These resources are designed to help teachers use Poems United in the classroom. Lesson plans are each based on a poem from a different part of the world, with a different theme, for example Animals, Crops, Family.

Click on the map to find a resource from a particular area of the world.

1. Introduction
2. Poems from one area of the world
3. Africa / People - 'The ten-day visitor' by Anonymous
4. Americas / Family - 'Wha me mudder do' by Grace Nichols
5. Asia / Crops - 'I am glad to be up and about' by Taufiq Rafat
6. Caribbean / Sounds and Shapes - 'Doodle durdle' by Anonymous
7. Europe / Places - 'Canedolia' by Edwin Morgan
8. Oceania / Animals - 'Joker as told' by Les Murray

Who can use these resources?

These lesson plans are aimed at teachers of pupils aged roughly nine to fourteen (P4-S2).

• The poems should be suitable for children across this range.
• Activities and times may be varied according to the ability of the group.

In this series, poems are used as a stimulus for pupils

• to find out more about individual Commonwealth countries
• to improve their research, reading and writing skills.

References

Poems United: A Commonwealth Anthology
edited by Diana Hendry and Hamish Whyte
Edinburgh: Scottish Poetry Library / Black & White Publishing 2007

ISBN-10: 1845021401
ISBN-13: 978-1845021405

Lesson plans written by Ken Cockburn
Designed, edited and typeset by Mary Hutchison, with illustrations by Iain Macintosh

Published by The Scottish Poetry Library 2007