Schoolteachers.  Below are links to five lesson plans developed by participants. 

photo by Steve Fratoni

Teachers transcribe a Dickinson poem

ELEMENTARY

• Emily Dickinson’s Poetry: The Senses Create a Vision

SECONDARY

• Editing Emily's Way:  An Exercise in Diction and Its Implications
• "No Prisoner Be": Exploring Freedom and Limitation in the Work of Emily Dickinson
• Dickinson’s “Loaded” Words: A Critical Essay Assignment
• Emily Dickinson:  Luminous Letters

DICKINSON TEXTS:  All lesson plans refer to specific texts by Emily Dickinson.  In most cases, for copyright reasons, the full texts of poems are not included with the lesson plans. Each teacher provides a list of resources with the lesson plan.

TO VIEW LESSON PLANS:  Lesson plans are saved as PDFs.  Click here to download the latest version of Adobe Reader.

COPYRIGHT:  These educators have kindly made these lesson plans available for the use of all teachers, but all publication and distribution rights are reserved.   Inquires to individual teachers can be directed to info@emilydickinsonmuseum.org.  Please include "question for educator" in the subject line.

FEEDBACK:  We would be delighted to hear about your experiences with these lesson plans, or about your own ideas!   Please e-mail us.

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Emily Dickinson’s Poetry: The Senses Create a Vision 

Grade 4

Diane Moller, Library Media Specialist, Lewisboro Elementary School, South Salem, NY    

Emily Dickinson’s poetry was integral to her environment. While her themes are universal, readers can get a unique understanding of her poetry by understanding where and how she lived. Her poetry appeals to the senses with her use of precise language. Hearing her poetry helps to illuminate her words and deepen our understanding of her work. At the end of this unit, students will be able to explain how Emily Dickinson’s life influenced the themes in her poetry. They will also be able to create a digital representation of one of Emily Dickinson’s poems using the program Photostory3 with appropriate images and music. Students will be able to mark a poem for words that evoke the senses.

For complete lesson plan, click Emily Dickinson’s Poetry: The Senses Create a Vision (PDF 5 files, 18 pages total, 336 KB)

To view three student samples, click here.

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Editing Emily's Way:  An Exercise in Diction and Its Implications 

Grades 9-12, literature classes, writing classes, creative writing classes

Cynthia Storrs, The Classical Academy, Colorado Spring, CO

In this series of lessons, students will examine the poetry of Emily Dickinson and explore the diction of poetry: how words change not only meaning, but tone and style. They will experience the differences made by word choice, and propose reasons for editorial choices made in Dickinson’s work. In classrooms where students compose their own poetry, students can also repeat the experimentation with their poetry, and dialogue with fellow writers about what would be the best word choices for their poetry, and why.  

For complete lesson plan, click Editing Emily's Way:  An Exercise in Diction and Its Implications (PDF 1 file, 4 pages, 66 KB) 

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"No Prisoner Be": Exploring Freedom and Limitation in the Work of Emily Dickinson 

Grade 11 Honors American literature

Rosemary Loomis, Lexington High School, Lexington MA

This 7-day unit gives students the opportunity to study and understand Dickinson and her work from a variety of perspectives. Students will reflect on the topic of Freedom and Limitation, learn something of Dickinson's relationship to that topic, discover poems of Dickinson on that topic, interpret and analyze those poems, and produce original poems that “echo” some of Dickinson's style. While the lesson can be adapted, it is preferable that both teacher and students have access to computers and the Internet for maximum impact.

For complete lesson plan, click "No Prisoner Be": Exploring Freedom and Limitation in the Work of Emily Dickinson (PDF 3 files, 11 pages total, 136 KB) 

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Dickinson’s “Loaded” Words: A Critical Essay Assignment 

Grades 11-12

Elizabeth Sokolov, The Madeira School, MacLean, VA    

This assignment is a critical essay where students will craft an argument that traces Dickinson’s intellectual, spiritual, or emotional journey using a recurrent and meaningful word across three of her poems.

For complete lesson plan, click Dickinson’s “Loaded” Words: A Critical Essay Assignment (PDF, 1 file, 5 pages, 45 KB)

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Emily Dickinson:  Luminous Letters 

Grades 11-12

Courtney Rein and Jonathan Howland, The Urban School, San Francisco, CA    

Dickinson’s letters comprise form of self-publication, even as her poems constitute a form of private inquiry, a conversation with the self. The learning goal is to help students construct an understanding of these overlapping dimensions of Dickinson’s poetry and persona.

Students will read selected letters and poems of Emily Dickinson and construct their own understanding of the ideas and questions at play therein.

For complete lesson plan, click Emily Dickinson:  Luminous Letters (PDF, 1 file, 6 pages, 465 KB) 

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Lesson Ideas: Exploring Language

Emily Dickinson wrote almost 1800 poems, so where does an educator begin? Here are some suggestions from teachers who have successfully taught Dickinson's poetry:

Word Cloud image from http://www.wordle.net/

Dickinson's Vocabulary

• Focus on words. Make a teacher-generated or a student-generated "Dickinson vocabulary list." What words does she use often? Are these words that the students know and/or use? If not, have them look up their dictionary definitions. Do these definitions seem to fit the way Dickinson uses the words? Older students may want to check their definitions against definitions from the Emily Dickinson Lexicon.

Imagery

• Read a Dickinson poem aloud to the class. Have them make a "bubble map" of words and then write a response to the images that they find most intriguing in the poem. The response can be either a poem or a paragraph.
• Dickinson's poems are full of distinct visual imagery, although she also leaves much to the imagination. Have students select and illustrate a Dickinson poem.
• A good poem to discuss the use of metaphor and symbol is "Blazing in Gold and Quenching in Purple" (Fr321), a description of a sunset.

Abstract and Concrete: "Definition" and "Riddle" Poems

• Emily Dickinson wrote many poems that are "definitions," in which she describes something abstract with something concrete. Have the students read several of these poems and compare Dickinson's "definitions" with a dictionary's definitions of the words. What does a poetic example bring to the meaning? How does it illuminate the word in ways that the dictionary might not. Why might Dickinson have written poems like these? Have students choose an abstract word and then write a prose definition and a poetic definition.
"Death is a Dialogue between” (Fr973)
"Doom is the house without the door” (Fr710)
"Exhilaration is the breeze” (Fr1157)
"Experience is the angled Road” (Fr899)
"Faith is the pierless Bridge” (Fr978)
"Fame is a bee” (Fr1788)
"Fame is a fickle food” (Fr1702)
"Glory is that bright tragic thing” (Fr1700)
"God is a distant - stately Lover” (Fr615)
"Grief is a Mouse” (Fr753)
"Hope is a strange invention” (Fr1424)
"Hope is a subtle glutton” (Fr1493)
"Hope" is the things with feathers" (Fr321)
"Noon – is the Hinge of Day” (Fr1060)
"Paradise is that old Mansion” (Fr1144)
"Presentiment - is that long shadow -bon the Lawn” (Fr487)
"The Lightning is a yellow Fork” (Fr1140)
"Wonder is – not precisely knowing” (Fr1347)
• Dickinson also wrote so-called "riddle poems" These are not unlike her "definition" poems, except that they do not state explicitly what the poem is describing. What are these about? Have students write a riddle poem.
"I like to see it lap the miles” (a train) (Fr383)
"A narrow fellow in the grass” (a snake) (Fr1096)
"It sifts from leaden sieves” (snow) (Fr291)
"A route of evanescence” (hummingbird) (Fr1489)

Dickinson in Translation

• Emily Dickinson is popular throughout the world, and her work has been translated into many languages.  Foreign language teachers might have students translate a Dickinson poem. What words were difficult to translate? What about the syntax? Why was it difficult? What was easy?

Lesson Ideas: Interpreting Poetry Out Loud

Emily Dickinson's poetry lends itself well to oral interpretation in the classroom. Dickinson herself was known to have recited her poems to relatives while she worked in the Homestead pantry, and one of her earliest editors was convinced of her work's value only after someone read them aloud to him.

Teachers have found that students respond well to learning a Dickinson poem and sharing it out loud with classmates.  Here are some approaches to help students share Dickinson's poetry, and their knowledge of her life, aloud.

• Have students work up an oral interpretation of one of Dickinson's poems. How does this differ from just reading it aloud? What words will they need to emphasize? What is the ultimate point of the poem? Experiment with  several readings of the same poem. Compare how different students read the poem.
• Have students create and perform a Readers' Theater of Dickinson's life, or some aspect of it that intrigues them. Perform it for others in the class or for another class.

Lesson Ideas: Studying Biography

Because Emily Dickinson's life and work are intimately connected, introducing the person behind the poems to students can be a powerful way to make connections.

However, students also need to understand that Dickinson's poems should not be read as autobiography. Poetry may be informed by, and is often a reflection on, personal experience, but it should not be read as a diary. Educators should keep this in mind as they talk with their students about Dickinson and her work.

Here are some ideas for introducing Dickinson's biography:

• Examine Dickinson's Family Tree and A Timeline of Emily Dickinson's Life. Make a chart of what the class knows about Emily Dickinson and what the class would like to know.
• Read aloud or have students read silently an age-appropriate biography about Emily Dickinson. Possibilities include Emily Dickinson: American Poet by Carol Greene (appropriate for upper elementary) and Emily Dickinson by Connie Ann Kirk (secondary).
• Read and discuss several Dickinson letters or excerpts from letters. What do these letters reveal about Emily Dickinson's life and personality?
• View and analyze a biographical video or videos on Dickinson's life and times. Good ones to begin with are The Poet in Her Bedroom (2008) and Loaded Gun: Life, Death, and Dickinson (2002), both of which are most appropriate for middle and high school.
• Discuss how the students' lives are similar to and different from Dickinson's. How typical do they think her life was for the times? How much is it alike or unlike their own today?
• Introduce students to Dickinson's daily life by baking her gingerbread, doing a project related to plants, or writing a poem.

Lesson Ideas: Thinking about Place

View of the Homestead from Emily Dickinson Museum garden

Related Topics: About Dickinson's Writings: An Introduction Emily Dickinson's Letters Emily Dickinson and Gardening Resources & Bibliography

Emily Dickinson's poetry works well in interdisciplinary studies, especially with science. An astute observer of nature, Dickinson reveals in her poetry an intimate knowledge of the natural world and an understanding of the process of scientific discovery. Her strong sense of place, too, offers an opportunity to consider how one's environment affects a person's outlook and approach to life as well as to art.

• Emily Dickinson saw "New Englandly." Her phrase reflects a strong sense of place. Ask students what they think this means. Have students read the poem "The Robin's my Criterion for Tune" (Fr256). How might Dickinson's poem been different if she had lived in their state or region?
• Plant a garden with flowers that Emily Dickinson mentions in her poetry and letters.
• As a class, make an herbarium. Have students write a poem about one of the flowers.
• Dickinson was a weather watcher. Establish a time of day or week in the classroom when students look out the window to observe the weather (or go outside). Have students write about the weather and collect these poems into a classroom "weather poetry book." Here are just a few poems that Dickinson wrote about different weather events: "The Wind took up the Northern Things" (Fr1152), "A Visitor in Marl" (Fr558), and "The Lightning is a yellow Fork" (Fr1140).
• Emily Dickinson observed the seasons very carefully. Have students write about their favorite season, or write poems throughout the year about the seasons.

Curriculum ideas courtesy of Marta McDowell, landscape historian.

"Starter" Poems

Poems to Use in the Classroom

The following poems have been successfully used with a variety of age levels: 

"I heard a Fly buzz" Fr591
"It was a given to me by the Gods" Fr455
"There's a certain Slant of Light" Fr320
"I'm Nobody" Fr260
"Blazing in Gold and Quenching in Purple" Fr321
"Hope is the things with feathers" Fr321
"The Moon was but a Chin of Gold” Fr735
"I like to see it lap the Miles” Fr383
"Bee! I'm expecting you!” Fr983
"A narrow Fellow in the Grass” Fr1096
"The Brain is wider than the Sky” Fr598
"The Robin's my Criterion for Tune" Fr256

PLEASE NOTE: Dickinson titled few of her poems, so they are generally referred to by first line. The number following each first line above refers to the most recent edition of Dickinson’s work, The Poems of Emily Dickinson, ed. by R. W. Franklin (Harvard University Press, 1998). It is available in a reading edition published in 1999. Dickinson’s poems do remain under copyright. Many versions found on the Internet are taken from earlier versions of her work that are heavily edited. A source that does include some Dickinson texts taken from the Franklin edition can be found at http://poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/155.

Lesson Ideas: Writing Assignments

Writing Assignments

• Emily Dickinson was VERY serious about being a poet. Her poem "It was given to me by the Gods" (Fr455) can make a powerful connection with students about the power of their own gifts and talents. Have students use this poem to discuss Dickinson's sense of being a poet and as a prompt to write about their own gifts.
• Emily Dickinson described herself in a letter: "[I] am small, like the Wren, and my Hair is bold, like the Chestnut Bur - and my eyes, like the Sherry in the Glass, that the Guest leaves" (L269). So few words give her recipient an ample verbal portrait, but they also reveal other things about her. Discuss this description with your students, then challenge them to write a similarly concise but creative description of themselves.
• Have students choose a favorite Dickinson poem and use a line from it as a prompt for students to write their own poems and make their own fascicles.
• Emily Dickinson wrote "Tell all the Truth / But tell it slant" (Fr1264). Talk with your students about what this means. Have them write a personal memory but write it "slant." (This writing prompt is available as a PDF with the complete text of the poem.) 
• Have the students write a letter to a friend introducing them to Emily Dickinson.