📜

Poetry Trainer

Read poems the way poets read them, then write your own. Pick your grade, start at #1, and use Next → to flow through, ending at your Poetry Workshop.

▶ Grades K–3 ▶ Grades 4–6 ▶ High school
Grades K–3 · first poems
1
What Is a Poem?
Lines, stanzas, the beat, reading out loud.
drill
2
Rhyme and Sound
Rhyming pairs, same starting sounds, sound words.
drill
3
Picture Words
See it, hear it, feel it. Comparing with "like".
drill
4
Rhythm and Beat
Clap the beat. Fast lines, slow lines.
drill
5
Patterns and Repeats
Lines that come back, and why poets repeat.
drill
6
A Poem Tells a Story
Who, where, what happens, in a poem.
drill
7
Feelings in Poems
The mood, and how words make it.
drill
8
The Poem's "I"
The speaker, the big idea, and your own poem.
drill
🏆
My Poem Workshop (K–3 capstone)
Plan picture words and sounds, write a little poem, and Fred helps. Your work saves automatically.
→
Grades 4–6 · the poet's tools
1
Reading a Poem
Speaker, lines and stanzas, reading twice, the title.
drill
2
Sound Devices
Rhyme scheme, rhythm, alliteration, onomatopoeia, refrain.
drill
3
Figurative Language
Simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole.
drill
4
Imagery and the Senses
Pictures for the eye, ear, skin, tongue and nose.
drill
5
Mood and Tone
How word choice sets the feeling.
drill
6
The Turn and the Theme
Where the poem changes, and the idea it leaves you.
drill
7
Poem Forms
Haiku, couplet, quatrain, limerick, free verse.
drill
8
Poems That Tell Stories
Narrative poems, and reading one aloud.
drill
🏆
Poetry Workshop (4–6 capstone)
Analyze a real poem step by step, then write your own. Your work saves automatically.
→
Transition to High School · grades 8–12
1
Close Reading
Three readings, speaker vs poet, the ending, annotation.
drill
2
Sound and Form
Meter, rhyme scheme, the sonnet and its volta, enjambment.
drill
3
Imagery and Figures
Extended metaphor, symbol, paradox: choice → effect → meaning.
drill
4
Tone and Shifts
Tone words, connotation, the turn, irony.
drill
5
Symbol, Allusion, Ambiguity
When a poem means more than one thing on purpose.
drill
6
Free Verse and the Modern Line
No rhyme, still craft: the line break, the catalogue, the voice.
drill
7
Poems of Witness
Protest, grief and courage: poems that answer history.
drill
8
"Wild Geese" by Mary Oliver
A modern free-verse poem, read with your own copy beside you.
drill
🏆
Poetry Workshop (HS capstone)
Build a full analysis paragraph on a poem, then write your own. Your work saves automatically.
→

Going on to AP? The high-school band feeds straight into AP Literature, where poetry is Question 1.