What does Valentine’s Day look like in your school or classroom? Is it an all-out festival of pinks and reds with hearts? Maybe a cupid or two with a hefty influx of chocolate – maybe as candygrams?
I’m all for bringing in seasonal elements into secondary ELA! No one can tell me teenagers don’t love chocolate or candy hearts! But how might we include Valentine’s Day without it being an empty celebration of romance – a treacherous subject for many a teenage (and adult) heart?
Here are five activities for Valentine’s Day that have worked well in my high school classes!
Candy Heart Haikus
This first of five activities for Valentine’s Day incorporates a simple poetry technique. I do love a good excuse to bring in more poetry! And haikus with a ration of candy hearts can make for an added level of engagement.
Go over the structure of a haiku with students – the traditional 5-7-5 syllabic breakdown. Share a few poems, including those by Matsuo Basho, the poet considered the greatest and most prolific writer of haiku. Students could also read the entry from the Poetry Foundation about Basho and some of his poems (wikipedia includes quite a few in Japanese and with accompanying translations). Then, have students draft a few of their own haiku about love, romance, friendship, Valentine’s Day, feelings in general or whatever strikes them related to the season. Each candy heart is a syllable. Use pencil on the side without the stamped words, since it seems to stick better than pen. Make sure to provide a few extra hearts for a rough draft or in case of errors… or snacking!
A few years ago candy hearts were in short supply so I made a digital and printable version that you can check out here.
Love Poems Beyond the Usual
She Walks in Beauty by Lord Byron and How Do I Love Thee? by Elizabeth Barrett Browning were the poems my teacher would bring out in high school around Valentine’s Day. And while I still appreciate those poems there are so many contemporary examples that could be used to share different facets of love beyond just the traditional hetero romance.
Check out this list of different types of love from the Poetry Foundation.
Read and Write an Ode to Something You Love
Another way to incorporate poetry is to consider writing an ode to something. You might be familiar with traditional odes such as Keats’ Ode on A Grecian Urn but look to more contemporary examples such as Pablo Neruda’s Elemental Odes. (You can access copies to print here from page 93-on). A personal favorite is Ode To My Socks. And check out Lucille Clifton’s homage to my hips, which you can listen to here.
If you want to have your students write odes, here’s a digital or printable activity all about odes. This lesson introduces the history and structure with an examination of traditional and contemporary ones, before asking students to write their own ode.
And here’s a digital and printable twist on love poetry using the blazon, which is basically a poem of compliments! Explore the history and structure in a brief info text, then analyze a sonnet – similarly structured to a blazon – before writing a blazon as a series of compliments to someone or something!
Contemporary YA Short Story Option
Weight by Dhonielle Clayton starts with the line “Every heart tells a story” and thus begins the story of two hearts. Grace and Marcus or Marcus and Grace are the featured couple who are at the Heart Scale Centre to have their hearts’ stories told to see whether it includes each other long term. In the end they have to decide whether they trust their feelings or if they want to rely on the results of the test.
It’s a good character study since the perspective shifts at times from Grace to Marcus. It offers a tight plot structure that could be traced out by students. And it raises questions about what love is and types of love and how one should be if/when they’re in love. It makes for great conversation!
A great anthology with contemporary YA stories that feature romance is Meet Cute. You can read a review of it here from Samantha in Secondary.
Info Texts about Loving Yourself
And one of the final activities for Valentine’s Day is one that shifts from romantic love to more self-appreciation with a focus on some social emotional learning (SEL). The lesson includes a variety of Teen Vogue articles with guided questions for written responses or class discussion. A quick search on Teen Vogue for articles related to self-love, self-acceptance, loving yourself, or even Valentine’s Day will provide a bunch of options. Many of the articles can work at any time of year but these still work for Valentine’s Day and do so without relying on romantic love as the core idea in each article.
You can check out a digital and printable version of three articles with prompts. It also includes directions for a reflection activity to record 9 things to love about yourself and then to write a love letter to yourself using future.me.
Related articles
- Letter to Your Future Self – a teacher reflection exercise
- Other ideas for using poetry during the year: 3 Ideas for Poetry Creation in Everyday ELA Lessons and Poetry Creation and Risk Taking in ELA
