This is a period of flowering literary production that lasted from about 1580 to 1680. Some of the more formidable poets of this period are Francisco de Quevedo, Luis de Góngora, San Juan de la Cruz and Teresa of Ávila. Tell your students to choose major poets from this period and conduct research projects on these poets. The research projects can focus on the lives of the poets as well as the historical period. These projects may be written in Spanish.
The major poetic form of the Spanish Golden Age is the sonnet. Ask your AP students to write sonnets according to the structure of the period. In addition to sonnets, tell them to write brief essays in Spanish or English, explaining the poems' significances. Also, the students' essays will detail the roles of the sonnets during this period.
The Generation of 27 is the name given to influential poets who emerged in Spain between 1923 and 1927. Some of the major poets during this time are Rafael Alberti, Federico García Lorca, Luis Cernuda and Vicente Aleixandre. The group was ultimately broken up by the Spanish Civil War, between 1936 and 1939. Tell your students to choose major poets from the Generation of 27 in order to research into their lives and works. Part of projects can entail understanding the impacts that the Spanish Civil War had on their poems
Latin America also produced influential poets, including Gabriela Mistral and Pablo Neruda, who both won Noble Prizes for literature. Tell your AP students to choose major Latin American poets and research their lives and work. In addition to analyzing some of the poets' major poems, tell students to explore relationships between the poets' respective counties and their poems.