Walt Whitman
Lesson plans and teaching ideas

|Biography and Background| |Lesson Plans for Specific Poems|

Biography and Background

American Experience: Walt Whitman
Support for the PBS program, including a timeline and teacher guide.

The Classroom Electric: Dickinson, Whitman, and American Culture
"Users can explore images of original manuscripts, rare photographs, notebooks, scrapbooks, letters, and maps in sites informed by cutting-edge scholarship."

One Life: Walt Whitman, a kosmos
The Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery offers a timeline of Whitman's life, commentary, and audio files of excerpts from "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking" and "America."

Poet at Work: Recovered Notebooks from the Thomas Biggs Harned Walt Whitman Collection
The notebooks have been photographed and loaded onto this Web site at the Library of Congress American Memory section.

Revising Himself: Walt Whitman and Leaves of Grass
This exhibit from the Library of Congress includes biographical information and photographs of Whitman and other artifacts.

Walt Whitman
Biography, images, links to several texts.

Walt Whitman Archive
Manuscripts, criticism, teaching ideas, even an audio file of Whitman reading one of his poems.

Walt Whitman's City
Students read about Whitman and New York in the late 1800's. A follow-up activity encourages students to write poetry about their own towns. This site is designed for grades 4 - 8.

The Whitman Project Main Index
Biography, e-texts, manuscripts, notebooks and letters, reviews.

Lesson Plans for Specific Poems

1900 America: Historical Voices, Poetic Visions
Using Whitman's Song of Myself (1855) and Hart Crane's The Bridge, students examine the historical context of poetry, analyze American life at the turn of the 20th century, and explore poetic technique. Technology is integrated into this lesson.

The First Walt Whitman Poem
Critical commentary on "Time to Come," links to other poems.

Guide to Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass
Biography, introduction, some general analysis, a close reading of "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry," discussion questions, suggested reading, and other resources. This 8-page guide requires Adobe Reader or compatible application for access.

"Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking"
Hypertext of the poem. Links provide popup support for close reading.

"A Passage to India"
Video of the poem, analysis, and teaching tips.

from "A Passage to India"
Teaching tips, discussion questions, and writing ideas. Click on the "Poem Guide" tab for critical commentary.

"Patrolling Barnegat"
Background, analysis, and suggestions for responding to the poem.

Repeat After Us
Audio files and texts of some Whitman poems, including "A Noiseless Patient Spider," "I Hear America Singing," "O Captain! My Captain!" and others. A good site for LD students, ELL students, and for those who read well and might like to record and contribute. Files are in alphabetical order by poet; scroll down.

"Song of Myself"
Hypertext of the poem. Links and color coding provide support for close reading.

Study Questions on Walt Whitman
A collaborative approach to "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer" and questions about "The Death of Abraham Lincoln."

Walt Whitman to Langston Hughes: Poems for a Democracy
Students explore Whitman's poetry, focusing on his views of democracy. Scroll to part 3 to compare and contrast with Langston Hughes.

"When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd"
Hypertext of the poem. Links provide pop-up support for close reading.

Writing Poetry like Pros
This extensive set of lessons includes an activity using Whitman's "I Hear America Singing" in Lesson 1, Group 6.