Interesting unit

I am planning a unit for May that is overwhelming right now. One part of the unit is poetry. I was inspired by the Favorite Poem project -- cool book. A call was made for people to submit their favorite poems -- not written by them -- written by others. They wrote a short explanation as to why it was there favorite poem -- how it touched them. The project group then contacted some of them to create video stories showing why this poem was their favorite -- the dvd is included with the book -- it is a great example for students.

After I immerse students with poetry -- lots of my favorites -- Maya Angelou, Robert Herrick, Pablo Neruda, W.H. Auden, Robert Frost, I have them search for poems that mean something to them. They then write an explanation of how the poem relates or touches them. HERE IS THE TWIST this year...along with doing this fun project, I will be helping the Science teacher...students will be writing letters to politicians --- topic: global warming. They have to write a letter to the politicians telling them they either think it is happening and why or why they do not believe it is happening. So, we will be writing persuasive letters and researching environmental issues while studying poetry. I decided to make the poetry focus the environment!! We will see if this works! I am trying to find poetry by established poets that deals with environmental issues --- I am using John Denver. This is the thought now -- I still have until May!!