“Casey at the Bat” by Ernest Lawrence Thayer is a fun narrative poem. Good for students reluctant about poetry, but also has an interesting ending. Students might expect a happy ending.
Compare With the Short Film
The poem was adapted in 1946 into an animated short Disney film. You may be able to find it for streaming. The adaptation is fairly faithful, but there are some changes for students to examine and explore. Also can include discussion about the animation and cartoon style.
Bu the Poem vs Film (Movie vs Book Activity) resource with comparison table, best of both worlds, and evaluation writing activities.
Newspaper Writing Activity
Students can take a different approach and retell they story as a Newspaper Article. What details are included, what are left out. Good retelling activity for working with a poem.
Buy the Newspaper Writing Activity with student instructions, rubric, and brief handout on newspaper article writing.
Alternate Point of View Writing
Taking an alternate point of view is a good activity for students. The poem is in third person, so students could write from Casey’s point of view. Consider having students write as a poem, matching rhyme scheme or other elements from the original poem.
Buy the Alternate Point of View Story with narrative option with rubric, poem version with rubric, prewriting worksheet and student reflection.
Write Your Own
Students may enjoy the challenge to write their own narrative poem about an unexpected or disappointing ending. They can study the source poem for poetic devices that they can then put into their own version. This makes for a fun way to study poetic devices in use as well as applying them.
Buy the Write Your Own Activity with student instructions, rubric, poetry analysis worksheet, and reflection.
The items listed in this post are sold in the money saving “Casey at the Bat” Activity Bundle PDF. Great for building a unit including “Casey at the Bat” by Ernest Lawrence Thayer.