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7th grade · English Language Arts · Unit 7 of 13

Poetry Lab

Rhyme, stanzas and speakers

What your child practices

Reading short original poems to find rhyme schemes, count stanzas, identify the speaker, recognize forms like haiku, limerick and free verse, and interpret figurative language and theme.

Arizona Academic Standards learning standard: 7.RL.5 · poetic forms, stanzas and speakers

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Label lines that rhyme with the same letter to find the rhyme scheme: AABB, ABAB.
  2. A stanza is a group of lines. The speaker is the voice in the poem.
  3. Haiku has 3 lines (5, 7, 5 syllables). A limerick is a funny 5-line poem (AABBA). Free verse has no set rhyme or rhythm.

Example: Lines 1 and 2 rhyme, and lines 3 and 4 rhyme. What is the rhyme scheme? Lines 1 and 2 get A. Lines 3 and 4 get B. Answer: AABB

Poetry Lab in Arizona

In the Arizona Academic Standards, this is unit 7 of 13 in 7th grade English Language Arts, after Word Mix-Ups and before Punctuation Power.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Arizona Department of Education

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    Which senses does the poem mainly appeal to?

    Saturday Market

    The baker stacks her golden bread,

    The farmer weighs a pear,

    A fiddle's music twirls and spins

    Like ribbons through the air.

    • Smell and touch
    • Sight and hearing
    • Touch and taste
    • Taste and smell

  2. Question 2

    Which line contains a simile?

    Saturday Market

    The baker stacks her golden bread,

    The farmer weighs a pear,

    A fiddle's music twirls and spins

    Like ribbons through the air.

    • The baker stacks her golden bread,
    • The farmer weighs a pear,
    • Like ribbons through the air.

  3. Question 3

    What is the setting of this poem?

    Saturday Market

    The baker stacks her golden bread,

    The farmer weighs a pear,

    A fiddle's music twirls and spins

    Like ribbons through the air.

    • A busy market
    • A quiet library
    • A school gym
    • A snowy forest

  4. Question 4

    What is the rhyme scheme of this poem?

    The Library Is an Ocean

    The library is an ocean,

    And every shelf a wave;

    I dive in every afternoon

    And surface feeling brave.

    • AABB
    • ABCB
    • ABAB
    • ABBA

  5. Question 5

    What two things does the poem compare?

    The Library Is an Ocean

    The library is an ocean,

    And every shelf a wave;

    I dive in every afternoon

    And surface feeling brave.

    • A book and a boat
    • A shelf and a lunch tray
    • A reader and a fish
    • A library and an ocean

  6. Question 6

    What type of comparison is “The library is an ocean”?

    The Library Is an Ocean

    The library is an ocean,

    And every shelf a wave;

    I dive in every afternoon

    And surface feeling brave.

    • Onomatopoeia
    • Simile
    • Alliteration
    • Metaphor

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