These lesson materials were shared by Writing the Community teaching artist Taylor Johnson.

Taylor shares a work packet and a video lesson after Joy Harjo's "Eagle Poem." Play the video narrated by Taylor in class and follow along to bring this ready-to-teach lesson to your classroom. This lesson works as a great addition to a robust poetry unit, or can be used an introductory lesson for poetry.

The video features clips of Joy Harjo sharing thoughts about poetry, the act of writing, and a recitation of "Eagle Poem." Joy, on the topic of writing, mentions that to write effectively we must "get out of the thinking mind,"  and "go beyond what you're thinking."

View the full work packet here: [PDF] [Word Document]

View the video lesson here.

If you found these lesson materials to be helpful, check out our K-12 Lesson Plan archive, which is full of lessons like this from our Writing the Community teaching artists.