I am looking for some assistance in an upcoming evaluation (7th grade class). I would like to compare/contrast two poems written by the same...

Let me begin by briefly establishing a bit of my credentials.  I have been teaching 7th grade for 11 years, and I have also had the opportunity to mentor and guide student teachers.

I really like your proposed lesson.  I think there are a lot of positive elements to it, and I think it's organized in a way that makes sense; however, I am concerned that the lesson is too full.  It outlines a tremendous amount of content, and I don't believe that trying to get through all of it in a single, 50 minute class period will do it justice.  The lesson plan above has 7 individual pieces.  That gives you an average of 7 minutes to complete each piece.  That also assumes you and the students begin the moment the bell rings and work until a minute before the the class ends.   

I have the feeling that you yourself know that your proposed lesson is too full.  I think that is why you wrote in there "if time allows" twice.  A concern of mine is that the "if time allows" parts of the lesson are near the front.  Will you be able to accurately judge the remaining time so early in the lesson?

My recommendation is that the lesson gets split into two days, or find a way to trim it down.  

I like the introduction.  I believe that using video is a very effective attention getter with today's junior high students.  I also like how you stated it needs to be short.  You're the teacher, not the video.  

I wonder if you could skip step 2.  There's nothing wrong with discussing the genre before reading the poems, but by not telling students the genre beforehand, you put that experience on the students.  The students have to fill out a Venn diagram on the poems.  Inherent in that diagram is an overlap of similarities.  Couldn't you leave it to the students to discover that the two poems are similar (or different) in genre?  It might be worthwhile to put steps 3 and 4 after the Venn diagram activity as well.  Your question seems to indicate that the students already know a bit about rhyme scheme, so it makes sense that in addition to genre comparisons, the student groups would be able to see the rhyme scheme differences.  

After the Venn diagram work, you've stated that you want to spend some time going over those.  I think that is the perfect opportunity for you to "be the teacher" and discuss with the class each poem's literary elements and meanings.  If you do that stuff while reading the poems, then students don't have to think about much.  They just have to regurgitate what you said 15 minutes beforehand on their Venn diagrams. 

Lastly, have you decided what your essential question is going to be?  Also, will the students know what the essential question is at the start of the lesson?  It could be something like "In what ways do you see today's two poems relating to each other?"