Produced for K-12 educators, Teach This Poem features one poem a week from our online poetry collection, accompanied by interdisciplinary resources and activities designed to help teachers quickly and easily bring poetry into the classroom. The series is written by our Educator in Residence, Dr. Madeleine Fuchs Holzer, and is available for free via email.
Featured Poem
Harper's Bazar: Thanksgiving
Harper’s Bazar: Thanksgiving, Louis John Rhead (American, born England, 1857–1926). Date: 1894. Medium: Lithograph. Dimensions: Mount: 19 1/4 x 14 1/4 inches. Credit: Leonard A. Lauder Collection of American Posters, Gift of Leonard A. Lauder, 1984. www.metmuseum.org.
Classroom Activities
- Show your students the image of the Harper’s Bazar Thanksgiving cover, published in 1894. Ask them to write down what they notice about the cover, such as the colors, lines, shapes, etc. What associations do they have with this cover?
- Ask your students to get into small groups to share how they celebrate Thanksgiving in their homes. Have each group choose a reporter to tell the whole class the ways in which the group members celebrate. Write these ways on the board.
- Ask two of your students to read the poem “América” aloud, one after the other. While they are reading, the listening students should circle the things that jump out at them.
- Ask your students to read the poem silently to themselves. What else jumps out at them? How is this poem related to the Harper’s Bazar cover? What is the poem saying to them? Does this poem connect to the ways they celebrate Thanksgiving? If so, how?