Valentine’s Day season is upon us, and it’s a great time of year to engage students in key skills exercises and lessons in a high-interest format. Check out these EIGHT activities and lessons for Valentine’s Day season in secondary ELA.
Analyzing Famous Love Letters
The "Famous Love Letters" activity by Bespoke ELA is an activity in which students will read famous love letters and make observations about how the writers use language, literary and rhetorical devices, and imagery to convey messages about love. In this lesson, students are to:
Research the relationship of the famous person who wrote the letter, read each love letter, and then answer the three close reading questions for each one. Consider splitting the class into groups to read and discuss each letter. There are a total of TEN love letters included in this lesson, but you may pick and choose which ones you would like to use with your students.
Synthesize their findings by debating which love letter is the most effective in communicating its message about love. Students will fill out the "Famous Love Letters" Debate Guide for their selected love letter and discuss their selections with the class.
Use the "Love Letter Task Cards" to write their own love letters and write an explication paragraph in which they explain how they use devices to communicate a thematic message about love.
After writing their own original love letters, students can give them to a friend, or you may opt to have students do a "blind swap" in class. As an extension activity, students can analyze the language, literary devices, and imagery of their classmates' love letters.
Consider providing craft supplies for your students to decorate their love letters, and they can hang them around the room or display them on a bulletin board to celebrate Valentine's Day during the month of February. Click here to find out more about this activity for Valentine’s Day.
Valentine to a Favorite Character
For this activity, students select a literary character that they admire, like, or even love. Students then create a valentine for their literary character that expresses their feelings about the character. Students can hang these around the room as a means to show their appreciation for these literary characters while completing a fun, creative activity. You can find a FREE GUIDE for this activity by logging into the Freebie Library. Subscribe here to receive the password and unlock the FREEBIE section of BespokeClassroom.com.
Analyzing Famous Love Poems & Song Lyrics
Valentine season makes a perfect time for a poetry unit on the theme of love. Students can study poems for how they communicate a focused thematic argument about the topic of love and then share their analysis with the class. Here are some of my favorite love poems and song lyrics to engage students in the topic of love for Valentine’s Day. Note that these selections span various types of love from self-love to love between friends, etc.
Poems
“Sonnet 116” by William Shakespeare
“When I Die I Want Your Hands on my Eyes”— Pablo Neruda
“I carry your heart with me (i carry it in my heart)”— e.e. cummings
“How Do I Love Thee? — Elizabeth Barrett Browning
“Love’s Language”— Ella Wheeler Wilcox
“I am Not Yours”— Sara Teasdale
“A Dream Girl”— Carl Sandburg
“A Valentine”— Edgar Allan Poe
Songs
“The Freshmen”— The Verve Pipe
“The Scientist”— Coldplay
“Something”— George Harrison/ The Beatles
“The House That Built Me”— Miranda Lambert
“Friday I’m in Love”— The Cure
“Good Feeling”— Flo Rider
“Stereo Hearts”— Gym Class Heroes Ft. Adam Levine
Ted Talk Video Analysis
The Valentine’s Day season also presents itself as a great time to target listening skills by using Ted Talks in the classroom. Here are some interesting episodes that relate to Valentine’s Day to use in your secondary ELA classes:
There are so many other great Ted Talks out there where these come from. Be sure to download and print the “Ted Talk Listening Guide” Freebie from the Bespoke ELA Freebie Library! Click here to login or subscribe.
Class Holiday Debates
Valentine’s Day season also presents itself with a high-interest topic for in-class debates and discussions. Some of the questions to debate about this holiday include:
Has the meaning of Valentine’s Day been lost to consumerism?
Agree or Disagree. Valentine’s Day is an overrated holiday.
Agree or Disagree. Schools should be allowed to celebrate Valentine’s Day.
Consider having students generate their own debate and discussion questions for the Valentine’s season. They can even turn their discussions into persuasive essays that involve their own personal opinions about Valentine’s Day.
Valentine’s Day Infographics
Students can find and research their own interesting angle on Valentine’s Day— its history, economical implications, meaning around the world, etc. Have students brainstorm a list of topics surrounding the holiday of Valentine’s Day and then let them display their researched findings on an infographic. Be sure to check out the infographic templates from Canva.com. They are super user-friendly. Afterwards, you can even have some of their infographics printed into posters to place around the unit during the month of February. Students will be engaged in the process of researching a high-interest topic and using technology to create a display.
Love Triangle Activity
Oftentimes, a story involves three characters that are in love with one another (or pursue one another) at different points in the plot. This is called a “love triangle” and is a common motif in stories (and sometimes this “love triangle” is quite bizarre —pun intended for the 80’s audience). In this activity, students will consider the “love triangle” of a piece of literature that involves three characters who are in love or lust with one another in varying combinations. For example, one of the most popular “love triangles” in recent pop culture is that of Bella, Edward, and Jacob in the Twilight series. At different points, Bella shows feelings for both Edward and Jacob who, in turn, show feelings for her. As with the Twilight series, the“love triangle” propels the plot by creating tension and conflict in the story and by forcing the protagonist to make decisions. In the case of Twilight, Bella is forced to choose between Edward and Jacob, which causes her character to become conflicted at different points in the story and also to confront feelings of jealousy and rejection.
In the “Love Triangle” Activity, students will consider the “love triangle” in a piece of literature in order to assess the dynamics of the relationships among the three characters involved. They will also consider how the “love triangle” motif affects other literary elements in the story such as conflict, plot, and characterization.
Find this activity a a FREE download in the Freebie Library :)
Valentine’s Day Grammar & Spelling Fails
Any holiday provides the opportunity to point out grammar and spelling fails in the real world and use them to teach key grammar and spelling concepts. It’s a simple and straightforward lesson:
Show the fails to students.
Identify the fail in each one.
Correct the fail and name the rule.
That’s it!
Check out the FREE “Valentine’s Day Grammar + Spelling Fails” Power Point available in the FREEBIE LIBRARY! Be sure to subscribe to Bespoke ELA in order to receive the special password that unlocks the FREEBIES!
What other lessons do you like to do on Valentine’s Day in your classes? Leave us a comment! We’d love to hear from you!
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About the Author
Meredith is the founder and creator of TeachWriting.org and Bespoke ELA. She has taught high school English for 10+ years in Dallas, Chicago, and New York City and holds a M.A. in Literature from Northwestern University. She has always had a connection to the written word-- through songwriting, screenplay writing, and essay writing-- and she enjoys the process of teaching students how to express their ideas. Meredith enjoys life with her husband, daughter, and sweet pups.