Asian American Pacific Islander Women Poetic Elements
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Provided by: AAPI History Hub|Published on: March 12, 2026
Lesson PlansScientist Reviewed
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Synopsis
- This five-lesson unit from AAPI History Hub introduces students to poetic elements using poems by Asian American and Pacific Islander women.
- Students will explore central idea, rhyme, alliteration, repetition, form, metaphors, and similes in poetic works, including one by climate activist Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner.
Subjects: English Language Arts
Authors: The Asian American Education Project
Region: Global
Languages: English
Teaching Materials
Positives
- Students have multiple opportunities for practice with and review of the poetic elements throughout the unit.
- Students will benefit from hearing the stories of these strong women and reading their poetic works.
Prerequisites
- As indicated in the resource, this unit plan can be adapted to cover just one instructional period or stretched over a week.
- Before each lesson, teachers will need to print the worksheets and poems. Alternatively, teachers can open the worksheets in Google Docs to assign using Google Classroom.
- Lesson 1 references unit slides that do not appear to be available. Similarly, the slides linked for Lesson 5 are a repeat of the Lesson 4 slides, rather than the reflection slides. Teachers may want to use the text available to create their own slides to guide instruction.
- Teachers should note that the student worksheets for the poems in Lesson 1 contain only a selection of stanzas, not the entire poem. Teachers will either need to print or project the poem from the “AAPI Women Voices: Untold Stories Through Poetry” story.
- Teachers should note that in the materials section for Lesson 3, the answer key linked is for the Lesson 2 worksheet, not the Poetic Elements worksheet for Lesson 3.
- The Unit Evaluation worksheet is not linked in the materials for Lesson 5, but can be found here.
Differentiation & Implementation
- After hearing about poet Janice Mirikitani, students may have questions or curiosities about internment camps during World War II. Teachers may want to take time during their social studies period or collaborate with the social studies teacher to talk about this aspect of World War II.
- Some teachers may find that Lesson 4 needs to be split between two days, with one day for reviewing and writing the poem and the next day for peer review.
- In this unit, the presentation portion is optional. To address speaking and listening standards, teachers can extend this unit to include class periods where students work on creating and practicing a presentation for their poem.
In this lesson, students will explore Asian American and Pacific Islander women’s thoughts and feelings about their experiences and challenges, including their thoughts about climate change. The lesson primarily focuses on reading, writing, and interpreting poems. When poems mention climate change, the answer sheets provide context about the science. The information presented is accurate, and this resource is recommended for teaching.
Teaching Tips
Standards
Resource Type and Format
Scientist Reviewed
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