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Terrific resource to help students write poetry.

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Goodreads list of Popular Poetry for Middle Grades

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Goodreads list of Popular Poetry for Middle Grades

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Books shelved as poetry-middle-grade: Hopscotch Love: A Family Treasury of Love Poems by Nikki Grimes, Dear Poet: Notes to a Young Writer by Charles Ghig...

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by TeachThought Staff

It can be difficult to get the majority of teenagers to show a natural interest in or appreciation for poetry.

And actually, as soon as I wrote that I realized that the same could most likely be said for most of the population, unfortunately. Poetry has so much potential for expression though, from allowing the opportunity to be curious and playful with rhythm, meaning, and metaphor to articulating complicated emotions and perspectives, making it the ideal medium for the angsty and adventure-filled life of most young adults. The challenge lies in making the introduction to prose in a way that sticks.

The key to getting teens excited about poetry - or anything, really - is to make it about them. Developmentally, this is a time in their lives where they are exploring who they are and their place in the world more consciously than ever before and they gravitate towards that which resonates with their own experiences and allows them to explore and express that in new and interesting ways.

See also 6 Tech-Based Poetry Ideas For Students That Hate Poetry

So, in line with our 'Happy Books To Read,' here are 25 of the best poetry books for teens.

25 Of The Best Poetry Books For Teens

It's also important to choose poetry that relates to where students are in life or what they care about. The following is a list of poetry books appreciated by young adult audiences.

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1. Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T.S. Eliot: Eliot's famous collection of nonsense verse about cats-the inspiration for the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Cats. This edition features pen-and-ink drolleries by Edward Gorey throughout.

2. Paint Me Like I Am from WritersCorp: Paint Me Like I Am is a collection of poems by teens who have taken part in writing programs run by a national nonprofit organization called WritersCorps. To read the words of these young people is to hear the diverse voices of teenagers everywhere.

3. Blue Lipstick: Concrete Poems by John Grandits: A 15-year-old girl named Jessie voices typical-and not so typical-teenage concerns in this unique, hilarious collection of poems. Her musings about trying out new makeup and hairstyles, playing volleyball and cello, and dealing with her annoying younger brother are never boring or predictable.

Who else do you know who designs her own clothes and writes poetry to her cat? Jessie's a girl with strong opinions, and she isn't shy about sharing them. Her funny, sarcastic take on high school life is revealed through concrete poetry: words, ideas, type, and design that combine to make pictures and patterns.

4. How to Eat a Poem by American Poetry & Literacy Project: Focusing on popular verse from the nineteenth century through today, this anthology invites young readers to sample a taste of irresistible poems that will nourish their minds and spirits.

Selected for both popularity and literary quality, seventy charming poems cover a wide range of subjects: poetry, books, words, and imagination; the beauty of the natural world; travel, adventure, sports, and play; love, friendship, sadness, hope, and other emotions.

5. Bilbo's Last Song by J.R.R. Tolkien: Bilbo's Last Song is considered by many to be Tolkien's epilogue to his classic work The Lord of the Rings. As Bilbo Baggins takes his final voyage to the Undying Lands, he must say goodbye to Middle-earth. Poignant and lyrical, the song is both a longing to set forth on his ultimate journey and a tender farewell to friends left behind.

6. Bull by David Elliott: Much like Lin-Manuel Miranda did in Hamilton, the New York Times best-selling author David Elliott turns a classic on its head in form and approach, updating the timeless story of Theseus and the Minotaur for a new generation. A rough, rowdy, and darkly comedic young adult retelling in verse, Bull will have readers reevaluating one of mythology's most infamous monsters.

7. Poetry Speaks Who I Am by Elise Paschen and Dominique Raccah: Poetry Speaks Who I Am is filled with more than 100 remarkable poems about you, who you are, and who you are becoming. Dive in-find the poem you love, the one that makes you angry, the one that makes you laugh, the one that knocks the wind out of you, and become a part of Poetry Speaks Who I Am by adding your own inside the book.

8. Enchanted Air: Two Cultures, Two Wings by Margarita Engle: In this poetic memoir, which won the Pura Belpré Author Award, was a YALSA Nonfiction Finalist, and was named a Walter Dean Myers Award Honoree, acclaimed author Margarita Engle tells of growing up as a child of two cultures during the Cold War.

15. I Just Hope It's Lethal: Poems of Sadness, Madness, and Joy by Liz Rosenberg: The teenage years are a time filled with sadness, madness, joy, and all the messy stuff in between. But between moments of despair and confusion often come times of great clarity and insight, when you might think, like the poet Rumi, "Whoever's calm and sensible is insane!"

It is moments like these that have inspired the touching, honest, and gripping poems found in I Just Hope It's Lethal: Poems of Sadness, Madness, and Joy. This collection includes poems by Charles Bukowski, Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, T. S. Eliot, Edgar Allen Poe, W. B. Yeats, Dorothy Parker, Jane Kenyon, and many more, including teenage writers and up-and-coming poets.

16. Time You Let Me In: 25 Poets Under 25 by Naomi Shihab Nye: This lively collection by young contemporary writers is rooted in the strong, emotional particulars of family, friendship, childhood memories, school, dislocation, war, and more; interestingly, there is almost no talk of sex or romance. The spare lines are passionate, wry, irreverent, and eloquent about meaning found in daily-life scenarios.

17. Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson: Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement. Touching and powerful, each poem is both accessible and emotionally charged, each line a glimpse into a child's soul as she searches for her place in the world.

18. Honeybee: Short Prose & Poems by Naomi Shihab Nye: In eighty-two poems and paragraphs, Naomi Shihab Nye alights on the essentials of our time-our loved ones, our dense air, our wars, our memories, our planet-and leaves us feeling curiously sweeter and profoundly soothed.

19. Stuff I've Been Feeling Lately by Alicia Cook: Structured like an old-school mix-tape, Stuff I've Been Feeling Lately is Alicia Cook's lyric message to anyone who has dealt with addiction. "Side A" touches on all aspects of the human condition: life, death, love, trauma, and growth. "Side B" contains haunting black-out remixes of those poems.

20. Poems From Homeroom by Kathi Appelt: Experienced poet and teacher Kathi Appelt has written a wonderful collection of poems for young adult readers, accompanied by fascinating accounts of how and why the poems came to be, along with writing exercises to inspire readers to create their own poetry.

21. The Realm Of Possibility by David Levithan: This collection of linked poems from David Levithan will introduce you to a world of unforgettable and emotionally resonant voices. Enter The Realm of Possibility and meet a boy whose girlfriend is in love with Holden Caulfield; a girl who loves the boy who wears all black; a boy with the perfect body; and a girl who writes love songs for a girl she can't have.

22. Out Of The Dust by Karen Hesse: This gripping story, written in sparse first-person, free-verse poems, is the compelling tale of Billie Jo's struggle to survive during the dust bowl years of the Depression.

23. The Lightning Dreamer: Cuba's Greatest Abolitionist by Margarita Engle: Opposing slavery in Cuba in the nineteenth century was dangerous. The most daring abolitionists were poets who veiled their work in metaphor. Of these, the boldest was Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda, nicknamed Tula.

In passionate, accessible verses of her own, Engle evokes the voice of this book-loving feminist and abolitionist who bravely resisted an arranged marriage at the age of fourteen, and was ultimately courageous enough to fight against injustice.

24. My Own True Name by Pat Mora: Interlaced with Mexican phrases and cultural symbols, these powerful selections, representing more than 15 years of work, address bicultural life and the meaning of family. Mora speaks very much from an adult perspective, but her poems are about universal experiences-the pleasures of eating pizza and mango, and the cultural significance of both; the wrenching experience of witnessing poverty. Mixed in are personal poems that ask the vital question, "Where am I from?" more directly.

25. The Watch That Ends The Night: Voices From The Titanic by Allan Wolf: Millionaire John Jacob Astor hopes to bring home his pregnant teen bride with a minimum of media scandal. A beautiful Lebanese refugee, on her way to family in Florida, discovers the first stirrings of love. And an ancient iceberg glides south, anticipating its fateful encounter.

The voices in this remarkable re-creation of the Titanic disaster span classes and stations, from Margaret ("the unsinkable Molly") Brown to the captain who went down with his ship; from the lookout and wireless men to a young boy in search of dragons and a gambler in search of marks. Slipping in telegraphs, undertaker's reports, and other records, poet Allan Wolf offers a breathtaking, intimate glimpse at the lives behind the tragedy, told with clear-eyed compassion and astounding emotional power.
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When choosing the best poetry books for teens, it's important to choose poetry that relates to what students care about.

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More than 40,000 poems by contemporary and classic poets, including Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, Sylvia Plath, Langston Hughes, Rita Dove, and more.

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Poems for multiple voices are poems that are meant to be read aloud by two or more people, with different lines for each reader. Sometimes the lines for different voices are in different colors, or they are physically separated on the page. Poems for multiple voices can be difficult to find. Search in the library catalog and the Children's Literature Comprehensive Database for: "two voices" poems or "four voices" poems. You can also do a Google search for poems for multiple voices. There is a lot of online content about how to create lesson plans using poems for multiple voices.

Other books that would work for multiple voices include novels from multiple perspectives, such as Nikki Grimes' Bronx Masquerade (Education S Collection S.G882b), which is told from the alternating perspectives of an English teacher and each of his students. Bilingual books can also work, with children switching off between languages-one reads the first language, and the other reads the second language. One example is Monica Brown's Side by Side: the Story of Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez = Lado a lado: la historia de Dolores Huerta y Cesar Chavez (Education S Collection SB. C512b), a book in both English and Spanish.

Multiple voice poems can also be called dialogue poems, although this term is not used in the library's catalog. The University of Minnesota has a lesson plan for dialogue poems that teaches different cultural perspectives. This lesson plan includes a powerful poem told in two voices called "Two Women." This poem was written by a working-class Chilean woman and illustrates the differences between a poor woman's life and a rich woman's life.
Two Voices Four Voices Varied Voices
This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged multiple voice poems, poems, read alouds by Nancy O'Brien. Bookmark the permalink.

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Children's Literature at the Social Sciences, Health, and Education Library

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Poems for multiple voices are poems that are meant to be read aloud by two or more people, with different lines for each reader. Sometimes the lines for different voices are in different colors, or they are physically separated on the page. Poems for multiple voices can be difficult to find.

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Note: When we first published this post in 2010 we called it "11 Ways to Celebrate National Poetry Month With The New York Times," but every year we update it with several hot-off-the-press ideas. So we've changed the name to, simply, "Ways to Celebrate" since we intend to add ideas each spring and don't want to end up with "3,486 Ways to Celebrate National Poetry Month" when 2311 rolls around.
How do you teach poetry? Let us know!

Read (and Create) New York Times Haikus - The Times's haiku Tumblr features "serendipitous poetry from The New York Times" created by an algorithm, which periodically checks the New York Times home page for newly published articles. Then it scans each sentence looking for potential haikus by using an electronic dictionary containing syllable counts to create verse like this:

The buzzing of a
thousand bees in a tiny
curled pearl of an ear

This post explains how it works. What New York Times haikus can you and your students make?

In 2015, The Times began running a weekly poem in the Magazine. What's are your students' favorite?

Post Your Own Found Poem - Our Found Poem Student Challenge is back again for a seventh year! Here are the details. along with links to the winners from the last six years.

Or, Create a Blackout Poem - In 2014, The Times challenged readers to create "blackout poems" by redacting words from Times articles. Here are the results, and you can make your own online.

Write a Poem for a Friend - "Poetry prevents everybody from feeling lonely," says Nikki Giovanni in this video. "If I had a friend in the hospital, I would read a poem. But then, friends who get married, they read a poem. And then friends who die say, 'Read this poem at my funeral'...Poetry is there with us, a part of us. Poetry is something we carry in our hearts." Think about someone you know who might need the gift of a poem - for any reason. What poem would you give this person, and why?

Does Poetry Matter? Discuss. - Room for Debate recently challenged seven experts to debate this question, while in the Opinion section, William Logan asked, " Poetry: Who Needs It?" In another essay, " A Poet's Boyhood at the Burning Crossroads," Saeed Jones writes about how, as a teenager, poetry helped him "shatter silence into language." After reading all of these, debate the question in your classroom: Does poetry matter?

Quite a Pair(ing) - Use our Poetry Pairings, a weekly feature we began in June 2010, to read a poem selected by the Poetry Foundation paired with an article from The Times. You might use our Teaching and Learning Ideas For Any Poetry-News Pairing to help students critique our choices, or pair their own original poems with another piece of writing. Or, to find more accessible poetry in the pages of The Times, in 2015 The Magazine began publishing a poem each week.

More Than You Expect - In " Galaxies in His Head," Stephen Burt writes about the poet Terrance Hayes and how he "uses poetry to show that there is more to him, and to anyone, than what you expect." Watch the video above, then read more about this poet and his work. How might you use poetry to show others that there is more to you than what people expect?

Lines That Live On - Read about the visual art/poetry collaboration that will commemorate life at Chicago's Cabrini-Green housing project as its last building is demolished. Have students write poems about a time or place from their own lives, or give them a common topic (their current school, the town park, etc.). You might even have them read poems about the Brooklyn Bridge for inspiration. Plan a site-specific event, perhaps a poetry walk through the place in which the poems are read, projected on structures, written in chalk on sidewalks or pavements or otherwise displayed. Collaborate with dancers, musicians and/or visual artists who will perform or present their related work at the event.

How Many Metaphors Have You Stumbled Over Today? - Metaphors are everywhere, points out Op-Ed columnist David Brooks. We often use food metaphors to describe the world of ideas, and war metaphors to talk about argument. Have students keep a journal for one day in which they record every metaphor they come across in print or speech. Then, have them react to this column, and to thoughts like, "To be aware of metaphors is to be humbled by the complexity of the world, to realize that deep in the undercurrents of thought there are thousands of lenses popping up between us and the world, and that we're surrounded at all times by what Steven Pinker of Harvard once called 'pedestrian poetry.'"

Rhythm, Meter and the Poetry Tweet-er - Have students read the Twitter poems by Billy Collins, Claudia Rankine, Elizabeth Alexander and Robert Pinsky. Then have them read and contribute their own work to this collection of Twitter poems. Our lesson Less Is More: Using Social Media to Inspire Concise Writing has even more poetry ideas.

Unofficial Poets Laureate - Read about Matt Harvey, who in 2010 became the official poet of Wimbledon, the world famous tennis tournament, whose duty is to write a poem a day about it. Have students learn more about what official poets like current U.S. poet laureate Natasha Trethewey or former poet laureate W.S. Merwin do in this position, and about the poet laureate of your state or city. Have them read the poet's work, then think of other poets whose work might make them good candidates to be "official poets" of something - and of what. Or students can themselves become the designated poets laureate for a topic of their choice, preferably one that is little-written about, like baseball.

"Where I'm From" poems written and animated by high school students in Portland, Ore. attendingStories in Movement, a program offered by the historic Hollywood Theatre.

Telling 'Where I'm From' - Many teachers will already know the George Ella Lyon list-form poem "Where I'm From." As Mr. Lyon writes, "People have used it at their family reunions, teachers have used it with kids all over the United States, in Ecuador and China; they have taken it to girls in juvenile detention, to men in prison for life, and to refugees in a camp in the Sudan." In the project that resulted in the video above, young people at Open Meadow Alternative School and the Donald E. Long Juvenile Detention Home were inspired by this poem, as well as by Willie Perdomo's "Where I'm From," to write their own verse about identity and community. They then learned to create hinged puppets and bring them to life through animation. Though this project might be too elaborate for most classrooms, schools might borrow the idea of making videos that bring a range of student work for the same assignment together. Or, consider pairing "Where I'm From" poems with the photography, writing or video ideas we suggest in our lesson What We Eat, Where We Sleep: Documenting Daily Life to Tell Stories.

Poetry Apps - Poetry Magazine celebrated its 100th year in print in 2012, and one thing keeping it fresh, this article reports, is poetry apps for readers' smartphones. Above, a 2014 video review of even more poetry apps. How would students help infuse our smartphone and social-media- obsessed world with poetry in ways guaranteed to intrigue readers their age?

To Mark the Day - Look at the slide show "Seasons Greetings from Robert Frost," which features chapbooks of the poet's work that were released as holiday greetings. Then make illustrated chapbooks, using original or favorite poems to mark an occasion like a birthday or graduation - or celebrate Poetry Month with a chapbook of poems about poetry.

Verse for the Undead - Read about some new anthologies of poetry that explore the coming zombie apocalypse, and have students create their own undead-inspired verse, whether via limerick, haiku, or sonnets. Are zombies just metaphors for things like capitalism or racism? See what some in the article contend, then find evidence in popular culture for or against that interpretation.

Howl - How can poetry both reflect and transcend the era in which it is written? How can looking at a poem from multiple perspectives illuminate its meaning? These are the questions we pose in a lesson plan inspired by a movie about Allen Ginsberg's "Howl."

A Place for Poetry, Poetry for a Place - After watching and listening to "Mary Oliver's Provincetown: A Poet's Landscape," or reading "For Wallace Stevens, Hartford as Muse," or "The Bridge, My Muse," have students look through personal photographs of favorite places, and then write poems inspired by them. (You might also take a look at other poems about places, such as Westchester or New Jersey.) Host an event in which students read their poems accompanied by a slide show of images.

Odes to the Unlikely - Love, death, the beauty of nature - these are perennial and rich subjects for poetry, but what about everyday objects like school buses and cellphones? Have students read Matthew Zapruder's "The Prelude," which is, in part, about Diet Coke, and "To Television" by Robert Pinsky, to inspire their own poems about quotidian details and objects that are generally not celebrated in verse.

Supplying the School - After getting permission, bring poetry to unexpected places around your school-perhaps inspired by these poets. Ask them to choose poems they have studied in school or elsewhere (or their own original works) to print and tape to cafeteria tables, bathroom mirrors, hallway walls, or even write in chalk on campus sidewalks. You might show students the Everyday Poems for City Sidewalk project in St. Paul, or the Poetry in Motion program in the New York City subway, to get an idea of what kinds of poems work well as public pieces.

Soothing Lines in Difficult Times - Ask the question "When do we most need poetry?". Select poems you find uplifting or comforting, perhaps beginning with this sampler of "great apocalyptic writing" that "consoles even as it alarms." Hold an in-class read-aloud or an evening reading called "The Poems That Matter Most." Students may want to start a regular reading series, perhaps around other themes like poems that heal, bring laughter, challenge, instruct, assure and so on. You might use PowerPoint to project the poems, stanza by stanza, as the lines are read aloud, in this example featuring poems by Frederick Seidel.

Li Young Lee Vs. Jay-Z? - Share this article with accompanying song, which is about a singer-songwriter who turned to the poet Paul Muldoon to help him become a better lyricist. Host a debate in which students pit poems found in books against rap or other lyrics. Do lyrics need to be well-crafted for a song to be good? Can lyrics be considered poetry? Why or why not? Should both forms be held to the same artistic standards? To extend the activity, have musically inclined students set poems they have studied in school to music-and read lyrics aloud without musical accompaniment. (2011 Update: You might also be interested in our lesson plan on Jay-Z's writing process.)

Recite, Memory - Have students choose a poem they will learn by heart to recite during your last class in April. Find tips to transform this potentially daunting task to a positive and meaningful experience (and one students may look forward to repeating) in our lesson By Heart. You might have students tell us what they chose by answering our Student Opinion question, What Would You Like to Have Memorized?

Poetry Contest - Take a page from some of the other Times blogs and hold a poetry contest, either school-, grade- or class-wide, or in a certain academic discipline. For inspiration, check out these past Times blog poetry contests:

Finding Poems Everywhere - Read some of Alan Feuer's "found poems" made from "Missed Connections" postings on Craigslist. Mr. Feuer has written numerous such "Poetic Connections," including this one, this one, this one and this one. Use these to create your own poems from newspaper articles, sports broadcasts, school lunch menus, field trip permission slips and the like. (Note that Craigslist specifies that "Missed Connections" is for users 18 and older and "may include adult content." Teachers wanting to use Craigslist for this activity should choose appropriate "Missed Connections" posts for students to work with.)

Inaugural Poetry, Then and Now - Did you watch President Obama's second inauguration and listen to Richard Blanco as he read "One Today," a poem he wrote for the occasion? Guest blogger Carol Jago gives a brief history of inaugural poetry, then suggests discussion questions "One Today," as well as activities for inaugural and occasional poetry in general in this post.

Why Afghan Women Risk Death to Write Poetry - Poems are the only form of education to which girls like Meena Muska have access:

Meena lost her fiancé last year, when a land mine exploded. According to Pashtun tradition, she must marry one of his brothers, which she doesn't want to do. She doesn't dare protest directly, but reciting poetry to Amail allows her to speak out against her lot. When I asked how old she was, Meena responded in a proverb: "I am like a tulip in the desert. I die before I open, and the waves of desert breeze blow my petals away." She wasn't sure of her age but thought she was 17. "Because I am a girl, no one knows my birthday," she said.

Read this piece to understand the power of verse in a place where poetry has "long been a form of rebellion for Afghan women, belying the notion that they are submissive or defeated."
Related Resources:
Paper Cuts blog: posts on Poets and Poetry

ArtsBeat blog: "The Reading Life: Parsing the Poetry Best-Seller List"

National Poetry Month
The Academy of American Poets, found at Poets.org, started National Poetry Month in 1996, and offer new ideas for celebrating it each year. For 2014, they are promoting their Poet-to-Poet project.

Poem in Your Pocket Day
Resources from The National Writing Project on reading, writing and teaching poetry, with special advice for the annual celebration of "Poem in Your Pocket Day."

GottaBook's 30 Poets/30 Days
GottaBook blog's celebration of children's poetry for National Poetry Month.

Scholastic: Celebrate National Poetry Month
A wide range of resources for all grade levels.

Favorite Poem Project
Program founded by the former United States poet laureate Robert Pinsky, in which Americans shared their favorite poems. Includes video documentaries.

Poetry 180
A Poem a Day For American High Schools. From the Library of Congress.

Poetry
From the Poetry Foundation, the online home of Poetry magazine. Includes podcasts, discussion guides, blogs and much more.

Poetry Daily
An anthology of contemporary poetry that features a new poem every day.

Edutopia | Integrating Daily Poetry in the Classroom: 5 Tools to Support Your Efforts
A post by Brett Vogelsinger, who has also written for The Learning Network

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Ways to Celebrate National Poetry Month With The New York Times

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Note: When we first published this post in 2010 we called it "11 Ways to Celebrate National Poetry Month With The New York Times," but every year we update it with several hot-off-the-press ideas.

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This month is the 20 th anniversary of National Poetry Month, a celebration of language and literary achievement from around the world. In honor of that, I've compiled a list of children's books out in 2016; picture books, middle grade, and young adult. I think you'll agree that this year is going to be an explosive one in children's poetry.

I had the pleasure of previewing a few titles coming out in 2016, including by Sarah Dooley, The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary by Laura Shovan, and Ask Me How I Got Here by Christine Hepperman - all excellent books in verse.

The list of poetry books for young people coming out in 2016 is rich, diverse, and bound to capture the hearts of readers everywhere. I want a copy of each one, plus extras to give out to everyone I love.
Picture Books
Every Day Birds by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater, illustrated by Dylan Metrano
Young readers are fascinated with birds in their world. Every Day Birds helps children identify and learn about common birds. After reading Every Day Birds, families can look out their windows with curiosity-recognizing birds and nests and celebrating the beauty of these creatures!

As readers meet a cow, a bee, a horse, a bird, a frog, a fish, a mouse, a cat, and a dog, they will be delighted to learn that they are the subject of the final poem. Parents will appreciate the simple guide to understanding the haiku.
Did you wake up this morning all smiley inside? Does life taste like ice cream and cake? Or does it seem more like your goldfish just died And your insides are one great big ache? and i woke to a morning that was quiet and white the first snow (just like magic) came on tip toes
Flowers blooming in sheets of snow make way for happy frogs dancing in the rain. Summer swims move over for autumn sweaters until the snow comes back again. In Julie Fogliano's skilled hand and illustrated by Julie Morstad's charming pictures, the seasons come to life in this gorgeous and comprehensive book of poetry.
Coming Up in Picture Books:
Our Food: A Healthy Serving of Science and Poems by Grace Lin and Ranida T. McKneally, illustrated by Grace Zong (June 14, 2016, Charlesbridge)
Award-winning author Grace Lin joins science writer Ranida T. McKneally to get kids talking about the science of food, the five food groups, and what a healthy meal looks like. Answering questions like "why are so many vegetables green?", "What's the difference between brown bread and white bread?", and "Why do beans make you gassy?", cheerful haiku poems and a simple Q&A format make this book a nutritious treat.

La Madre Goose: Nursery Rhymes for los Niños by Susan Middleton Elya, illustrated by Juana Martinez-Neal (July 19, 2016, G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers)
The itsy arañita
climbed up the water spout.
Down came la lluvia
and washed la araña out.

From young Juan Ramón sitting in el rincón to three little gatitos who lost their mitoncitos, readers will be delighted to see familiar characters in vibrant, luminous scenes brimming with fanciful details.

Fittingly illustrated with busy, colorful collage illustrations.
Younger Middle Grade Coming Up in Younger Middle Grade: Older Middle Grade
by Kwame Alexander (April 5, 2016, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Like lightning/you strike/fast and free/legs zoom/down field/eyes fixed/on the checkered ball/on the goal/ten yards to go/can't nobody stop you/can't nobody cop you...

In this follow-up to the Newbery-winning novel THE CROSSOVER, soccer, family, love, and friendship, take center stage as twelve-year-old Nick learns the power of words as he wrestles with problems at home, stands up to a bully, and tries to impress the girl of his dreams. Helping him along are his best friend and sometimes teammate Coby, and The Mac, a rapping librarian who gives Nick inspiring books to read.

When Esquire magazine planned an issue to salute the American jazz scene in 1958, graphic designer Art Kane pitched a crazy idea: how about gathering a group of beloved jazz musicians and photographing them? He didn't own a good camera, didn't know if any musicians would show up, and insisted on setting up the shoot in front of a Harlem brownstone. Could he pull it off? In a captivating collection of poems, Roxane Orgill steps into the frame of Harlem 1958, bringing to life the musicians' mischief and quirks, their memorable style, and the vivacious atmosphere of a Harlem block full of kids on a hot summer's day. Francis Vallejo's vibrant, detailed, and wonderfully expressive paintings do loving justice to the larger-than-life quality of jazz musicians of the era. Includes bios of several of the fifty-seven musicians, an author's note, sources, a bibliography, and a foldout of Art Kane's famous photograph.

Up From the Sea by Leza Lowitz
A powerful novel-in-verse about how one teen boy survives the March 2011 tsunami that devastates his coastal Japanese village.

On that fateful day, Kai loses nearly everyone and everything he cares about. When he's offered a trip to New York to meet kids whose lives were changed by 9/11, Kai realizes he also has a chance to look for his estranged American father. Visiting Ground Zero on its tenth anniversary, Kai learns that the only way to make something good come out of the disaster back home is to return there and help rebuild his town.
Coming Up in Older Middle Grade:
Eleven-year-old Ema has always been of two worlds-her father's Japanese heritage and her mother's life in America. She's spent summers in California for as long as she can remember, but this year she and her mother are staying with her grandparents in Japan as they await the arrival of Ema's baby sibling. Her mother's pregnancy has been tricky, putting everyone on edge, but Ema's heart is singing-finally, there will be someone else who will understand what it's like to belong and not belong at the same time.

So when you hear of a civilian pilot training program at Tuskegee Institute, you leap at the chance. Soon you are learning engineering and mechanics, how to communicate in code, how to read a map. At last the day you've longed for is here: you are flying!

From training days in Alabama to combat on the front lines in Europe, this is the story of the Tuskegee Airmen, the groundbreaking African-American pilots of World War II. In vibrant second-person poems, Carole Boston Weatherford teams up for the first time with her son, artist Jeffery Weatherford, in a powerful and inspiring book that allows readers to fly, too.

In a haunting yet hopeful novel in verse, award-winning author Margarita Engle tells the story of Antonio Chuffat, a young man of African, Chinese, and Cuban descent who became a champion of civil rights.

Asia, Africa, Europe-Antonio Chuffat's ancestors clashed and blended on the beautiful island of Cuba. Yet for most Cubans in the nineteenth century, life is anything but beautiful. The country is fighting for freedom from Spain. Enslaved Africans and nearly-enslaved Chinese indentured servants are forced to work long, backbreaking hours in the fields.

So Antonio feels lucky to have found a good job as a messenger, where his richly blended cultural background is an asset. Through his work he meets Wing, a young Chinese fruit seller who barely escaped the anti-Asian riots in San Francisco, and his sister Fan, a talented singer. With injustice all around them, the three friends are determined that violence will not be the only way to gain liberty.

More than a century later, Mary Anning helped her father collect stone sea creatures from the cliffs in southwest England. To him they were merely a source of income, but to Mary they held a stronger fascination. Intrepid and patient, she eventually discovered fossils that would change people's vision of the past.

Across the ocean, Maria Mitchell helped her mapmaker father in the whaling village of Nantucket. At night they explored the starry sky through his telescope. Maria longed to discover a new comet-and after years of studying the night sky, she finally did.

But the more Grace sees of the heartless Master and hateful Missus, the more a rightiness voice clamors in her head-asking how come white folks can own other people, sell them on the auction block, and separate families forever. When that voice escapes without warning, it sets off a terrible chain of events that prove Uncle Jim's words true. Suddenly, Grace and her family must flee deep into the woods, where they brave deadly animals, slave patrollers, and the uncertainty of ever finding freedom.
Young Adult
But the only clues to this birth father's identity are a class ring and a pair of pilot's wings. And so Connor takes it upon himself to investigate-a pursuit that becomes even more pressing when Dad is hospitalized after a stroke. What Connor discovers will lead him and his father to a new, richer understanding of race, identity, and each other.

Seven Ways We Lie by Riley Redgate
The juniors at Paloma High School all have their secrets, whether it's the thespian who hides her trust issues onstage, the closeted pansexual who only cares about his drug-dealing profits, or the neurotic genius who's planted the seed of a school scandal. But it's Juniper Kipling who has the furthest to fall. No one would argue that Juniper-obedient daughter, salutatorian, natural beauty, and loyal friend-is anything but perfect. Everyone knows she's a saint, not a sinner; but when love is involved, who is Juniper to resist temptation? When she begins to crave more and more of the one person she can't have, her charmed life starts to unravel.

Then rumors of a student-teacher affair hit the fan. After Juniper accidentally exposes her secret at a party, her fate falls into the hands of the other six sinners, bringing them into one another's orbits. All seven are guilty of something. Together, they could save one another from their temptations-or be ruined by them.
Coming Up in Young Adult:
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30 Books of Poetry for Young Readers for National Poetry Month

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This month is the 20 th anniversary of National Poetry Month, a celebration of language and literary achievement from around the world. In honor of that, I've compiled a list of children's books out in 2016; picture books, middle grade, and young adult.

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Rhyme lovers of every age, rejoice, for April is National Poetry Month! We all know that little readers love silly sing song poems, and adults can get lost in the emotions of a good poetry collection, but what about middle graders? Wonderfully, middle grade readers get the best of both poetry worlds, with plenty of funny collections, serious books, and ageless crossovers that can enjoyed all month (and beyond!).

I'm Just No Good at Rhyming: And Other Nonsense for Mischievous Kids and Immature Grown-Ups, by Chris Harris, illustrated by Lane Smith
TV writer/producer Harris' poems are short, high-energy poems that play with words with a smart, sweet, funny punch. Fans of Shel Silverstein will absorb this collection surprises readers, from the ongoing amusing conflict going on between the writer and illustrator, to the inexplicably misnumbered pages that can only be decoded if you crack the code in one of the poems. ("If I ever find myself holding a gecko.../ I'll lecko.") Lane Smith's oil and acrylic images pop off the page. This collection is a New York Times bestseller-as well as A Kirkus Best Middle-Grade Books of 2017 Selection-that's been featured on NPR's Weekend Edition with Scott Simon.

Every Thing On It, by Shel Silverstein
For readers who loved Where the Sidewalk Ends, A Light in the Attic, and, here's a posthumous collection of Silverstein's poems and illustrations. His never-before-published poems and drawings includes a witch who rides a vacuum cleaner and a kid who orders a hot dog "with everything on it" ("...it came with a parrot,/ A bee in a bonnet,/ A wristwatch, a wrench, and a rake"). There are a total of 130 poems in this book, chosen by Silverstein's family and published for the first time here.

Out of Wonder: Poems Celebrating Poets, by Kwame Alexander, Ekua Holmes, Chris Colderley, Marjory Wentworth. Illustrated by Ekua Holmes
Newbery medalist and middle grade author Kwame Alexander has written a collection of 20 original poems with his friends Chris Colderley (a poet and elementary school teacher) and Marjory Wentworth (the poet laureate of South Carolina) that pay homage to famed poets. You'll find a diversity of cultures and time periods in this book, from writers Basho and Rumi to 20th-century poets such as Robert Frost and Langston Hughes, and contemporary writers Naomi Shihab Nye, Billy Collins, and Maya Angelou. Alexander's ode to la E.E. Cummings?... "It is such a happy thing to yes the next with you/ to walk on magic love rugs beneath the what". Holmes' mixed-media collages are gorgeous metaphors for the words on the pages.

Forget Me Not, by Ellie Terry
This debut novel about Calliope June, a seventh-grader who has both Tourette syndrome and an unstable mother, is told in a mix of prose poetry and free verse. Terry, who has Tourette syndrome herself, writes with such vulnerability and love about Calliope's anxiety and her longing to be accepted. For example, when Callie's teacher asks her to tell the class about herself: "Teachers always do/And I hate it more each time...I wish this ugly carpet would swallow me whole." This is a story of self-acceptance and a hunger for connection.

This free-verse novel by Reynolds, author of As Brave As You and , is a good pick for older middle grade readers. This story about what it means to be a black teen in America is told in spare verse and it opens with 15-year-old William talking directly to the reader: "I haven't/ told nobody the story/ I'm about to tell you./ And truth is, you probably ain't/ gon' believe it either/ gon' think I'm lying/ or I'm losing it,/ but I'm telling you,/ this story is true." Less than two days have passed since Will witnessed the shooting death of his older brother, Shawn. Perhaps best read out loud, the story unfolds in the time it takes for Will's elevator to descend.

Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, Illustrated Edition, by T. S. Eliot, with drawings by Edward Gorey
T.S. Eliot's tale of stray cats and their nighttime wanderings has been retold for years, most notably as the Broadway show . Made up of 14 poems, that are both very real and completely unbelievable, readers can enjoy the cat phenomenon the way it was before memes took over the internet. Books like this one are a great bridge between the funny sounds of younger books and the more serious fare of adult lit, but still 100% awesome poetry.

Poems I Wrote When No One Was Looking, by Alan Katz and Edward Koren
A silly take on the mischievous, these poems are just plain fun. Katz is also the author of the charmingThe Day the Mustache Took Over, among many other books, so he definitely gets middle grade humor. Whether read out loud together, or alone while tucked away in a cozy spot, these bits of verse show that there is a lot more to poetry than serious thoughts and beautiful landscapes. Make sure you have some tissues on hand though-you will be laughing until you cry.

Because I Could Not Stop My Bike ... and Other Poems, by Karen Jo Shapiro and Matt Faulkner
This super smart collection is a modern twist on classic poems. From William Shakespeare to Emily Dickinson, kids won't even realize they are reading funny takes on the works of some of the world's most famous poets. Faulkner's zany illustrations take this book to a whole other enjoyable level. It won't be until later, when your kids recognize the rhyme and meter of the poems in their textbooks, that they will catch on that you had them reading classic poetry in junior high. This book is so clever that you will probably find yourself reading it, and falling in love with poetry all over again.

, by Gary Soto and David Diaz
Gary Soto and David Diaz take the small moments of childhood, the beautiful little events that stick, and present them in a way that readers of all ages will love. Parties and pets, family celebrations and long summer afternoons; all get the thoughtful treatment that Soto is known for, and the simple black and white illustrations are frame-worthy. This book is a terrific addition to any middle grade reader's collection, as it will probably turn out to be one of their favorite books-both now and later.

Where the Sidewalk Ends: Poems and Drawings, by Shel Silverstein
An ageless classic that can be read in elementary school, laughed over in middle school, and reminisced about as an adult, Where the Sidewalk Ends is a childhood-defining collection of poetry. The rhymes are silly, the illustrations create a fully fleshed out world, and the quiet meanings can bring adults to tears. Shel Silverstein is a master like no other and the beauty of his writing makes him a must read, and not just in April, but all year long. After your kids have devoured this book, grab A Light in the Attic, and Everything On It for years-really, years- of amazing poetry experiences.

Poetry 180: A Turning Back to Poetry, by Billy Collins
For a slightly different twist to your National Poetry Month reading, tackle Billy Collins's collection, Poetry 180. Collins, Poet Laureate of the United States from 2001-2003, put together this collection, and its sequel , to introduce school-aged students to modern poets. His idea is that students should have a love of poetry first; poetry that is written in modern language kids can understand, before jumping into the classics. Given this idea, this book contains 180 poems, one for each day of the school year, from some of the biggest names in contemporary poetry. Before you know it your kids will have a new favorite poet, be it Lucille Clifton, Kenneth Koch, Philip Levine, or Naomi Shihab Nye.
What poetry does your middle grader love to read?

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because i could not stop my bike...and other poems

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i'm just no good at rhyming: and other nonsense for mischievous kids and immature grown-ups

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Magnificent Middle Grade Poetry for National Poetry Month

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Rhyme lovers of every age, rejoice, for April is National Poetry Month! We all know that little readers love silly sing song poems, and adults can get lost in the emotions of a good poetry collection, but what about middle graders?

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Whether you're going all-in for National Poetry Month in April, or making poetry a regular part of your class's reading diet, it's always a good time to check out some poetry books for kids and teens. We've gathered 40 of our favorite poetry books for kids in grades Pre-K through high school. All can be used as mentor texts-some even include teaching tips and examples. From celebrations of the natural world, to tender coming-of-age poems, to plenty of hilariously silly options, there's something on this list for everyone.

(Just a heads up, WeAreTeachers may collect a share of sales from the links on this page. We only recommend items our team loves!)

Best Poetry Books for Kids in the Primary Grades

Share all the traditional nursery rhymes you remember from childhood with your young students with this beautifully-illustrated treasury. The introduction makes a great case for continuing to share nursery rhymes with kids in today's world, too.

When Daniel sees a sign for "Poetry in the Park," he asks, "What is poetry?" His experiences provide an answer, lots of sample poetic lines, and a great entry point into writing poetry for young students.

Eleven poems set in the tranquility of a Japanese garden. This counting book introduces the haiku form of poetry to young readers.

Each turn of a page reveals the subject of a short but powerful verse about an item in nature. Lots of inspiration for students to write their own poems about nature in the same format.

Kiyoshi wonders how his grandfather, an accomplished haiku poet, finds his poetry. His grandfather shares his wisdom with a poetry-filled walk around their city neighborhood. Check out this blog post from the author for helpful poetry teaching tips.

This collection of poetry explores the rich traditions of celebrating the full moon as it passes across our sky and is a celebration of poetry, culture, geography, and science.

A delightful trove of poetry that covers many topics-animals, family, play, and silliness.

This poetry collection uses the contexts of cooking and enjoying food to share vibrant poems on a variety of themes. We especially love "Recipe for Disaster" and "Recipe for Memories." So many curriculum possibilities here!

Do your students think poetry isn't for them? Convince them with a collection of poems about a favorite topic. This collection has so much playful, smart, poetic language about everything soccer, from missing shin guards to persistence.

Douglas Florian is a master at creating clever, punny imagery in his poems for kids. This fun collection teaches kids about the landscape and animals of the North and South Poles while also building their appreciation for poetry.

The gateway to a Shel Silverstein addiction. One of seven Silverstein poetry collections that generations of readers have enjoyed.

Revolting Rhymes tackles six favorite tales that are classic Roald Dahl. Each features Dahl's darkly comic style and a surprise ending. If your students love this book, they might also enjoy Vile Verses and Dirty Beasts.

So many beautiful shades of brown! Children will fall in love with these delightful poems.

This celebration of blackness, written in verse, can be enjoyed for both its poetic language and content. Show students how poems can convey crucial messages in beautiful ways.

Got spider enthusiasts in your class? Hook them on poetry with this hybrid collection of nonfiction information and catchy verses about every kind of arachnid you can imagine. Yikes!

16. Science Verse by Jon Scieszka (2-5)

A collection on the poetry of science is a rare find. This book is highly entertaining and will also get your students thinking creatively.

The title of this collection perfectly sets the tone for these impressive poems that tackle the trials of childhood.

This collection of poems is inspired by the glory days of 1950s Harlem jazz. Each poem is a tribute to one of the influential musicians of this iconic age.

A classroom favorite! These two-part poems are perfect for poetry lovers and reluctant beginners alike.

Sometimes called visual poetry or word pictures, concrete poetry presents beautiful words and ideas in shape form. These imaginative examples, illustrated by the brilliant Chris Raschka, will surely inspire your young poets.

Another charming collection to add to your upper elementary classroom library.

Jack Prelutsky is a master of the silly, tongue-twisting, giggle-inducing poetry that kids love.

This fun collection encourages reluctant young readers to enjoy poetry and marvel at the wonder of words.

Set in each of the four seasons, each haiku in this collection shows a boy goofing off while experiencing nature. Author Bob Raczka explains, "Nature is a place where guys love to be."

This collection is filled with colorful images of nature. It also features poems that express the emotions evoked by the changing seasons.

Best Poetry Books for Kids in Upper Elementary and Middle School

Poetry and mindfulness fit together so nicely. Teach both with this unique book from a top-notch children's poet.

Moving and powerful portraits of eleven enslaved people who were sold at auction. Their stories illustrate the importance of life experiences and dreams that nothing can take away.

Full of humor and surprises, this award-winning work by Rachel Rooney is described by one reviewer as "a box of joy and laughter."

This collection offers a rich sampling of poetry from the 19th century through today. It also features a wide variety of types, styles, and themes for students to explore.

This collection includes a variety of poems and a guidebook to teaching poetic forms. It also explains 29 forms and gives great examples.

This New York Times bestseller is a vibrant and exciting collection whose poetry and beats will resonate with readers.

Best Poetry Books for Kids in High School

Concrete poetry for teens that tackles subjects such as hairdos, extracurriculars, and annoying younger brothers. It's a funny, sarcastic take on life as a high schooler.

Eleven-year-old Robert voices his observations and thoughts in this middle school-focused collection of concrete poems.

An impressive collection of poems by award-winning poets and relative newcomers. Each poem speaks to the simple truths that emerge from asking the question: Who am I?

An honest collection of poems that addresses the vast emotions teenagers experience.

A hopeful and encouraging collection of poems by poet Naomi Shihab Nye. Dedicated to the memorable people she's met, Nye's message is one of empathy and peace.

This guidebook, filled with creative writing exercises and original poems, is a great teaching tool. It will also encourage teens to write poetry about their lives.

Original works by 19 teen poets known as the Get Lit Players. With their award-winning performances of classic and spoken-word poems, they are inspiring many teens across the country.

This collection of poems, told through the voices of a boy and a girl, explores the mysteries of teen love, from tender beginning to "final flameout."

This collection features works by 100 new, young poets. Full of originality, the poems address many life events, from tragedy to bliss.

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40 Essential Poetry Books for Kids in Grades PreK-12

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Whether you're going all-in for National Poetry Month in April, or making poetry a regular part of your class's reading diet, it's always a good time to check out some poetry books for kids and teens. We've gathered 40 of our favorite poetry books for kids in grades Pre-K through high school.

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Fake Text Message | Make Fake Text Conversation

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Fake Text Message is a tool to create a Fake Text Conversation and a Fake iMessage.

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What do you call fiction writers who try to write poetry? Prosers.

What does the reluctant poet write? Averse.

I came across these puns on a list from Buzzfeed, and I couldn't help but notice their applicability to teaching poetry in the classroom. Sometimes when I ask my students to write a poem or even just to write about a poem they read, I get moaning and complaining and whining, and if I'm lucky, I'll get "a verse" from every student. Many students do feel like "prosers" when they are asked to respond to anything related to poetry - mainly the kids who strongly dislike poetry to begin with but also the students who realize writing poetry is not usually second nature.

Despite the divide between poetry and student interest, verse has wide applicability to all kinds of lesson plans...not just in ELA classes, but in any content area. There's no questioning the validity of poetry. In a recent post, I wrote about six simple ways to make poetry engaging. In this post, I'm expanding on those ideas by focusing specifically on how teachers can captivate reluctant writers through images. By using something almost everyone enjoys (pictures / illustrations...and let's not count out moving pictures), we can make poetry more attractive to reluctant writers.
Without further ado, let's take a look at thirteen creative ways teachers can use images to inspire students to write poetry.
Many students have heard of The Book with No Pictures, but not all of them are aware of books with no words. This type of children's book has a powerful potential for use in English classrooms (from elementary school through secondary school). How can wordless picture books be used for poetry purposes? Teachers can "read" one of these books to their class. Actually, in one of my Reading masters' classes, a professor read Flotsam (one of my favorites) to a group of adults. He paused on each page, and the class made observations about what was happening. These books can be used to make inferences, to make predictions, and to develop comprehension, reasoning, and sequencing skills. After reading the wordless picture book with the class, a teacher can then ask students to write a poem (any style!) inspired by the book the class just read together. Perhaps students write a couplet or a quatrain to accompany each page.

This is a fun idea I dreamed up as I was thinking about how to make poetry applicable to twenty-first century students. What does almost every student love? Easy: cell phones and texting. Let's harness that passion! Text messages are usually short, and so are couplets. Have students use an image (let them get creative...they can take a selfie, take pictures of nature or with their friends, record a video, cut out a picture from a magazine, print a picture from the Internet, or even draw a picture) as inspiration for a series of rhyming couplet text messages (texting couplets). You can see the assignment I created here.

There are a couple different ways to approach concrete poetry. In its true form, the words create the picture. However, in my experience teaching various grade levels, students who have an artistic side enjoy drawing an image first and then filling in the illustration or outlining it with their poetry. I say....why fight that battle? If students understand the difference between concrete poetry and the artistic angle they are choosing to take, what harm is done? Google and Pinterest both showcase some incredible examples of how students can either use words to make a picture or how they can draw a picture and fill it in with verse.

Not all students have access to old family photographs (this wouldn't be practical to demand from all students, so it would make for an excellent choice assignment); however, the idea can apply to photographs of any kind. Most parents would probably appreciate their children taking an interest in nostalgic family relics. You can ask students to bring in one or several photographs that students find inspiring and interesting. Help students brainstorm by asking them to write down words that describe the photograph as well as having them think about how the picture makes them feel. Students can then write sentimental poems or humorous ones based on these images. They could also complete this assignment after taking their own pictures...new ones.

Here's an example I wrote (which proves you don't have to be "good" at writing poetry to benefit from the learning experience):
Brainstorming List (Observations): Poem: The dog peers into my eyes. Silently asking Will you pet my sides? The cat creeps up from behind. Proudly purring, Just trying to unwind. No working today; Today we play. Friends for life.
We all know the student who loves to draw or truly enjoys a good graphic novel. Try offering students the opportunity to use the graphic novel or comic strip format for poetry writing inspiration. This assignment could work a couple different ways. 1) Students could choose an existing comic strip or several pages from a graphic novel. They could white out the text and fill in the blanks with verse. 2) Students who enjoy drawing could illustrate their own comic strip or graphic novel pages from scrap and also write poetry to accompany the images.

Six-room poems are effective for many of my students because it structures their brainstorming into specific categories and makes drafting the actual poem easier. How can a six-room poem relate to a picture? Quite easily. Just have students choose a photograph or even a video (short films work wonderfully) for inspiration. They can look at the picture as they brainstorm ideas for each of their rooms. If you've never heard of a six-room poem or if you're not sure how to go about teaching students to write one, this article provides clear and helpful directions.

Instagram appeals to a wide age-range. Why? The pictures! People love scrolling through pictures on social media and reading the captions. Students can get creative with their Instagram images by captioning them with a short poem (a haiku, tanka, limerick, or cinquain, for example). This option is also a perfect avenue for artistic students to practice their photography skills.

Hashtags are another popular element related to social media, and often, they are used in picture captions. They're so catchy. Teachers can ask students to think outside of the box about hashtags. Why not use them to write poems? They could be the only element of a poem (100% pure hashtag), they could be an important element in the poem, or they could just be used at the end of the poem for effect. Think of the hashtag as the new form of figurative language. Students can use them in the same way they use metaphors, personification, hyperboles, foreshadowing, repetition, symbolism, sound devices, puns, and etcetera. This website has some examples (some school-appropriate, some not); my favorite is the one titled "#hashtag" by Dara Brown.

I'm sure you've seen quotes that are crafted into images. They're pretty pervasive in our society. There's something about a beautiful visual quote that is cathartic for the soul. Ask students to compile a list of their favorite quotes for homework or as an in-class research assignment. Then, have them create a found poem using only words from these quotes. They can produce the final draft of their found poem on their very own original quote image (hand-drawn or computer-generated). Use them to decorate your classroom!

Every year, I have students who want to run for president, and if they don't want to, they should. They LOVE politics. These students might enjoy an assignment where they are asked to create their own political cartoon or use an existing one and write a poem to accompany it. Harness your students' interests when it comes to poetry, and their investment and attitudes will improve. The New York Time's Upfront magazine is a wonderful place to start because their cartoons also have corresponding questions for analysis.

Bespoke ELA posted this article on Facebook, and when I saw it, I began brainstorming the PLETHORA of ways teachers could use these satirical visuals in the classroom. Without a doubt, they could be inspiration for poetry. These particular images specifically focus on technology issues in our society. Teachers can ask students to find a satirical visual text they appreciate and then write a poem based off of the picture they discover.

When considering what types of visual texts are worthy of classroom analysis, we shouldn't leave out well-known artwork, like Salvidor Dali's Persistence of Memory, Van Gogh's The Starry Night, and Grant Wood's American Gothic. To prepare students to write this type of poetry, you can show them how throughout time, poetry has actually inspired paintings. Need somewhere to start? This website has good examples. Once kids can see how a painting has been inspired by a poem, it might be easier for them to do the reverse by analyzing artwork to develop original poetry.

And while we're at it, students might as well read poems about pictures and then write an original!

Regardless of which type of image students are using to inspire their poetry, teachers can guide students during the brainstorming stage by prompting them with questions, helping them think through the options for how to create their poetry, and even allowing them to create their own rubric based on self-determined criteria. You can view the brainstorming assignment I use with my students here.

To take it one step further, teachers can scaffold the poetry writing assignment by brainstorming possible topics, themes, and even words to include in the poems. Do you have students who still need more support? Write the first few lines of the poem together as a class, and let them finish it on their own.

The main observation I've noticed about teaching poetry is that the more requirements I give and the more "perfect" I expect the final product to be, the more resistance I get from students. Poetry doesn't have to be perfect. For the purpose of poetry in the classroom, just encouraging students to write and learn about the structure of a poem is a success.

A picture is worth a thousand words, but when it comes to poetry, we only need a few. Pictures, illustrations, images (of any kind) can inspire thoughts and ideas students might not otherwise have discovered. Try using pictures to inspire poetry with your students, and leave a comment below to share your thoughts.

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13 Ways Pictures Can Inspire Students to Write Poetry | Reading and Writing Haven

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What do you call fiction writers who try to write poetry? Prosers. What does the reluctant poet write? Averse. I came across these puns on a list from Buzzfeed, and I couldn't help but notice their applicability to teaching poetry in the classroom.

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Teaching students to analyze poetry can be challenging. This product uses pop culture music (almost any song of your choosing will work) to engage students in discussion about lyric poems.

This two-page activity includes analysis questions which encourage students to identify parts of poems as well as open-ended, high-interest critical thinking questions that will help teachers facilitate lively class discussions. Analyzing poetry through music can be fun. Use this engaging poetry analysis assignment as a hook for a larger poetry unit, as a tool to teach students about analysis, or just because!

If you find this product useful, make sure to check out some additional analysis and poetry products available in my store, like these:

Analyzing Texts Bundle

Teaching Fairy Tales and Analysis with Brave

Poetry Journal Prompts for Secondary Students

Figurative Language Truth or Dare Game

Romeo and Juliet Figurative Language Bundle

Mr. Peabody and Sherman Movie Guide and Film Analysis

Get Schooled! Figurative Language Game

And more here!

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Teaching students to analyze poetry can be challenging. This product uses pop culture music (almost any song of your choosing will work) to engage students in discussion about lyric poems. This two-page activity includes analysis questions which encourage students to identify parts of poems as wel...

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Word clouds are a great way to visualize sentiment, creatively display live poll responses, and turn an otherwise monotonous presentation into an interactive work of art.

The internet has no shortage of word cloud generators, and choosing the right one can be overwhelming. We've narrowed them down to the top 10 best word cloud generators that allow you endless customization and creation possibilities. Read on to discover which word cloud generators give you the most bang for the least amount of effort.

A quick note on pricing: some entries on this list ask you to pay for special features, like high-quality image downloads of your word cloud, moderation features, or personalization.
To help figure out which is the best word cloud generator for your next project, here's a summary of what each one offers.

WordArt.com

WordArt.com (formerly Tagul) creates stunning images, and is easily one of the best word cloud generators out there. You can upload an image and use it to set the shape of your word cloud. In the example above, I choose a coffee cup image I found online, entered my words, and hit Visualize. That's it. The generator automatically selected colors based on my original image. If I wanted to, I could tweak it a bit with a different font, or change the orientation of my words. But this first draft already looks impressive. Two thumbs up to WordArt.com for aesthetics and ease of use.

WordClouds.com

WordClouds.com has a little text balloon that pops up asking if you need help creating your first word cloud. It's a considerate touch, part of what makes this generator one of the most user-friendly on the list. The interface feels modern and is easy to navigate while still offering a lot of customization options. That's a difficult balance to achieve. However, I did run into a minor hiccup after uploading my coffee cup image as a custom shape. Unlike WordArt.com, WordClouds.com does not automatically duplicate words that you submit to fill out an image. I had to do that manually. It wasn't difficult, but as you can see the results are a little less... refined. Rather than visualizing recurring words by size alone, you end up with quite a few repeats. If you're using your word cloud to show predominant sentiments, that's going to become a problem for this generator.

Wordle

Wordle strikes a nice balance of simplicity and customization. It doesn't have all the frills of other generators I tried (no custom shapes, for example), but what it does have is very straightforward to use. My favorite feature - one I wish all word cloud generators had - is a 'randomize' button that scrambles the entire cloud with a single click. Tap it a few times, and you quickly get a sense of what you can create with this tool. Wordle's main drawback is Java. Since Wordle requires Java to function, it can be tough to get it to run on certain web browsers. You're probably safe if you have a recent version of Chrome.

Jason Davies' word cloud generator

Jason Davies' word cloud generator is an odd one. It feels more like an interactive science fair project than a data visualization tool. While every other entry on this list is chiefly concerned with making your words look pretty, Davies' lets you dig into the math that controls the placement of words. Would you rather have an 'Archimedean' or 'Rectangular' spiral to your cloud? If you already know the answer to that question, then you're sure to enjoy Davies' detailed breakdown of how his generator works (complete with further reading for the word cloud aficionado). This is the nerdiest of all the word cloud generators I experimented with. Definitely the one to share with your math major friends.

Abcya.com

ABCya's word cloud generator is more toy than tool. It feels like a simplified version of WordCloud.com, sacrificing all but the most basic customization options for a kid-friendly interface that's easy to use. You can whip up a basic word cloud in moments using a handful of preset color schemes, shapes, and fonts. If WordCloud.com is a blank canvas, then ABCya is a coloring book. The only hiccup I found occurred when saving an image of my word cloud. The bottom of the image was cut off, but fiddling with the options fixed the issue. This is probably the generator to choose if you're planning to make word clouds in an elementary school classroom.

TagCrowd

TagCrowd has some unique features - and limitations - compared to the other word cloud generators on this list. For example, you can paste in the URL of any website and create a word cloud from the text on that page. You can also opt to add a number alongside each word in the cloud, to explicitly show how often it appears on the webpage (or in whatever text you used). These features and others make TagCrowd feel more like an analysis tool than an artwork creator. On that note, visualizations are basically nonexistent here. What you see is what you get. Use TagCrowd when strict, clear measurement is more important than aesthetics.

WordItOut

WordItOut helps you generate word clouds unlike any other on this list. First, it has emoji support, which greatly expands your creative possibilities. Second, you can input phrases using the ~ symbol. This generator automatically changes "Pizza~Hut" to "Pizza Hut" in the finished cloud. Third, you can tweak the colors of individual words, frequency, rank, and more. Other generators listed here support one or two of these options, but (so far) WordItOut is the only one with all three. The flexibility makes this one fun to play with.

Tagxedo

Tagxedo is a great generator riding around on square wheels. It requires Microsoft Silverlight to function, and once that's installed the interface is a bit awkward to navigate. But if you surmount those hurdles, what remains is a feature-rich generator that can accommodate whatever custom shapes, colors, and fonts you want. And it has a History section - my new favorite feature. Need to rollback to a previous version of your word cloud? Find a snapshot of it in the History section and give it a click. It's perfect if you like to create by trial and error.

Poll Everywhere

The magic of Poll Everywhere's word cloud generator lies not only in its aesthetics, but in its customization, control, and presentation engagement capabilities. Instead of creating an image on a website, what if you were able to collaborate instantly with your audience and, together, create a living word cloud that grows as your audience responds? Educators and meeting facilitators use it every day to engage their class or audience in real-time. After your presentation ends, it serves as an easy way to share a highlight from your presentation with your participants. Learn how word clouds from Poll Everywhere can help you create and collaborate with your audience, instantly.

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Word clouds are a great way to visualize sentiment, creatively display live poll responses, and turn an otherwise monotonous presentation into an interactive work of art. The internet has no shortage of word cloud generators, and choosing the right one can be overwhelming.

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Tip: If you allow students to select a character of choice, you may want to prepare an extra set of lines for character choices that may be less popular (save a copy of these so you can use them year after year). Then groups that end up with only one or two students will still have other ideas to use to create a collaborative poem even if there aren't any other people in their group.

Once students have a character, provide students with a prompt. My prompt is very generic: what would you character want us to know about him/her, his/her life, and the events in the story?

You can also offer starting lines as suggestions, or require students to use some or all of them. Requiring students to use each line at least once allows students to create repetition and may create more unity when students' individual lines are mixed in with their group's lines. The lines that I give students are:
*Write that I...
*Tell them that I...
*When you write my story, say that I...

Besides not mentioning that students will eventually be working in groups, I also don't initially describe this writing activity as a poem. I just ask students to do a quick write or free write from the point of view of the character they chose.
Tip: Tell students to skip a line between each line of their poem; it makes it easier to cut them apart later.

Once students have completed their individual writing and you have placed them in groups based on their character, instruct students to cut apart the lines of their poems and then begin to incorporate their lines with the rest of their group's lines.

You can require that the collaborative poem be a certain number of lines long and/or that a certain number of each student's original lines are included in the collaborative poem. I don't like to set these requirements because students will likely only do what they are required, but some groups may need that structure.

As groups are constructing their new poem, I encourage them to leave out lines that are too similar and allow them to modify lines to improve the flow (i.e. changing verbs to have a consistent tense).

I also ask students to number the lines of their new poem, so that if this work continues into another class period, they don't have to start all over.

After students have organized their lines and made any necessary changes to wording, I allow them to copy their poem out on large construction paper. I encourage them to play around with the size, color, and placement of their text.

The final step is to create a title for their collaborative poem that reflects its theme. If time allows, I allow students to decorate their poem with related images.

Be prepared to be wowed by the final results!

For more poetry lesson ideas and resources:

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The Literary Maven: Collaborative Poetry: Bring Students' Voices Together Through Group Writing

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Tip: If you allow students to select a character of choice, you may want to prepare an extra set of lines for character choices that may be less popular (save a copy of these so you can use them year after year).

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As an English teacher, I have always loved teaching poetry. I used to confine it to one unit every winter as a way to engage students after winter break, but recently shifted to starting my year with poetry. Why wait to get into the good stuff?

My thinking was confirmed by Edutopia's recent article, 4 Reasons to Start Class With a Poem Each Day, by ninth grade English teacher Brett Vogelsinger. His four reasons are:
1. Poetry is short so you can have a rich discussion after spending very little time reading.
2. Poetry is intense, allowing students to connect with emotions immediately.
3. Poems connect to other readings, both fiction and nonfiction, and can serve as an entry point to themes or ideas in a longer text.
4. Poems inspire writing; their form or ideas can easily be imitated by students.
Vogelsinger's article incorporates a multitude of poem suggestions and ends with a challenge for teachers to try starting their own classes with a poem a day, at least for National Poetry Month.

To help you accept this challenge, either now or at any other point in the school year, I've put together a list of 30 poem recommendations, some from myself and some from other middle and high school English teachers. These are poems that our students love and we hope yours will too.

1. Introduction To Poetry by Billy Collins
I love to start my poetry units with this particular poem because it usually kicks off a great discussion about how students have interacted with poetry in the past. Sometimes, as teachers, we spend so much time teaching students how to analyze, break down, and decode poetry that we forget to teach them how to appreciate the beauty of the words and the message.
*Recommended by Presto Plans

2. How to Eat a Poem by Eve Merriam
This poem is short, uses highly accessible language, and is full of imagery. I love to ask students what they think the poet is comparing a poem to and to draw what they imagine (many think of a fruit, but I've also gotten response like a cheese steak). After reading, have students write their own how to poems, either for concrete actions, i.e. how to ride a bike, or for abstract ideas, i.e. how to catch a star.

3. I Am Offering this Poem by Jimmy Santiago Baca
Before reading anything by Jimmy Santiago Baca, I like to share some brief biographical information about him with students. He was abandoned by his parents at a young age and at 13 ran away from the orphanage where his grandmother had placed him. He was convicted on drug charges in his early 20s and spent five years in prison. There he learned to read and began writing poetry. I share this information with my students to show them that beauty (like this poem) can come from great hardship and that one doesn't necessarily need a traditional education to become a great writer. This poem is packed with amazing figurative language for students to analyze but also a powerful message about the most meaningful kind of gifts we can give to each other.

4. Mr. Nobody by Anonymous
Not all poetry has to be serious. Have some fun with students as they read about all the trouble that Mr. Nobody causes. I'm sure they can easily create a list of all the mischief he is responsible for in their own homes. Students could write poems about "Somebody," "Anybody," or "Everybody."

5. The Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll
Talk about playing with language! This is a great poem to use to teach students about the flexibility of language. The interesting thing about this poem is that students can understand what is happening, even though there are nonsense words like "vorpal" and "uffish." A monster called a "bandersnatch" will capture your students' imagination. Lewis Carroll uses portmanteaus to create new words -- a fun challenge for your own students to try.
*Recommended by Marypat at Just Add Students

6. First Fig by Edna St. Vincent Millay
This is a poem that I love to let students "chew on." I just give it to them and wait. My students sit with this one a while and I'll assign a freewrite about it. After some minutes to ponder, students have an "ah-ha" reaction to it. Candles are pretty rampant symbols in literature, but I've always loved how Edna St. Vincent Millay subverts our expectations in this poem. Students describe feeling proud, sad, hopeful, and a little disoriented. I love that these four lines pack such a punch!
*Recommended by Danielle Hall @ Nouvelle

7. There is no frigate like a book by Emily Dickinson
I love this poem because it is excellent advice: reading can let you travel where your wallet can't. Dickinson's sparse style a weird punctuation are fun to play with, and let's face it, the word "frigate" is entertaining!
*Recommended by TMC Saunders, Gas Station Cappuccino

Walker's voice is commanding and fierce in this poem though the lines are short and the vocabulary simple. Poems like this one show students that poetry doesn't have to be fancy or complex to carry meaning. After reading, students can analyze the symbols in the poem (the "doors" they battered down and the "mined fields" they crossed). The poem could also easily be incorporated into a unit on Civil Rights.

9. Nothing Gold Can Stay by Robert Frost

If your students read The Outsiders, you know how powerful this little poem is. If they haven't read it, this poem is still a gem. As short as it is, this is a powerhouse of meaning about life and death. Use this poem to teach symbolism and word choice. A plus for teaching this in the spring when you can look out your classroom window and see nature's first green!

*Recommended by Marypat at Just Add Students

10. Do not go gentle into that good night by Dylan Thomas
This poem, which also deals with the themes of life and death, is perfect for teaching rhyme scheme and is filled with personification. It's one I can still remember reading in high school. Ask students to imagine that they are at the end of their days and write advice to the young about how to live their lives.

11. A Day by Emily Dickinson
I love this poem for so many reasons! Anyone who has seen the sun rise or set can relate what is happening in this poem. Even though we may see the sunrise as an ordinary event, in this poem, the speaker describes it as something extraordinary. Wonderful metaphors and vivid imagery help readers visualize the speaker's experiences. I have my students write a "companion" poem that describes something that is ordinary as extraordinary.
*Recommended by Marypat from Just Add Students

12. Love That Dog by Sharon Creech
This book is a free verse piece that gives a voice to students' general aversions to poetry (it's "just" for girls, there's "nothing" to write about, poems are confusing and hard to understand, etc.) but then goes on to show that writing and reading poetry is not only enjoyable but can also be a good way to deal with painful emotions and memories. It's a very powerful read and includes other famous poems along the way but makes them relevant to today's middle schoolers.
*Recommended by Mrs. Spangler in the Middle

13. Love That Boy by Walter Dean Myers
One of the novels I LOVE to read with my 6th graders is Love That Dog by Sharon Creech. Upon first look this appears to be a very simple novel, but with a journaling assignment from the teacher's perspective and poetry analysis, this is the perfect novel to share with 6th graders. One of the poems that we analyze during this read is "Love That Boy" by Walter Dean Myers. I adore sharing this poem because I have two boys of my own that I treasure, but also because it incorporates simile, metaphor, repetition, and rhyme in a way that is relatable to my students. In the poem Walter Dean Myers is writing about his boy and the traits and ideals he loves about him. My challenge is for my students to reflect on the poet's words to identify: one simile, explain why so much repetition was utilized, identify rhyming words and their purpose, and the meaning of the two metaphors, "He got long roads to walk down before the setting sun." and "He'll be a long stride walker." Once we have analyzed the poem, I find that my students are inspired to write their own "Love That..." poem that incorporates a topic they LOVE and feel moved to write about. This student poem includes: simile, metaphor, repetition, and rhyme. The students can't wait to share their own work, but hear the poems created by their peers that connect to Walter Dean Myers' incredible writing.
*Recommended by Erin Beers from Mrs. Beers: A Language Arts Classroom

When tackling challenging poems like this one, I like to use the pre-reading strategy modeled in this video where students focus first on individual words from the poems, looking for patterns, before examining the poem as a whole. You'll be amazed at the meaning students are able to draw out of the poem before they see it in it's entirety. The other reason I love this poem is because of its connections to art, much of it focusing on Pieter Brueghel's painting of The Fall of Icarus. Have students match lines of the poem to aspects in the painting.

15. Landscape with the Fall of Icarus by William Carlos Williams
As a comparison to Musee des Beaux Arts, or for an easier read on the same topic, use this William Carlos Williams poem. It also focuses on Pieter Brueghel's painting of The Fall of Icarus. I like to show students how other artists have painted or drawn the same scene and then have students write a poem based on their favorite painting or drawing.

16. The Cremation of Sam McGee by Robert W. Service
This poem is set in the Alaskan/Canadian snowy wilderness. First off, it's a super interesting poem that includes a dying person, supernatural encounters, the hazardous terrain, and survival...Students love this stuff. It also allows an easy study of rhyme scheme and meter because it so skillfully follows its own pattern. It allows easy integration of non-fiction resources about the Northwest Territories and the Yukon and gold mining hazards. It's a short poem that lends itself to a 2-4 day engaging study.
*Recommended by Jonathan Stephens, Created for Learning

17. Hope is the thing with Feathers by Emily Dickinson
This is such a beautiful poem. I never get tired of it! It is poem for teaching extended metaphor and imagery. The poem is easy for students to understand and relate to, yet the theme is complex enough to challenge their thinking about abstract terms. How do you describe hope?
*Recommended by Marypat at Just Add Students

18. Self Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson
When I teach transcendentalism we delve into the glorious essays. Emerson's "Self Reliance" and Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience." These are fantastic texts to really analyze, and compare to modern songs or news articles. However, my favorite is to show students a different side of Emerson. Rather than start with the essay, we start by the poem of the same name, "Self Reliance." We get into the ideas of transcendentalism and introduce students to the style of Emerson. We can annotate the heck out of it in less than a class since it is so short. We can also bring in non-fiction to analyze why he would have included the date and to use quotes of him discussing compasses as a source to support their opinions of the symbols. Once they really understand the poem, students use their own figurative language to write their own poems about the voice inside them. Once I started teaching this poem BEFORE the essay I found students enjoyed the essay more and really understood the skills I wanted them to use when annotating AND the ideas of the transcendental movement. With so many influences in their life I enjoy having students focus on listening to their inner voices and doing what they know to be right instead of what others tell them is correct.
*Recommended by Carissa, The mELTing Teacher

19. To Look at Any Thing by John Moffitt
"To Look at Any Thing," by John Moffitt, is a short poem that works its magic with students! It opens their eyes to the idea that just giving something a quick glance is never enough to make a judgement or call yourself experienced. The speaker's voice is commanding: "You must look at it long," "You must enter in," "You must take your time." I love the poet's use of repetition here, by which he insists that we actually become what we see and step into the nuances within. Besides repetition, we find imagery, metaphor, and alliteration. I use this poem as the opener in a packet of poems I have titled Perspectives. I ask students to discuss how this poem might relate to other topics beyond the examples of nature the poem contains. As a reflection, students write their thoughts on how they interpret the message of the poem. Is it purely about nature, or is the poet addressing our perspective on other things as well?
*Recommended by Joy Sexton

20. Richard Cory by Edwin Arlington Robinson
The twist at the end of this poem should lead to interesting conversation about how we perceive others. How could a man like Richard Cory, who "we thought that he was everything / To make us wish that we were in his place," go home "one calm summer night...and put a bullet through his head?" The poem could be used as an entry point to a unit on depression and other mental health issues.

21. How to Write the Great American Indian Novel by Sherman Alexie
Alexie's poem also deal with how we judge other people, specifically stereotyping American Indians, but could serve as the beginning of an examination of how the "other" (anyone not white) is portrayed in literature, film, music, etc. Have students compare the poem to Disney's "Pocahontas" or the recent remake of "The Lone Ranger" featuring Johnny Depp, and then move on to other cultures' current depictions in the media, i.e. Black and Asian stereotypes in the TV series "Rush Hour."

22. Hanging Fire by Audre Lorde
While all teenagers can relate to many of the speaker's woes, this poem resonates most deeply with my African American female students. The repeated line, "and momma's in the bedroom with the door closed," reflects the impasse many teenage girls feel in their relationships with their mothers. Reading this poem can lead to rich discussion of students' fears, large and small, as well as their relationships with parents.

23. Daddy by Sylvia Plath
Like "Hanging Fire," Plath's poem deals with a strained relationship with a parent. This one is a bit darker and uses allusions to Hitler, World War II, and the Holocaust to convey the speaker's perceptions of her father and feelings about how he treated her. The poem could lead to discussions about abusive relationships, both physical and mental, and the long lasting effects they can have on children.

24. The Secret Heart by Robert Coffin
This tender poem addresses a child's perceptions of his father. It's a wonderful poem to teach imagery and symbolism. It can be difficult for students to initially grasp what is happening in the poem, but they can almost act out the events of the poem to help them "see" what the speaker sees. This poem shows how poetry can be used as a tool for the speaker to reflect on life.
*Recommended by Marypat at Just Add Students

25. Abuelito Who by Sandra Cisneros
This poem, an ode to the speaker's grandfather, is full of both love and sadness. Allow students to identify the shift in the poem and discuss the images created by the figurative language. Students may have different interpretations about what has happened to the grandfather by the end of the poem (he is very sick versus he has died), but as we all have loved ones who are old or failing, it is sure to tug on some heartstrings. The poem is the perfect lead in to writing about loved ones or getting creative with figurative language.

26. Where I'm From by George Ella Lyons
For the past three years, I've used this poem during the first few weeks of school to teach the process of close reading, introduce how word choice creates mood and tone and to help build a cohesive culture in my classroom. This is always the first text we read, and I enjoy the poem because the theme is accessible, but the images are such that students really have to read closely to truly get it. I have students spend a day analyzing the poem, and writing about the picture of childhood it paints for the reader. We then spend a day or two creating our own versions of "Where I'm From" poems, workshopping them with three sets of partners and then presenting them to the class. My students are always pleasantly surprised that they have more in common with their classmates than they initially realized, and I've found this poem to be a great way to get students excited about analyzing, writing, and sharing poetry.
*Recommended by Sara Nelson, GritGrindTeach

27. Ego-Tripping (there may be a reason) by Nikki Giovanni
This poem is all about how "bad" the poet thinks she is and is full of allusions to the reasons why being black and female is so great. You may want to have students listen to a reading of the poem by the poet to truly give it justice. After reading, have students identify, and if needed research, some of the references in the poem. They can also write their own poems using allusions to show how "bad" they are.

28. Naming Myself by Barbara Kingsolver
Although the lifestyles of teens may change over generations, their search for a better understanding of themselves remains the same no matter the year. Their constant search for identity makes Barbara Kingsolver's poem, "Naming Myself," a compelling read in the secondary English classroom. The poem's themes about family, heritage, and individuality engage students and help them pose questions that are relevant to their lives: What is the meaning of a name? Why do women take their husband's names? Is it acceptable to marry someone from a different ethnicity? No doubt, this sophisticated poem will captivate your students and provide a meaningful learning experience.

*Recommended by Kim Patrick, OCBeachTeacher

29. Sonnet 29 by William Shakespeare
If you want to recognize Shakespeare's 400th birthday, this sonnet is a great way to do so. I love this sonnet because it sounds like a teen wrote it! By teaching the sonnet form, you will address rhythm, rhyme, iambic pentameter, couplets, quatrains, and the turn. While these are all very technical aspects of poetry, the approachable nature of this poem makes it fairly easy to understand, so teaching the form is easy to do...and, of course, who doesn't need a little more Shakespeare??!!
*Recommended by Marypat at Just Add Students

30. [i carry your heart with me(i carry it in] by e. e. cummings
Perfect for comparison with the uplifting power of love described in Shakespeare's "Sonnet 29," this poem also shows students that the "rules" of poetry are meant to be broken. cummings plays with punctuation, ignores capitalization, and breaks lines where ever he darn well pleases, and yet his poem is still a thing of beauty. Use this poem to encourage your students to abandon any ideas they might have about what poetry should look or sound like.

Get daily reminders of these poems during National Poetry month this April by following @theliterarymaven on Instagram. You can also view all of the poem images in this slideshow.

For more poetry lesson ideas and resources:

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The Literary Maven: A Poem A Day: 30 Poems for Secondary Students During National Poetry Month (or Any Other Time of Year)

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Looking for new poetry for your middle school and high school students? These 30 poems, recommended and tested by secondary ELA teachers in their own classrooms, are sure to engage and inspire your students during National Poetry Month or any time of year.

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about

After "The Entombment" by Raphael

The night my father died, I sat on a stool
at the Buckhorn, gazing
out the window's cool counter seat.
Like a funhouse mirror, you appeared.
I have a familiar-looking face; my father used to say-
his wish for me to blend in.
Late after an argument, I fled
and was found bound to a prairie fence
after eighteen hours.
My body is like a sock in the wind
in a field just a mile from here.
My face blooms, velvety
and light like a lamb's ear,

frozen with blood; down
my neck, it goes. A medley of ants shuffles
away. My body is rich with the sour smell
of urine on my head like a crown of daffodils. stachys byzantina; my ears

Copyright © 2023 by Ruben Quesada. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on November 27, 2023, by the Academy of American Poets.

One does such work as one will not,
And well each knows the right;
Though the white storm howls, or the sun is hot,
The black must serve the white.
And it's, oh, for the white man's softening flesh,
While the black man's muscles grow!
Well I know which grows the mightier,

O, rich young lord, thou ridest by
With looks of high disdain;
It chafes me not thy title high,
Thy blood of oldest strain.
The lady riding at thy side
Is but in name thy promised bride.
Ride on, young lord, ride on!

I'm in my room writing
speaking in myself
& I hear you
move down the hallway
to water your plants

I write truth on the page
I strike the word over & over
yet I worry you'll pour too much water on the plants
& the water will overflow onto the books
ruining them

If I can't speak out of myself
how can I tell you I don't care about the plants?
how can I tell you I don't care if the books get wet?

I have folded my sorrows into the mantle of summer night,
Assigning each brief storm its allotted space in time,
Quietly pursuing catastrophic histories buried in my eyes.
And yes, the world is not some unplayed Cosmic Game,
And the sun is still ninety-three million miles from me,
And in the imaginary forest, the shingled hippo becomes the gray unicorn.
No, my traffic is not with addled keepers of yesterday's disasters,
Seekers of manifest disembowelment on shafts of yesterday's pains.

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Home The Academy of American Poets is the largest membership-based nonprofit organization fostering an appreciation for contemporary poetry and supporting American poets.

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Contemporary Songs Lyrically Compare Two Unlike Items

A simile is a literary device, a figure of speech in which a direct comparison of two, unlike items, is used to reveal a much greater meaning:

A simile draws resemblance with the help of the words "like" or "as".

For example, "You're as cold as ice" is a simile in a song that has the same title by the rock group, Foreigner:

"You're as cold as ice
You're willing to sacrifice our love"

In this example, the lyrics are not referring to the weather; instead, these lyrics compare a woman to ice to illustrate her emotional state. There are many classic folk, pop, and rock and roll songs from the 1960s-1990s that can be used to teach the concept of simile.

The use of a simile in a title is in the 1965 song by Bob Dylan, who most recently won the Nobel Prize in literature. His song " Like a Rolling Stone" is about a woman who has fallen from wealth to despair:

"How does it feelTo be without a home a complete unknown a rolling stone?"

Arguably, the song's title may be the most famous simile in all of modern pop and rock music. And, now that Dylan is a Nobel Prize Laureate, the song-and the singer-can be a great jumping-off point for a class discussion of similes, the very meaning of literature and more.

Additional songs with the word "like" used as a simile in a title include:

"I'm on your side
When times get rough
And friends just can't be found
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down"

"And it seems to me you lived your lifea candle in the wind
Never knowing who to cling to
When the rain set in"

The song was re-crafted into a slightly altered tune, " Goodbye England's Rose," which John performed at the 2001 funeral of Princess Diana. Even though this was nearly a quarter century after the original, the similarity of the lyrics-and the popularity of the sequel, which shot to No. 1 in many countries-demonstrates the enduring power of a well-crafted simile.

Simile vs. Metaphor

Students should not confuse simile with another figure of speech called a metaphor. The difference between the two is that only a simile uses the words "like" and "as" in making a direct comparison. Metaphors make indirect comparisons.

Metaphors and similes are very common in music, which provides a high-interest tool to teach students about both concepts. Previewing the song lyrics, however, is critical. Often the reason for the figurative language such as a simile is to avoid using more explicit language. Several of the similes in song lyrics or the other lyrics in the song can be for mature students only.

A teacher may also want to preview the song's video to make sure that the visual content associated with the song, which could be familiar to the students, is appropriate for the classroom. The list below has been previewed for high school students. If there is questionable material, it is noted.

The following contemporary songs all include similes:

"Africa" Remake by Weezer

"Africa," a top chart hit from the band Toto in 1983, has returned in a remake by the band Weezer. The reason? A teenager (14-year-old Mary) set up a Twitter account to pester the band into covering the song. Weezer drummer Patrick Wilson responded to her, and soon the band covered the song. There are several versions where Weird Al Yankovic joins the band in a rendition.

The lyrics are available with Weezer on this video link. One great example of a simile in the song "Africa" is

"As sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti
I seek to cure what's deep inside, frightened of this thing that I've become​"

The simile also is a​ reference to Olympus, the home of the gods in Greek mythology. That is a bonus literary allusion.

The song "Back to You" by Selena Gomez is featured in the soundtrack of Season Two of 13 Reasons Why. She also serves as an executive producer on the series, which was based on a young adult novel by Jay Asher. The central plot deals with the suicide of a student, Hannah Baker, who leaves a box of cassette recordings detailing why she took her own life.

The song begins with a simile, comparing how the singer remembers how she felt returning to an ex-boyfriend. Note: The "shot" is a reference to alcohol, although it could also be to a vaccination:

"Took you like a shot
Thought that I could chase you with a cold evening
Let a couple years water down how I'm feeling about you
(Feeling about you)
And every time we talk
Every single word builds up to this moment
And I gotta convince myself I don't want it
Even though I do (even though I do)"

Songwriters: Amy Allen, Parrish Warrington, Micah Premnath, Diederik Van Elsas, and Selena Gomez

The song "Simple" by Florida Georgia Line is just that, a simple retelling of an uncomplicated relationship.

The song opens with a simple comparison of a couple to a "six-string" guitar. The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that usually has six strings. The guitar is the basis for many folk and country-western songs.

The song features not only a guitar but also a banjo, a five-stringed instrument. The simile is in the refrain:

"We're just simple like a six string
The way this world was meant to be
Like laughin' love, make a lot out of a little
It's just that simple, S-I-M-P-L-E
Simple as can be."

The musical's libretto incorporates many different genres of music, including hip-hop, R&B, pop, soul, and traditional-style show tunes.

The simile in "My Shot" is contained in the refrain ("like my country"), in which the young Founding Father (Hamilton) compares himself to the American colonies looking to become a country.

Caution: There are some vulgarities in the lyrics.

[HAMILTON]
"And I am not throwing away
My shot
I am not throwing away
My shot
Hey yo, I'm just like my country
I'm young, scrappy and hungry
And I'm not throwing away my shot"

In this song, physical pain is compared in a simile to a choking rain of ashes.

In an interview, lead vocal Dan Reynolds of Imagine Dragons explained that the song Believer, "... is about overcoming emotional and physical pain to arrive at a place of peace and self-confidence." He had suffered a serious form of arthritis in 2015:

"I was choking in the crowd
Living my brain up in the cloud
Falling like ashes to the ground
Hoping my feelings, they would drown
But they never did, ever lived, ebbing and flowing
Inhibited, limited
Till it broke up and it rained down
It rained down, like
[Chorus]
Pain!"

"Body Like a Back Road" by Sam Hunt

The lyrics are for mature students only as they make a direct comparison of a woman's body to the curves in a back road.

"Body like a back road, drivin' with my eyes closed
I know every curve like the back of my hand
Doin' 15 in a 30, I ain't in no hurry
I'ma take it slow just as fast as I can..."

These lyrics could be paired with e.e.cumming poem, " she being brand." In this poem, Cummings indirectly compares the driving of a new car to a clunky sexual experience.

This song began its ascent onto the charts in June 2015. Shawn Mendes is quoted as explaining, "The whole video is me getting beaten up by this thing that you can't see..."

Lyrics using the comparison keyword "like":

"Just like a moth drawn to a flame
Oh, you lured me in, I couldn't sense the pain
Your bitter heart cold to the touch
Now I'm gonna reap what I sow
I'm left seeing red on my own"

The end of the video reveals that the violence in the song lyrics was all part of his imagination, a creative comparison between physical hurt and emotional pain.

This R&B track song offers a self-empowerment message. In an interview with Billboard Magazine, Grande explained, "I'll never be able to swallow the fact that people feel the need to attach a successful woman to a man when they say her name."

Lyrics using the comparison keyword "like":

"Somethin' 'bout you makes me feel like a dangerous woman
Somethin' 'bout, somethin' 'bout, somethin' 'bout you

In the Billboard interview, the songwriter Grande also noted, "I'm much better at making songs than telling people things."

Pink is a modern artist known for her in-your-face lyrics. "Just Like Fire" is an empowering song about Pink's own value as a person and as an artist, as her lyrics demonstrate.

Lyrics using the comparison keyword "like":

"Just like fire, burning out the way
If I can light the world up for just one day
Watch this madness, colorful charade
No one can be just like me any way
Just like magic, I'll be flying free
I'mma disappear when they come for me"

The song also hints at how important it is to Pink that she continues to make and bring light to the world through music. The song could serve as a starting point for a lesson or paper on how each student can serve as a light- a shining example -to others through words and deeds.

"Ex's & Oh's" by Elle King

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, King explained how the song came to life when co-writer Dave Bassett asked her about her love life, and she started talking about her past relationships. "'Well, this guy's mad at me, and I was really mean to this guy, and this guy's a loser but he still calls me," she said.

Lyrics using the comparison keyword "like":

"Ex's and the oh, oh, oh's they haunt me
Like ghosts they want me to make 'em all
They won't let go"

King and Bassett started writing the song as a joke, but when King's label (RCA) heard it, they pegged it as the hit single.

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Billboard Top Chart Hits That Teach the Simile Concept

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Contemporary Songs Lyrically Compare Two Unlike Items A simile is a literary device, a figure of speech in which a direct comparison of two, unlike items, is used to reveal a much greater meaning: A simile draws resemblance with the help of the words "like" or "as".

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"Metaphor is a figure of speech which makes an implicit, implied or hidden comparison between two things that are unrelated but share some common characteristics."

For example, "He is such a pig," is a metaphor that you might hear about someone who overeats. A similar figure of speech is a simile. The difference between the two is that similes use words such as "like" and "as." "She eats like a bird" is an example of a simile.

Take a look at the lyrics from Michael Jackson's song, "Human Nature," which includes the following line:

"If this town is just an apple
Then let me take a bite"

In these lyrics, New York City is the town since it is often called the Big Apple. The New York Public Library website notes that the metaphor, the "Big Apple," has had various other meanings throughout history. Throughout the 19th century, the term big apple meant something regarded as the most significant of its kind; as an object of desire and ambition. The website also noted the phrase 'to bet a big apple' meant someone was "absolutely confident" and stating something with " with supreme assurance."

Another example is Elvis Presley's (1956) song, "Hound Dog," which includes the following lyrics:

"You ain't nothin but a hound dog
Cryin all the time"

Here there is the unflattering comparison to a former lover as a hound dog! After sharing that comparison, a study of the lyrics could be turned a lesson on cultural history and influences. The song was first recorded by Big Mama Thornton in 1952, fully four years before Elvis recorded his version. Indeed, Elvis's music was greatly influenced by the blues sounds of great black artists from the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s.

A final example, the title of the song, "Your Love is a Song," by Switchfoot is, itself, a metaphor, but there are also other examples of this figure of speech in the lyrics:

This comparison of love to music is chronicled throughout history, as poets and bards have often compared love to various forms of music or beautiful objects. A possible lesson would be to ask students to research instances of this kind of metaphor in songs and poems. For example, Scotland's most famous poet, Robert Burns, compared his love to both a rose and a song in the 18th Century:

Metaphors and the other literary device of comparison, the simile, are common in everyday speech, fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and music. Music is a great way to teach students about both metaphors and similes. The following list features songs with metaphors that can help you create a lesson on the topic. Use these examples as a starting point. Then, ask students to explore other songs, literary and historical works in search of metaphors and similes.

The love song "Perfect" sung by Ed Sheeran uses an angel metaphor to describe a woman.

According to Vocabulary.com angel is a messenger of God, "characterized as having a human form with wings and a halo." Angels are noted for their goodness as well as comfort and aid to others.

The song has also been recorded as a duet with Beyoncé, and as a symphony with Andre Bocelli. The song lyrics:

"Baby, I'm dancing in the dark, with you between my arms
Barefoot on the grass, listening to our favorite song
I have faith in what I see
Now I know I have met an angel in person
She looks perfect
Oh I don't deserve this
You look perfect tonight"

In teaching metaphors, there is another famous angel metaphor in Act Two of Romeo and Juliet when Romeo hears Juliet sigh and say "Ah, me." He responds:

Winged messengers from heaven? Whether the angel is Juliet or the woman in the song, an angel is "Perfect."

The sunshine in the pocket in the song "Can't Stop the Feeling"- by Justin Timberlake is a metaphor used to describe the happiness felt when the singer sees his lover dance. There is also the play on words with "soul" referencing a kind of dance music and its homonym "sole" for the bottom of a foot:

"I got that sunshine in my pocket
Got that good soul in my feet"

The sun as a metaphor is also seen in the following literary works:

Plato's Republic uses the sun as a metaphor for the source of "illumination";

Shakespeare uses the sun in to serve as a metaphor for the monarchy:
"Yet herein will I imitate the sun,
Who doth permit the base contagious clouds
To smother up his beauty from the world..."

The poet E.E.Cummings use the sun to describe his feelings of love in the quote, "Yours is the light by which my spirit's born: - you are my sun, my moon, and all my stars."

In Shakespeare's time, many people believed that fate was preordained, or "written in the stars." An example of this Elizabethan view of fate is Queen Elizabeth I's selection of the astrologist John Dee so that he could read the stars to pick her coronation day in 1588.

That connection between the stars and fate is used as an extended metaphor in the musical The Greatest Showman. The song "Rewrite the Stars" is performed as an ariel ballet between two of the characters: Philip Carlyle (Zac Ephron), a wealth and socially-connected white man, and Anne Wheeler (Zendaya), a poor, African-American girl. The metaphor suggests that their love can lift them high enough to write a fate where they can be together.

The lyrics from their duet:

"What if we rewrite the stars?
Say you were made to be mine
Nothing could keep us apart
You'd be the one I was meant to find
It's up to you, and it's up to me
No one can say what we get to be
So why don't we rewrite the stars?
Maybe the world could be ours
Tonight"

Songwriters: Benj Pasek and Justin Paul

The heart is often used in metaphors. Someone can have a "heart of gold" or "speak from the heart." The title of Maroon 5's song, "Stereo Hearts," is itself a metaphor, and the lyric containing this metaphor is repeated multiple times for emphasis:

"My heart's a stereo
It beats for you so listen close"

The connection between sound and heartbeat infers intimacy.

But the sound of a heartbeat in literature can have another meaning. For example, Edgar Allen Poe's story, "The Tell-Tale Heart," describes experiences of a man -- a murderer -- driven crazy, and into the arms of the police, by the increasingly loud thumping of his beating heart. "It grew louder -- louder -- louder! And still, the men (the police who were visiting his home) chatted pleasantly and smiled. Was it possible they heard not?" In the end, the protagonist could not ignore the beating of his heart -- and it led him to prison.

Songwriters: Travie McCoy, Adam Levine, Benjamin Levin, Sterling Fox, Ammar Malik, Dan Omelio

Selena Gomez' song, "Naturally" includes the following lyrics:

"Naturally" may be a pop song, but it harkens back to ancient Norse mythology, where the name of its main god, Thor, literally means "thunder." And, according to the website Norse Mythology for Smart People, Thor's main weapon was his hammer, or in the Old Norse language, "mjöllnir," which translates as "lightning." The metaphor presents a pretty intense image for what, at first glance, seems like a light pop song.

Songwriters: Antonina Armato, Tim James, Devrim Karaoglu

The refrain of the song "Natural" states that someone (You) needs a "beating" heart of stone in order to endure the suffering in the world. In order to survive the world's darkness, someone would need to be "cutthroat." The Gothic images in the official music video support the dark tones of the song.

The metaphor "a heart of stone" finds its origin as an idiom, as an expression that refers to a person who does not show sympathy for others.

The metaphor is in the refrain:

"A beating heart of stone
You gotta be so cold
To make it in this world
Yeah, you're a natural
Living your life cutthroat
You gotta be so cold
Yeah, you're a natural"

Songwriters: Mattias Larsson, Dan Reynolds, Ben McKee, Justin Drew Tranter, Daniel Platzman, Wayne Sermon, Robin Fredriksson

The latest remake of the film A Star is Born stars Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper. One song the duet sings uses the depth of water as a metaphor to figuratively describe their relationship.

Water is a reoccurring symbol in literature, art, or mythology. According to Thomas Foster in his book, How to Read Literature Like Professor:

"Water has a distinctive role in literature. Sometimes it's just water, but when characters become submersed it can mean more than they are just getting wet (155).

Foster argues that writers employ lakes and water as a symbol of rebirth for the character, "if the character survives that is" (155).

That description linking water and survival is important since the metaphor in the song "In the Shallows" describes the ups and downs in their relationship. A refrain in the song is sung alternately by Cooper and Gaga:

Songwriters: Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando, Andrew Wyatt

In U2's song, "One," the band sings about love and forgiveness. It includes the following lines:

There's an interesting history in the notion of comparing love to the law. According to "Metaphor Networks: The Comparative Evolution of Figurative Language," the term "love" was considered equal to the term "law" during the Middle Ages.

Love was also a metaphor for debt and even economics. Geoffrey Chaucer, who is considered to be the father of English literature, even wrote: "Love is an economic exchange," meaning, "I'm putting more into this (economic exchange) than you," according to the "Metaphor Networks." That should certainly serve as an interesting starting point for a classroom discussion.

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Which Contemporary Songs Use Metaphors That Will Apply to Students

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"Metaphor is a figure of speech which makes an implicit, implied or hidden comparison between two things that are unrelated but share some common characteristics." For example, "He is such a pig," is a metaphor that you might hear about someone who overeats. A similar figure of speech is a simile.

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Middle school is the perfect time to introduce students to poetry. By providing students with opportunities to explore a variety of forms, you'll give them the freedom to discover which types of poetry most resonate with them. Engaging, short lessons are an excellent way to hook your students on poetry right away.

Ekphrastic poetry allows students to use poetry to describe a work of art or landscape in vivid detail. They may be less intimidated by this type of poetry, which encourages them to write about something rather than compose poetry from their imaginations.

Introduce the concept of ekphrasis.

Write a 10- to 15-line poem based on a work of art.

Paper and pencils

Printouts or projector to display artwork reproductions

1. Introduce students to the term "ekphrasis." Explain that an ekphrastic poem is a poem inspired by a work of art.

2. Read an example of an ekphrastic poem and display the accompanying artwork. Briefly discuss how the poem relates to the image.

1. "Edward Hopper and the House by the Railroad" by Edward Hirsch

2. "American Gothic" by John Stone

3. Guide the students through a visual analysis by projecting an artwork on the board and discussing it as a group. Useful discussion questions may include:

1. What do you see? What is happening in the artwork?

2. What is the setting and time period?

3. Is there a story being told? What are the subjects in the artwork thinking or saying? What is their relationship?

4. What emotions does the artwork make you feel? What are your sensory reactions?

5. How would you summarize the theme or main idea of the artwork?

4. As a group, begin the process of turning the observations into an ekphrastic poem by circling words/phrases and using them to compose the first few lines of a poem. Encourage the students to use poetic techniques such as alliteration, metaphor, and personification.

5. Discuss various strategies for composing an ekphrastic poem, including:

1. Describing the experience of looking at the artwork

2. Telling the story of what's happening in the artwork

3. Writing from the perspective of the artist or subjects

6. Share a second artwork with the class and invite the students to spend five to 10 minutes writing down their thoughts about the painting.

7. Instruct the students to select words or phrases from their free associations and use them as the starting point for a poem. The poem need not follow any formal structure but should be between 10 and 15 lines.

8. Invite the students to share and discuss their poems in small groups. Afterward, reflect on the process and experience as a class.

Make connections between poetry and songs with which your students are familiar. You may find that your students enjoy examining poetry more readily when it is presented in the form of lyrics.

Identify similarities and differences between song lyrics and poetry.

Discuss how language can create a tone or mood.

Speakers to play music

Printouts or projector to display song lyrics

1. Choose a song that is likely to appeal to your students. Familiar songs (e.g., current hits, famous movie-musical songs) with broad, relatable themes (belonging, change, friendship) will work best.

2. Introduce the lesson by explaining that you're going to explore the question of whether song lyrics can be considered poetry.

3. Invite the students to listen closely to the song as you play it for the class.

4. Next, share the song lyrics, either by passing out a printout or projecting them on the board. Ask the students to read the lyrics aloud.

5. Invite the students to brainstorm similarities and differences between the song lyrics and poetry.

6. As key terms emerge (repetition, rhyme, mood, emotions), write them on the board.

7. When the conversation turns to theme, discuss how the songwriter conveys that theme. Ask the students to point out particular lines that support their ideas and what emotions those lines evoke.

8. Discuss how the emotions evoked by the lyrics connect to the rhythm or tempo of the song.

9. At the end of the lesson, ask the students if they believe all songwriters are poets. Encourage them to use background knowledge as well as specific evidence from the class discussion to support their points.

Slam poetry blends poetry with performance art. The audience of a slam poet participates in readings by scoring the performance. Encourage your students to explore this form of poetry by allowing them to identify poetic devices by watching videos of slam poetry performances.

Introduce slam poetry.

Reinforce knowledge of poetic devices and techniques.

1. Introduce the lesson by explaining that the activity will focus on slam poetry. Ask the students what they know about slam poetry and if they have ever participated themselves.

2. Provide a definition of slam poetry: short, contemporary, spoken-word poems that often describe a personal challenge or discuss an issue.

3. Play the first slam poetry video for the students.

4. Ask the students to compare the slam poem to written poetry they've read in previous lessons. What is similar? What is different? The conversation may naturally transition into the poetic devices present in the slam poem.

5. Pass out a handout with a list of common poetic devices (the class should already be familiar with them).

6. Tell the students that their job is to be poetic device detectives and listen carefully for any poetic devices employed by the slam poet.

7. Play the first slam poem video again. Each time the students hear a poetic device, they should write it down on the handout.

8. Ask the students to share the poetic devices they detected. Discuss the role each device plays in the poem (e.g., repetition emphasizes an important point; imagery creates a certain mood).

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3 Poetry Mini-Lessons For Middle Schoolers

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Middle school is the perfect time to introduce students to poetry. By providing students with opportunities to explore a variety of forms, you'll give them the freedom to discover which types of poetry most resonate with them. Engaging, short lessons are an excellent way to hook your students on poetry right away.

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By Cheryl Trowbridge

Tunnel books are fun and unique! We made ours using a post card for a prompt and wrote a haiku to go with it. I've made these with grade 4 and up, but younger students could enjoy this activity in "centers", with the help of parent volunteers, or by having the various parts prepped for them ahead of time.

There are lots of different directions you could take this project. We added a pocket on the back for holding a written story that we added later. For a convenient pdf of this lesson, visit my Teachers Pay Teachers Store!

Materials (per student):

1 - 4×6 post card (a single, horizontal scene from nature is best for traditional Japanese haiku)

*4 - 4×6 index cards (white)

*4 - 4×6 index cards (white), each pre-cut into two 3"x4" pieces

(3 extra 4×6 index cards, white, if you want to add a pocket in the back)

1 - 3×5 index card, cut to 2 ½"x4 ½" (a color other than white if possible, to use as a template for tracing the opening)

scissors

glue stick

pencil and eraser

lined paper for writing haiku

black UF Sharpie

colored pencils

(*Each "page" of your tunnel book will require two - 4×6 cards. These instructions are for the four "page" book shown.)

3. Pass out post cards and have students write a nature-themed haiku to go with their postcard. The first line (5 syllables) introduces their subject, the 2nd line (7 syllables) continues describing it, and the 3rd line (5 syllables) completes the idea. 6. Cut away the center section of each page, cutting around any elements that extend into the middle. 7. Assemble your tunnel book, Directions: Haiku:
1. Begin by reading a few haiku poems to your students, so they get the feel for the structure of the verse. Choose haiku that focus on nature as a theme, as you find in traditional Japanese haiku. Explain that a haiku does not need to rhyme. Titles are optional.
2. Show how each of the 3 lines has a specific number of syllables (5,7,5). Practice by clapping out the syllables in the haiku you just read.
Tunnel Book: (A "What Am I?" haiku is fun for kids.... the student uses the haiku to describe something in the picture without naming it, somewhat like a riddle.)
1. First, make the hinged sides of your book by folding each of your 3"x4" index cards accordion style: fold in half lengthwise ("mountain fold"), then fold each loose edge up ("valley fold") to line up with the fold in the middle.
2. Next, put a little glue along the inside edge of two of your hinges, and place them on the left and right sides of the back of your post card. Repeat this step for each 4×6 card.
3. Then, center your 2 ½" x 4 ½" card on each of the 4×6 cards and trace around it. These will be your pages and your "cover".
4. Write one line of your haiku across the top of each of 3 cards, and your title (if you want one) across the other. Trace with Sharpie.
5. Now, illustrate each page of your book by choosing elements from the post card and repeating them on the edges of each page. Keep most of your design along the top, bottom and sides, but allow some elements to overlap into the center section. (Remember that objects closer to you will appear larger than those farther away. Outline your drawing with Sharpie and color with colored pencils.)
)
Optional pocket:
8. Use one of your extra 4×6 cards to make a pair of hinges, like you did in step 1, above.(By pinching the middle of each page, without creasing to the edges, you can snip into the center to create an opening for your scissors.
9. Glue the hinges to the front of a 4×6 card.
working from the back (line 3 of your haiku) to the front, gluing the back of each hinged page to the hinges behind it. 10. Fold the last 4×6 card in half width-wise and glue one half to the front of the 4×6 card.
Glue the other half to the back of your postcard.
11. Finally, glue the front of the hinges to the back of the post card to complete your pocket. 12. Now, write a story, fold it up, and put it in the pocket!

Filed Under: Tagged With: Bookmaking, bookmaking, colored pencil Colored Pencil, Drawing, Lessons

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Tunnel books are fun and unique! We made ours using a post card for a prompt and wrote a haiku to go with it. I've made these with grade 4 and up, but younger students could enjoy this activity in "centers", with the help of parent volunteers, or by having the various parts prepped for ...

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Resources for creating a digital escape room.

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Resources for creating a digital escape room.

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Creating Your Breakout Website & Your Digital Lock
You can likely use any website creator to make a digital breakout, but Google Sites is probably the best option and it is what I use. It's free, you have access to it if you have a Gmail account, it's straightforward and simple to use, and you'll easily be able to integrate a Google Form, which acts as the digital "lock" for the breakout.

Your Google Form can have as many "locks" in it as you'd like. A "lock" is a field where students will enter a code. The code can be numbers, letters, or some combination of both.

You can find a video tutorial about how to create a Google site here, how to embed items from Google Drive into your Google Site here, and how to create a "locked" Google Form here.

Planning Out Your Breakout
Think about the information you want to include in your breakout. What do topics do you want students to learn about? What skills would you like them to practice? Do you want them to read an article about an author's life? Do you want them to review Greek and Latin roots and their meanings? Once you have some ideas of what you want students to do, you can start to think about how you will lead students to those pieces of information and/or tasks.

In a digital breakout, you usually want to lead students to one of three places.
1. You can lead them directly to a code that will open a lock.
2. You can lead them directly to a clue that will help them figure out the code to open a lock.
3. You can lead them to another URL that will give them a clue to help them figure out the code to open a lock.
There are a few different ways to lead students to these three things.
Using Text
One way to lead students to information or a task is by using text. You can put text directly on the main page of your Google Site or create a Google Doc and link that to the main page. Be sure to make the sharing permissions of any Google Doc "View Only" so students don't accidentally edit it. You can also create a link that forces students to make a copy of the Doc which they can then edit.

You can also create fake emails, fake text message conversations, fake concert tickets or airplane tickets, fake store receipts, fake newspaper articles, or fake, signs, ransom notes, or diplomas. You can then embed an image your fake item on your Google Site.

Some ideas for manipulating text to spell out a URL, clue, or code:
1. Use capital letters
2. Use bolded text or a different color text
3. Underline certain letters
4. If it is a shorter piece of text, omit letters
5. Use the first letters of every paragraph, sentence, or line of a poem

Using Articles, Video, or Songs
Another way to lead students to information is by using resources that already exist on the internet, like articles, videos, songs, etc. Find articles, videos, or songs that relate to the topic or skill your breakout is focused on. In an article, find a key word or important number to use as a code to unlock one of the locks. In a video or song, look or listen for a key word or important number to use as a code.

Since articles, videos, and songs are all things you cannot edit, you need to include a link to these types of resources somewhere on your breakout site. You can link text or images on Google Sites. This video shows you how to embed a link in text and the process for linking an image is similar.

If you are sharing a link to a video, you may want to run it through SafeShare.TV to remove any advertisements and comments to prevent your students from being exposed to inappropriate content. You can also edit the description of the video with SafeShare.TV to include a clue or code. Just be sure that your district does not block the site.

Using Questions
You can also lead students to information by having them answer questions about information they've read, watched, or listened to or by having them answer questions that allow them to practice a skill.

Some ideas for using questions to lead to a URL, clue, or code:
1. Have a series of multiple choice questions in a Google Doc with the answers spelling out a code (i.e. ACDBA).
2. Create a letter/number code to accompany several questions. Beneath each letter of the answer, have a corresponding number. I create a table with two rows in a Google Doc with students spelling out the answer in the top row and the corresponding numbers below. You can then give a series of numbers at the bottom of the Google Doc that will spell out a word that has no question accompanying it. Students will have to use the letter/number combinations from their other answers to figure it out.
3. Create a quiz using Google Forms. Once students have correctly answered all of the questions, you can give URLS, clues, or codes in the feedback when they view their scores.

Using Visuals
You can get creative with images and other visuals to give students a URL, clue, or code. Here's a few ways to do that:

1. Hide words in a mandala or a snote.
2. Select an image to turn into a puzzle using Jigsaw Planet or using Google Drawings (here's an example)
3. Link parts of an image in Google Drawings or using ThingLink
4. Have students look for something using the street view of Google Maps

There's tons of other ideas and resources shared here on the Breakout EDU site. Good luck planning and creating your own breakout!

You can find all of my breakout resources here. I'm also happy to take requests or collaborate on creating one; just send me an email.

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The Literary Maven: Resources For Creating Digital Breakouts: Ideas For Making Your Own Activities

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Looking for a new and creative way of having your students learn a new topic or reinforce skills? Breakouts are a great way to make content more engaging and encourage cooperation among students.

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Students participate in a classroom or school-wide poetry slam. A poetry slam could also serve as a fund-raising activity or parents night event.

Objectives

Students

select poems that lend themselves to being performed.

plan performances that follow established slam guidelines or rules.

practice their performances.

present their poetry reading in a videotaped slam performance.

use a rubric or scale to rate performances by their peers (optional).

contest, drama, fund-raiser, open house, parent involvement, parents night, perform, poem, poet, poetry, slam, theater, video

Materials Needed

none

Lesson Plan

Explain the concept of a poetry slam to students.

What Is a Poetry Slam? PoetrySlam.com offers the following definition of a poetry slam on its Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page:

"Simply put, a poetry slam is the competitive art of performance poetry. It puts dual emphasis on writing and performance, encouraging poets to focus on what they're saying and how they're saying it. A poetry slam is an event in which poets perform their work and are judged by members of the audience."

Often, in a poetry slam, the audience participates by judging each performance on a scale of 1 to 10. For more basic information about poetry slams, go to PoetrySlam's FAQ Page. There you will find the answers to such questions as What are the rules? and What can the audience do?

Tips for Your Poetry Slam
For the purposes of a classroom or school-wide activity, the rules of a poetry slam can be adapted in many ways, including the following:

Students might perform poetry written by well-known poets, or they might perform poems they have written themselves.

Student performances might be limited to two minutes in length; point penalties might be applied to any performance that goes longer than that.

A ballot and rubric can be created so students can rate one another's performances, or the teacher might be the sole grader.

If a school-wide event is held, poets and other community members might serve as the event judges.

Students might use props when they perform.

Student performances can be videotaped in their classrooms; a panel of judges, including teachers and students, might review the videotapes to select the students who will perform in the school-wide event.

The poetry slam might be open to any student who wishes to participate -- or each class could hold a mini poetry slam and select three students to represent the class in the school-wide event.

Performances might be rated on a scale of 1 to 10 (with .5 increments allowed) or on the 1.0 to 6.0 scale often used in Olympic competitions (with .1 increments allowed).

One score might be given for each student's performance, or separate scores might be given for the student's content and presentation; the "content" grade could reflect the content of the poem if it is student-written or, if not, that score could reflect the research that went into finding the ideal poem to perform.

If this is students' first experience with a poetry slam, it should first be introduced in class as a fun activity. That way, students will get a feel for the form.

Admission can be charged, with proceeds used to improve student programs. Individual students could be awarded cash prizes that would be turned over in their names to local charities pre-selected by the students.

For additional slam rules -- rules that can be adapted for a classroom or school wide poetry slam -- see the Poetry Slam Rules FAQ page.

A poetry slam can be great fun! It can make a nice addition to a school open house or parents night, or it might even be used as a fund-raiser or community service event.

Assessment

Assessment suggestions are provided in the Tips for Your Poetry Slam notes above.

Lesson Plan Source

Education World

Submitted By

Gary Hopkins

Return to the Lesson Planning article, Turn Students Into Well-Versed Poets.

Originally published 4/19/2002
Updated 03/16/2017

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Students participate in a classroom or school-wide poetry slam. A poetry slam could also serve as a fund-raising activity or parents night event. Objectives Students select poems that lend themselves to being performed. plan performances that follow established slam guidelines or rules. practice their performances. present their poetry reading in a videotaped slam performance.

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So, you're intrigued by slam poetry, and you want to know how to start using it in the classroom. I get it; slam poetry is so awesome, sometimes I am intimidated by teaching it. But, the good news is that more than likely, your kids are going to love it. And when that happens, you've got some serious teacher power on your hands.

-Looking for a slam-poetry unit plan? Click here->

This lesson plan I've included here was part of a larger poetry unit. We had covered lots of different poetic devices through other poems, but I hadn't shown them slam poetry as an example, yet. Throughout my units, no matter what unit it is, I try to angle the purpose as that we learn how to write so that we can change the world. I give a huge talk at the beginning of the year when I'm explaining the course about changing the world with our writing (which I hope to write about soon), and so I try to connect back to it every unit. During our fiction unit we use this idea to emphasize theme, and during our argumentative we actually had a "democracy party" this year, where if kid wrote to someone real about something real that could change, they could participate.

Another note about this lesson is that I like it to be the first slam poem that the kids see. Before showing it, I give a preview about what the poet's topic will be, that he uses a lot of poetic devices, blah blah blah. I kid you not, every year, after I give this preview when I show the video, there are a couple black students in my room that react in surprise that the poet is black. The power of representation is strong, people. No joke. That's one reason you might notice that my list of my favorite slam poems, I strove for a variety of races. Our kids deserve and need to see themselves in our examples of experts.

Ok, off my soap boxes. Here is the lesson plan with accompanying materials. A quick note: if you feel like your kids might need more than one slam poetry example, I did include a slide with hyperlinks to other awesome examples (and also I have a more comprehensive list of slam poem videos for the classroom here). You have the option to show the examples to the whole class, or use the slide as self-paced differentiation→ which I explain how to do here .

Ok, for real: here is the lesson plan!

Slam Poetry Day 1 Lesson Plan

Learning Objectives:

Students will be able to........

Come up with and start a poem about something that is meaningful to them.

Apply techniques we've learned about over the last week (alliteration, rhyme, repetition, shape, similes) to enhance meaning of the poem.

Materials:

Intro/Mini-lesson - 10 min

Do Now Slide: Question: What are 5 problems or things that you would change about the world if you could? (Explanation for kids if they need it: If you could change anything about the world, what would it be? Maybe it's as simple as a later start time for school, or maybe it's that you wish bullying didn't exist, or perhaps that everyone was vegetarian. If you had the control to change one thing in the world, what would it be? Optional: show your own notebook where you made your own list.)

1. Attention grabber: "Raise your hand if you've ever been sitting in class and wondered, yeah yeah, I get it...but what's the point?" Today is the point.

2. Connection (to past teaching): "We've been working on writing effective poems, and today, we are going to channel that energy into writing about something that means something to you."

3. Teaching: "We're going to watch this Slam Poem, and see if it can give you ideas for writing OR for how to write your poem. (Play video)"

1. Active engagement: "Take a second, jot down some things you noticed that he did as a poet, and feel free to jot down ideas for what to write about as well." (give them 1 minute to write, then 30 seconds to talk with a partner-feel free to write as your kids are writing if your class can handle it.)

2. Model how it gave me ideas of both topics and techniques (show my own notebook page-either pre-written or written as the kids were writing)

4. Instructions for today:

1. Now, take a look at all of the topic ideas you came up with today, star your favorite one.

2. (Show slides with sentence starters from Slam Poetry Power Point ) Now that you know what you might want to write about, here are some ideas for how to start your poem. (Note: if you think the kids need more poem examples, you could either show another example from this slide-there are links!-or encourage them to check them out on their own that day if they have access to computers)

5. Link (how is this useful outside of today): Writing poetry can be fun, and it can also be moving. Push yourself to write a poem that can INSPIRE today. Don't worry about making your poem a poem today. Worry about writing from the heart-we'll mold it into a poem later.

Work/ Conference time - 30 min

1. Be looking for: work where students used a poetic device we've talked about

2. Anticipated troubles:

1. Back-up idea: have the student write a list of 10 things you know to be true→ make a poem about that list

2. Students not being able to come up with an idea: check students' lists of 5 things to change-if done, play with the ideas they have, if not done, coach them through finishing it.

3. Students having trouble starting the poem→ direct students to example starters-show them how to use one. Click on one of the links and have the student watch another example using one of the starters.

3. Forms of assessment:

1. Walk around and read over shoulders, marking on roster if students are

1. Writing a poem that's meaningful and

2. Using poetic devices we've talked about

2. Use conference log to record conferences I hold

3. Have students fill out exit slip that states what their topic was and poetic devices they used in their poem

1. Find 2 students to share, ask them during work time OR have volunteers share

2. Publicly compliment their use of what we learned about during class

3. Say:
I'm so glad you took the plunge and wrote about something that mattered to you today. I saw so many ways you were incorporating sound devices and poetic techniques to enhance your meaning. Tonight, finish these poems, and next week, we are going to start picking which poems will go into your portfolio of work.

And that's it! A Writing Workshop Slam Poetry starter-lesson. The possibilities of where to go from here are endless. Show another slam tomorrow and write a new poem? Continue to hone the one from today? Workshop poems in groups tomorrow to add the poetic devices we've been talking about? Up to you.

Pin it for later!

I've made updates to this lesson plan since posting it! You can download ready-to-go slides, an easy-to-use handout, and Word-version of the updated lesson plan for FREE here.

Want to see this lesson plan in action?

My Slam Poetry Mini-Unit uses this lesson as one of 5 to take students through brainstorming, drafting, planning, and performing a meaningful slam poem, all in a week. It's the perfect chunk of lessons to add slam poetry into a poetry unit, or to fill a week with engaging, meaningful content for students.

Want even MORE slam poetry lessons? This Slam Poetry Unit Plan includes a full 3 weeks of lessons similar to this one, taking students through drafting and revising multiple poems with a student-planned performance at the end.

You'd probably also like this Peer Conference/Feedback lesson plan. It's good to use for ANY type of writing and designed to lift both student's academic conversations and writing. Swoon.
Also these FREE resources:
25+ Slam Poems Appropriate for Middle School and High School -my most viewed post by far. Check it out for more ideas or put a link on your class website to let kids explore.

20 Ways to Help Reluctant Writers in your Classroom -a list of ways you can make your classroom more friendly to students reluctant to write, as well as trouble-shooting ideas for students who refuse to write.

How to Teach Students to Own that Speech -a lesson plan I've also adapted for teaching Slam Poetry, this is the perfect lesson before your slam poetry competition.

Teaching Writing Pinterest Board -My spot to collect all the most useful resources I can find for teaching writing-if you like this post, you're sure to like this collection.

ELA Resources Pinterest Board -A collation of engaging, best-practice resources for ELA teachers.

My Teachers Pay Teachers Store -If you liked this, you're sure to like resources in my store. I've taught writing for grades 6, 7, 8, 10, and 12, so teaching writing is my store's specialty!

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Slam Poetry Day 1: Speak. Your. Truth. | Teacher Off Duty

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So, you're intrigued by slam poetry, and you want to know how to start using it in the classroom. I get it; slam poetry is so awesome, sometimes I am intimidated by teaching it. But, the good news is that more than likely, your kids are going to love it.

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Artistic Expression: Music, Art and Poetry

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In a lesson on poetry, Emelia Hwang incorporates music and visual arts to enhance the meanings of poems. Her third grade class learns about haiku poems and works in small groups to write their own poems. Students then work collaboratively to create visual art pieces to illustrate their poems and compose music that describes the feeling of their poems. Throughout several lessons, Emilia models each process and then gradually releases responsibility to the students through structured practice and exploration.

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Last year, in honor of National Poetry Month, I shared 32 poetry pairings (that's a total of 64 poems!) so that you could host a poetry tournament in your classroom. If you can't wait until April, there's still time for you to use the same poems to create a March Madness bracket. You can find the paired poems and tournament directions here.

Many students are intimidated by poetry, so using music can help you ease them into poetry analysis as there's really no difference between looking at the lyrics of a song and the lines of a poem. These 15 song and poem pairings will also help you to tackle the analysis of "how two or more texts address similar themes or topics in order to build knowledge or to compare the approaches the authors take." If you are in a Common Core state, that's Reading Anchor Standard #9, and if you are not a Common Core state, it is still a worthwhile exercise.

1. "Annabel Lee" by Edgar Allan Poe and "Annabel Lee" by Tiger Army
This is an easy pairing to start out with as the song is simply a retelling of the poem. I like to show students the lyrics first before playing the song for them as hearing the music that accompanies the lyrics can be quite a surprise. Tiger Army is considered a psychobilly band, part of the rock music fusion genre that mixes elements of rockabilly and punk rock. After listening, discuss with students whether the music changes the meaning and tone of the lyrics. This pairing is also a perfect addition to your unit on Edgar Allan Poe.

2. " The Lighthouse" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and "The Lighthouse's Tale" by Nickel Creek
Students love the lighthouse imagery in each of these texts, and are quick to suss out the symbolism. However, once they push further, they can analyze the different perspectives offered (the song is from the POV of a lighthouse, while the poem's narrator simply admires and assesses the lighthouse from afar) and the impact on the audience. Both texts together work well to show students the effect of mood and tone. The song also works well alone as a first foray into song analysis as it offers a rich melody and emotional lyrics.
*Recommended by Danielle Hall from Nouvelle ELA

3. "Song of Myself" by Walt Whitman and "Sake of the Song" by Blackmore's Night
One of the verses of "Sake of the Song" reads, "Could you ever be just for the sake of being? Could a melody ever be wrong? Could you ever sing just for the sake of singing? Set your spirit free for the sake of the song." Those lines capture much more simply, and succinctly, Whitman's message in "Song of Myself." I don't suggest reading the whole poem with students. I recommend just the first three sections unless you assign each student a different section or two (there are 52 total) to try to translate. Add this pairing to your American Literature unit.

4. "Richard Cory" by Edwin Arlington Robinson and "Eleanor Rigby" by The Beatles
"All the lonely people, where do they all come from?" Each of these texts creates a rich character sketch of someone who wears a mask for the world, but deals with some tough emotions. These two texts offer easy opportunities for comparison: both have strong settings and character development. I like to have students follow up with writing their own character portrait poetry, zooming in on someone real or made up. Students always surprise me by creating an intense portrait in a very small amount of space.
*Recommended by Danielle Hall from Nouvelle ELA

5. "Because I Could Not Stop for Death" by Emily Dickinson and "Seasons in the Sun" by Terry Jacks
With this poem and song, students can consider the poet and artist's feelings about death. Do they fear death or do they welcome it? How do the poet and artist feel about the life they have lived? Both the poem and song have lines that require some thinking. For example, what does Terry Jacks mean when he sings, "But the stars we could reach were just starfish on the beach"? In Dickinson's poem, students can examine her use of personification. How does death become a character in her poem? Students can also consider her use of capitalization and how it affects (or doesn't affect) meaning in the poem.

6. "Pyramus and Thisbe" by Ovid and "Sk8er Boi" by Avril Lavigne
Forbidden love is a theme that always engages my students. When my freshmen read Romeo and Juliet, I begin with a thematic hook. As a class, we listen to songs like Avril Lavigne's "Sk8er Boi" and The Shangri-Las "Leader of the Pack." We also read " Pyramus and Thisbe" and discuss popular movies like Shrek, Hitch, Divergent, Lady and the Tramp, and the Titanic. All of these examples help us pose the question: Why are stories of forbidden love so popular? As students make connections, offer opinions, and draw thematic conclusions, we prepare to begin Shakespeare's play. This discussion is the perfect way to make classic poems relevant. Why read Romeo and Juliet? Why read "Pyramus and Thisbe"? The stories reflect modern issues that impact modern teens.
*Recommended by Melissa from Reading and Writing Haven

7. "Sympathy" by Paul Laurence Dunbar and "Caged Bird" by Alicia Keys
The lyrics of "Caged Bird" are a direct nod to Dunbar's poem. In comparing the poem and song, first have students focus on the birds. What are the conditions of their imprisonment? Then move on to the tone of the poet and artist. Are they similar or different? How does that connect to the experiences of the birds? Finally, have students discuss the use of the different gender pronouns. How does Dunbar's use of he and Keys's use of she potentially transform the meaning in the poem versus the song?

8. "I, Too" by Langston Hughes and "The Times They are A-Changin'" by Bob Dylan
Poetry challenges many students, but I've found that if you can present songs as poems, you can often get students to have a better understanding of their reading. In fact, when I introduce American Literature at the beginning of my semester, I use poetry, music, and art to get students engaged. One of my favorite pairings is to use "Let America Be America Again" by Langston Hughes with "The Times They Are A-Changin'" from Nobel Prize winner Bob Dylan. Both the poem and song share a purpose to improve American society, the song as an anthem for the Civil Rights movement and the poem as an appeal for equal treatment of all Americans. Excellent for analysis of poetic devices, both include examples of rhyme, alliteration, figurative language, symbolism, and allusion. If the poem is too long or complex for your students, Hughes's "I, Too" also makes a strong connection to the song.
*Recommended by Kim, OCBeachTeacher

9. "The Road Not Taken" Robert Frost and "Any Road" by George Harrison
As their titles suggest, both this poem and song focus on the road, a symbol of our journey in life. Once the symbolism is discussed, you can have students practice identifying rhyme scheme. Do students prefer one pattern over the other? This pairing can also lead to a deep philosophical discussion about choices and fate. Robert Frost maintains that "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I- I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference, " while George Harrison claims that, "If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there." Poll your students for their opinions on whether our fate is pre-determined or whether the choices we make determine our fate. Then allow students to debate the question using examples from literature.

10. "Chicago" by Carl Sandburg and "This City" by Patrick Stump
These two voices are so distant in time and genre, but share such a scrappy, unapologetic sense of pride for their cities. Both poets use a counter argument structure: they acknowledge the faults of their cities, then come right down and defend their homes. Stump identifies the "unethical politician" while Sandburg references having "seen the gunman kill and go free to kill again." The reason I enjoy pairing these two together is because Stump's version is so simple and approachable. His language is plain and the song is catchy, so it makes for a nice scaffold. Once you layer on "Chicago," the language gets more difficult, but since you're approaching it in the same context as "This City," the students already have a frame for the poem. As you look through these parallels with students (and there are several more!), I would suggest focusing in on four major aspects of the poems: the tone, the message, the speakers, and the figurative language. Depending on your class, you might even narrow that list down to just two things to focus on. I use a structured Venn diagram lesson as well as a deeper analysis writing activity with these two poems that would also work with any other pairing.
*Recommended by Amanda Cardenas, Mud and Ink Teaching

11."Mother to Son" by Langston Hughes and "Dear Mama" by Tupac Shakur
Paired together, this poem and song create a beautiful dialogue of a mother sharing her struggles with her son and a son recognizing the difficulties faced by his mother. After sharing with students that the poem was published in 1922 and the song was released in 1995, discuss what the "tacks" and "splinters" might symbolize in Hughes's poem and if they are the same types of struggles Tupac's mother endured. For a more contemporary song, you could also use"Hey Mama" by Kanye West (just be sure you are comfortable with all of the language before sharing it with your students). As a follow up to reading, students could write their own mother to son, father to daughter, etc. piece and a response, which are wonderful writing pieces for students to give as gifts.

12. "The Fish" by Elizabeth Bishop and "Hall of Fame" by The Script
My sophomores love our poetry unit because I infuse music throughout it as often as possible. Music is such a powerful way to teach poetic and rhetorical devices, but it can also bring poems to life. When paired well, music can make the thematic relevance of a poem tangible. Our poetry unit explores various poem structures, one of which is narrative. We use "The Fish" by Elizabeth Bishop because it's so rich in imagery - an important story element. In order to hook students, we surround this poem with multiple examples of songs that have a similar theme of resiliency. As we listen to "Hall of Fame" by The Script, "Fight Song" by Rachel Platten, and "It's Not Over Yet" by King and Country, we analyze the message, the author's purpose, and the social, cultural, and historical significance of the songs. With this prior knowledge in tow, we read "The Fish" and make as many connections as possible between characters and themes in the poem with those in the lyrics. It's fun to use the same analyzing music assignment when reading the poem as when studying the songs to prove to students that music really is poetry. My students always love this study because it makes poetry engaging, they get to listen to music, it scaffolds analysis, and everyone leaves in a good mood. Teenagers themselves have quite a bit to overcome, and our discussions often focus on positive ways they can address their own obstacles.

*Recommended by Melissa from Reading and Writing Haven

13. "Saturday's Child" by Countee Cullen and "Cat's in the Cradle" by Harry Chapin
The importance of time versus money is at the center of this comparison. "Saturday's Child" is narrated by a child reflecting on his impoverished childhood, while "Cat's in the Cradle" is narrated by a father who regrets not spending more time with his son. Both the poem and song make reference to a silver spoon, but have students determine whether the allusion has the same meaning in both pieces. "Saturday's Child" can be examined for personification and irony can be discussed with "Cat's in the Cradle."

14. " The Highwayman" by Alfred Noyes and "Everywhere" by Fleetwood Mac
Few can resist a love story and a classic song. The combination of the two make Alfred Noyes' poem, "The Highwayman," and Fleetwood Mac's song, "Everywhere," a perfect combination for bringing narrative poetry into the class. I begin with the poem. Students dissect the narrative elements and tease apart the storyline. We talk about what happens and the poetic devices Noyes uses. (It's strong on repetition, rhyme, alliteration, similes and metaphors.) Then students listen to the Fleetwood Mac song and watch the video. We discuss the similarities, the themes of each, and the ways the song's video connects to the poem. If there is time for more, we compare both to other song and video renditions. In the end, students have a solid appreciation for narrative poetry and this poem. Introducing them to a classic song and band is a bonus.
*Recommended by Writing by Rachel, Rachel Cummings

15. "Choices" by Nikki Giovanni and "Change" by Taylor Swift
Begin with a comparison of tone and theme as you examine "Choices" and "Change." While both the poem and song deal with the quandary of not getting what you want, Giovanni and Swift have very different attitudes about their problems, which results in the presence of two very different messages. "Choices" is from Giovanni's poetry collection titled Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day, which was published in 1978, and "Change" is a song from Swift's album titled Fearless, which was released in 2008 and used during the 2008 Summer Olympics. Discuss whether students attribute the difference in tone and theme to the time period, the women's racial identities, or a combination of both. What made Swift's song an appropriate choice for the Olympics? After reading, students could write about the changes they'd like to make in themselves or the change they'd like to see in the world.

You can find all of my resources for teaching poetry here.

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The Literary Maven: 15 Poem and Song Pairings to Liven Up Your Poetry Unit

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Many students are intimidated by poetry, so using music can help you ease them into poetry analysis as there's really no difference between looking at the lyrics of a song and the lines of a poem. Read on for 15 song and poem pairings that will liven up your poetry unit.

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Music is Poetry

A lesson plan by Brenda Guerra

Subject: Eighth grade Language Arts
Duration: Three class periods (40 minutes per period)

This lesson plan was one of the winners in a lesson plan contest sponsored by TeachersFirst in 2002. TeachersFirst editors have added technology options where appropriate.

Rationale
I created this unit to "turn students on" to poetry. They love to listen to their own music and if they see that it is really poetry, they will be more interested and receptive to a poetry unit.

Standards

Materials
School-appropriate CDs and lyrics (or links to lyrics pages online)* which students bring in ahead of time and which are previewed and listened to by the teacher; CD player; 3-4 copies of the lyrics for each song so the groups may analyze them; transparency of the questions that students will need to copy on the first day of the activity; teacher-chosen groups of students who work well together and have a strong leader to keep the group focused.

* Find online lyrics via Google search with the song title in quotation marks and and word lyrics. Teacher should preview, since many lyrics sites are user-generated and may have "other" content inappropriate for the classroom.

Procedure
Before this lesson, I cover the poetic devices with my classes, including imagery, onomatopoeia, personification, alliteration, assonance, consonance, metaphors, and similes. Students should be familiar with these devices so they will be able to find them in the lyrics when they analyze them. The teacher must obtain CDs and lyrics (or links) a few days/weeks ahead of time so that he/she can be prepared to play them on the first day of the lesson. The music should be student-selected, and if possible, a class vote may be taken a few days before as to which songs the class(es) want to hear and analyze. A list of questions should be prepared on the overhead or for projection from the computer on screen or interactive whiteboard for students and copied/opened on computers by all students on the first day of the lesson. I suggest five questions at the most.

Questions
Questions might include:

What is the song about? What does the title have to do with the song?

What message is the song trying to convey to the listener?

What three poetic sound devices can you find? Write the lines that you find each devices in and explain.

What two figurative devices (metaphor, simile, personification) can you find in the lyrics? Write the lines and explain each one.

Are the lyrics written as lines of poetry? If not, how would you break the lines into lines of poetry?

Day 1
I suggest telling students their group members on the first day so they may immediately get started on the following day. I suggest groups of no more than three. Each group will have to answer questions and analyze only one song.

Also on the first day, while students are copying the questions, I ask for two student volunteers to work the CD player. Students will first listen to the music before analyzing. If possible, lyrics should be provided on paper or on screen/whiteboard so they may look on while the music is being played. I try to play all of the songs selected, or as many as time permits.

Day 2
On the next day, students immediately get with their group members and take out their questions from the day before. The group that can get settled quickest will have first choice of the song they want to analyze. I then pass the lyrics to each of the group members. Alternatively, students can listen to CDs on computers with the lyrics on screen as they listen and create a word processing document with their group answers. They can also use the highlighter and other editing tools in the word processing program to annotate the lyrics copied and pasted from the web page (with credit, of course). They are told that they will only need to pass in one sheet/electronic file of answers and that answers to the questions should be in complete sentences. All group members must contribute to the analysis of the lyrics. If I see any student who looks like a non-participator I make a note of it and he/she will have points deducted.

After each group has received its song and lyrics, I walk around and monitor the groups. If a group has a question, the members must first check with each other to see if they can't solve it as a group first. If not, they all need to raise their hands before I will go over to help. I will try to help students without giving them any answers. At the end of the period, I ask for a runner from each group to return the group question sheet and the lyrics from each of the group members (or have them share it via Google docs or email). In this way, if any student is absent the following day, the rest of the group still has the work from that day.

Day 3
Day three continues in the same way as day two. The groups should settle down quickly and I pass out the lyrics and group question sheets to each group (if needed) as they continue to work on their analysis.

If time permits, on the day following the completion of the assignment, I like to have the groups go up in front of the class and present their findings in a five minute presentation. Have students make a multimedia presentation using one of the many TeachersFirst Edge tools reviewed here. The interactive whiteboard is ideal for presenting the information both visually and verbally. Each member should contribute in some way. This should be done only if time permits. The teacher may feel it is enough that the groups completed the questions and turned them in.

The questions are worth 50 points. The teacher may decide how he/she wants to evaluate each question.

Evaluation
I use the assignment for a class work grade of 50 points. Each question is worth roughly 5 points each, with each poetic device counted as 5 points each. I am rather lenient with my grading if the group gets the gist of the song. Some songs are harder to interpret than others and I will be more lenient for the harder lyrics. I count the presentation as a separate grade worth 20 points. Each student in the group must contribute to get a presentation grade.

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TeachersFirst: Lesson Plan - Music is Poetry

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A lesson plan by Brenda Guerra Subject: Eighth grade Language Arts Duration: Three class periods (40 minutes per period) This lesson plan was one of the winners in a lesson plan contest sponsored by TeachersFirst in 2002. TeachersFirst editors have added technology options where appropriate.

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Lesson Plan

Grades

3 - 5

Lesson Plan Type

Standard Lesson

Estimated Time

Six 30-minute sessions

Lesson Author

Publisher

Student Objectives Extensions Student Assessment/Reflections
STUDENT OBJECTIVES

Students will

Acquire knowledge and appreciation for beat and meter in poetry by listening to poems that are read aloud and discussing them as a class

Learn about the structure of poetry using an online tool to explore line breaks

Practice critical thinking by looking for poems that can be appropriately performed using musical instruments to emphasize rhythm

Apply the knowledge they have acquired about rhythm in poetry to their own poetry compositions

Demonstrate an understanding of the role of music in enhancing the rhythm in poetry by using music to perform both their own poems and those written by others

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1.

Read aloud two or three poems to the class. As you finish each one, encourage discussion using questions such as the following:

What do you see in your mind when you listen to this poem?

What kind of sounds do you hear?

Can you hear a beat in the words of the poem? (You might read a line from the poem and tap your hand on your leg to the rhythm of the words to show students what you mean here.)

Why do you think the poet wrote the poem this way?

2.

When you finish reading the poems, ask students to compare them using questions such as the following:

How are these poems the same? How are they different?

Which poems have the strongest rhythm? How can you tell?

Which is your favorite poem? Why?

5.

Demonstrate using different voices to read one of the students' favorite poems. Ask students the following questions:

Which ways of reading this poem do you like best? (Tell students that no one answer is right or wrong and that they might not all agree.)

How is tone or volume of voice used to express feeling? How does a loud voice make you feel? How does a crabby voice sound?

Would any of the poems sound better if they were sung, or if perhaps one word or phrase were sung instead of read?

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Note: In between Sessions 1 and 2, choose one of the poems students especially liked and make copies for the entire class.
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2.

Give students time to practice. Then have them read and perform their poems for the class.

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1.

Have students search for poems in print or online that they think will read well with the help of music. Demonstrate how to look for poems on Giggle Poetry and Poetry for Kids and give them the opportunity to look at the various anthologies you have collected.

3.

Have students take turns helping each other read and perform their poems for the class.

1.

Display the Line Break Explorer on an LCD screen as a whole-class demonstration or allow students to work in pairs at individual computers. Encourage students to answer the questions asked as the tool is used and focus students' attention on how different patterns of line breaks make a difference in how a poem is read.

3.

Discuss what students have discovered about line breaks in poems. Questions for discussion include:

What difference does it make where lines in a poem break?

How do line breaks affect the rhythm of a poem?

Do different line breaks make different meanings and sounds?

3.

Have students share their revised poems in pairs, telling them to give each other feedback on the rhythm and pattern of their poems.

2.

Give students time to practice performing their poems in small groups. Then have students share their poems with the class.

EXTENSIONS

Read lyrics of popular children's songs. Discuss what the lyrics mean and how the music enhances the lyrics.

Work with music teachers to help students record their poem rhythms.

Ask students who play instruments to bring them to school and accompany poetry readings.

STUDENT ASSESSMENT/REFLECTIONS

Observe students during whole-class discussion and while they work using the Line Break Explorer. Assess student participation and understanding of the topics being discussed.

Take anecdotal notes while students perform poems. Assess how well they are able to choose poems with patterns or rhythms and share rhythmic poems in a variety of ways.

Collect student poems and assess student ability to write poems that are compatible with music.

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The Connection Between Poetry and Music - ReadWriteThink

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ReadWriteThink couldn't publish all of this great content without literacy experts to write and review for us. If you've got lessons plans, videos, activities, or other ideas you'd like to contribute, we'd love to hear from you. Find the latest in professional publications, learn new techniques and strategies, and find out how you can connect with other literacy professionals.

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Looking for a fun poetry activity? This will guide you on how to teach blackout poetry - and why you should!

You know those books on your shelf that are falling to pieces? Grab 'em! You're going to love using them for blackout poetry!

Let's get started!
(Be sure to watch me create one at the end of this post!)

What is blackout poetry?

Blackout poetry is a type of "found" poetry. (Which is a completely wonderful concept!! Poetry is everywhere!!)

In 2005, Austin Kleon started creating a daily "blackout" poem using the newspaper (you can read more about his process here). He posted his poems online, and the idea took off!

To create one, you can use any text (including the newspaper), scan it for words and phrases that create a poem. Then, black out (with a Sharpie or other marker) all the other words. You poem jumps out of the text from there. Simple as that.

The great thing is that your students will be looking at language, word choice, imagery, mood, and theme as they create their poems!

And, it's a BLAST!

What will my students learn from blackout poetry?

Like eating veggies "hidden" in V8 juice, blackout poetry is a fun, creative way for students to apply and synthesize:

While it looks like all fun and games, students will need to determine a theme by carefully selecting words - and not just choosing a random list of words.

Here's how you teach it:

Time needed: 2 days.

Your students will love playing with language, word choice, imagery, mood, and theme as they create blackout poetry!

Follow these simple steps.

1. What is it?
Before even getting started, it can be helpful for students to see examples of different ways they can create blackout poem.

You can share these images with them to give them ideas.

2. Choose a page of text
Students can use a page from a newspaper, a copied story or informational text, or a page from a book that is falling apart or ready for the recycle bin.

Try to find different pages for each student. This will make for great sharing and unique finished poems.

3. Gather the interesting words.
Have students scan the page looking for words and phrases that jump out at them. They will circle those words lightly in pencil.

4. Determine what words to keep.
Students can read through the list of words they've circled and begin to see their poem appearing.

Remind students that we read from top to bottom and left to right, so the words need to be in that order so the reader will understand the poem in the same way the writer wants.

They may find words that they want to eliminate from their poem, or they may find that they need more. This is why using light pencil is helpful! Erase or add!

5. Refine word choice.
Ask students to read their poems aloud to themselves to make sure they make sense. They can also write them out.

It's helpful to ask students at this point what theme they are trying to convey. What do they want the reader to understand or feel after having read their poem?

6. Once students are happy with their poem, they can begin to blackout the page.
There is so much flexibility in this step! Students can simply blacken the words with a marker, or they can connect them with color. They can paint or illustrate the page - even use collage. (Check out my Pinterest board for examples.)

7. Or - create an image that fits with the poem.
After circling the words, you can sketch a design that fits with the theme or images of the poem.

8. Use a sharpie or pen to outline.
If you're going to have your students use watercolor to finish their poems, you want to make sure the marker won't bleed. I used a Sharpie for mine. Then, erase all the pencil marks.

9. Add color!
I used watercolor for mine. Since the paper absorbed the water, it is a bit wrinkly, but I still love the finished product.

10. Don't forget the title
After reading the poem, be sure students write an original title for it. This will help solidify the theme of the poem.

11. Share!
Be sure to share your students' poems by hanging them on the wall, having a gallery walk, or asking students to present their poems to the class.

Glue them to black construction paper to make a dramatic display.

Finally, take time to have students reflect on their poems - what they want the poem to express, how they chose their words, the mood, tone, and diction of their poem.

Don't forget to create your own right along with your students!

How am I going to grade it?

Since this is such a creative activity, you may decide to give a completion grade, but I'd encourage you to have your students dig a bit deeper. They can complete a quick self-assessment that asks just a few questions:

What is the theme of my poem?

What mood am I trying to create?

How did I accomplish that?

What do I want my reader to feel after reading my poem?

What are the strongest images?

You can also create a quick rubric before your students start working on their poems.

Watch me create a blackout poem here:

Tips for success

Once your students have completed one, they'll want to create more!

Have a supply of texts ready for them to use - this is a fun activity for fast finishers or if you have down time or your schedule get wonky.

Want to extend this?
Keep your students writing poems!
Once they feel successful with blackout poetry, introduce them to other writing poetry forms. You can find more poetry writing activities here.

Read more poems!
Here are 12 poems that are perfect for middle school students to practice analyzing and even imitating!

Looking for more ways to teach poetry?

This "Strategies for Teaching Poetry" post is full of helpful ways to make teaching poetry fun and effective.

If you're a bit intimidated about teaching poetry, this post will give you step-by-step confidence.

Have fun with these blackout poems!

And check out these ? teaching tools in my shop!

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Looking for a fun poetry activity? This will guide you on how to teach blackout poetry - and why you should! You know those books on your shelf that are falling to pieces? Grab 'em! You're going to love using them for blackout poetry! Let's get started!

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Literacy Daily is a space to connect educators, students, and leaders with the latest news, ideas, tools, strategies, and research in literacy instruction.

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"The constraint fuels rather than limits our creativity."

In 2006, Larry Smith presented a challenge to his community at SMITH Magazine: How would you tell your life's story if you could only use six words? The question, inspired by the legend that Hemingway was once challenged to write an entire novel in just six words, spurred a flurry of responses - funny, heartbreaking, moving, somewhere between PostSecret and Félix Fénéon's three-word reports. The small experiment soon became a global phenomenon, producing a series of books and inspiring millions of people to contemplate the deepest complexities of existence through the simplicity of short-form minimalism. The latest addition to the series, Things Don't Have To Be Complicated: Illustrated Six-Word Memoirs by Students Making Sense of the World, comes from TEDBooks and collects dozens of visual six-word autobiographies from students between the ages of 8 and 35.

In the introduction, Smith speaks to the liberating quality of constraints:

As an autobiographical challenge, the six-word limitation forces us to pinpoint who we are and what matters most - at least in the moment. The constraint fuels rather than limits our creativity.

The micro-memoirs are divided into four sections - grade school, high school, college, and graduate school - and touch, with equal parts wit and disarming candor, on everything from teenagers' internal clocks to the escapism of Alice in Wonderland.

Things Don't Have To Be Complicated comes on the heels of TED's The Science of Optimism: Why We're Hard-Wired for Hope and offers an inadvertent yin to its yang.

Each week of the past eleven years, I have poured tremendous time, thought, love, and resources into Brain Pickings, which remains free (and ad-free) and is made possible by patronage. If you find any joy and stimulation here, please consider supporting my labor of love by becoming a Sustaining Patron with a recurring monthly donation, between a cup of tea and a Brooklyn lunch. And if you already donate, from the bottom of my heart: THANK YOU.

Brain Pickings has a free Sunday digest of the week's most interesting and inspiring articles. Here's an example. Like? Claim yours:

One-time donation

You can also become a Spontaneous Supporter with a one-time donation in any amount:

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things don\'t have to be complicated: illustrated six-word memoirs by students making sense of the world

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Illustrated Six-Word Memoirs by Students from Grade School to Grad School

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In 2006, Larry Smith presented a challenge to his community at SMITH Magazine : How would you tell your life's story if you could only use six words? The question, inspired by the legend that Hemingway was once challenged to write an entire novel in just six words, spurred a flurry of responses - funny, heartbreaking, moving, somewhere between PostSecret and Félix Fénéon's three-word reports.

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* Warning about minor language issue

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We've all likely heard of the six-word story made famous by Ernest Hemmingway: For sale: baby shoes. Never worn. So, in keeping with the minimalist theme of Fats Velvet's new thread, how about the six word poem? You can break up the words into however many lines you like, but the poem must contain ONLY six words.

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In this lesson, students explore ekphrasis-writing inspired by art. Students begin by reading and discussing several poems inspired by works of art. Through the discussion, students learn ways in which poets can approach a piece of artwork (for instance, writing about the scene being depicted in the artwork, writing in the voice of the person depicted in the artwork, speaking to the artist or subject of the painting, etc.). Students then search online for pieces of art that inspire them and, in turn, compose a booklet of poems about the pieces they have chosen.

In this lessaon, students will have opportunities to:

Read and analyze poems inspired by art.

Discuss the methods poets use to write about artwork.

Use Internet searching techniques to find several inspiring art pieces.

Compose poems inspired by the artwork of their choosing.

To teach this lesson, you will need:

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In this lesson, students explore ekphrasis-writing inspired by art. Students begin by reading and discussing several poems inspired by works of art. Through the discussion, students learn ways in which poets can approach a piece of artwork (for instance, writing about the scene being depicted in the artwork, writing in the voice of the person depicted in the artwork, speaking to the artist or subject of the painting, etc.).

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Ekphrasis: Poetry About Art | Scholastic

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I love setting the scene for children to be deeply affected by art and then helping them turn those feelings into poetic inspiration. That's what ekphrastic poetry is all

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ReadWriteThink couldn't publish all of this great content without literacy experts to write and review for us. If you've got lessons plans, videos, activities, or other ideas you'd like to contribute, we'd love to hear from you.

Find the latest in professional publications, learn new techniques and strategies, and find out how you can connect with other literacy professionals.

Teacher Resources by Grade

More

Home › Classroom Resources › Lesson Plans

Lesson Plan

Grades

9 - 12

Lesson Plan Type

Unit

Estimated Time

Eight 50-minute sessions

Lesson Author

Publisher

Featured Resources From Theory to Practice
OVERVIEW

In this lesson, students explore ekphrasis—writing inspired by art. Students begin by reading and discussing several poems inspired by works of art. Through the discussion, students learn ways in which poets can approach a piece of artwork (for instance, writing about the scene being depicted in the artwork, writing in the voice of the person depicted in the artwork, speaking to the artist or subject of the painting, etc.). Students then search online for pieces of art that inspire them and, in turn, compose a booklet of poems about the pieces they have chosen.
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FEATURED RESOURCES
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Perspectives in Writing Ekphrastic Poetry: This handout describes several approaches that could be taken when writing Ekphrastic poems.

Ekphrasis: Poetry Confronting Art: This page from the American Academy of Poets explains ekphrasis and provides links to poetry inspired by art.

FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE

Poets have used art as inspiration for centuries. John Keats' "Ode on a Grecian Urn" is one famous example, but even ancient poets such as Homer have turned to artwork as a source of stimulation for their writing. Honor Moorman notes: "William Blake said that poetry and art are 'ways to converse with paradise' (Farrell 6). In the Phaedrus, Plato observes that when paintings and poems are put together, they 'seem to talk to you as if they were intelligent' (qtd. in Foster and Prevallet xv)... Georgia Heard calls language 'the poet's paint' (65), and many other writers and artists have commented on the parallels between these two modes of expression." (46-47) In Heart to Heart: New Poems Inspired by Twentieth-Century American Art, Jan Greenberg explains her belief in "the power of art to inspire language" (4). She notes that "What the poet sees in art and puts into words can transform an image . . . extending what is often an immediate response into something more lasting and reflective." (4). This lesson allows students to harness the power of visual images to inspire their own poetry.

Further Reading
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Greenberg, Jan, ed. 2001. Heart to Heart: New Poems Inspired by Twentieth-Century American Art. New York: Abrams.

Moorman, Honor. "Backing into Ekphrasis: Reading and Writing Poetry about Visual Art." English Journal 96.1 (September 2006): 46-53.

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Ekphrasis: Using Art to Inspire Poetry - ReadWriteThink

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ReadWriteThink couldn't publish all of this great content without literacy experts to write and review for us. If you've got lessons plans, videos, activities, or other ideas you'd like to contribute, we'd love to hear from you. Find the latest in professional publications, learn new techniques and strategies, and find out how you can connect with other literacy professionals.

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Overview

Students will begin a very exciting journey into the world of poems by learning the basic elements of poetry. They will experience and learn these elements by reading various poems, listening to music lyrics, and ultimately creating their own poetry for a classroom poetry slam.

Objectives
Students will:

Be exposed to the format of a Poetry Slam

Hear several examples of unexpected poetry

Demonstrate an understanding of standard-specific poetry elements and vocabulary

Demonstrate an ability to respond, analyze and think critically about poetry

Write an "ode" using the concepts covered

Culminating Activity

Host a classroom poetry slam! Invite students to read their slam poetry aloud to the class in an encouraging and enthusiastic environment. I call mine the "Lopezland Poetry Slam."

A poetry slam allows students to show off their ability to incorporate the elements of poetry into their own poems. Through writing and speaking poetry, students develop oral language and presentation skills.

Recommended Books
Books for Teaching Poetry Slams and More

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Students will begin a very exciting journey into the world of poems by learning the basic elements of poetry. They will experience and learn these elements by reading various poems, listening to music lyrics, and ultimately creating their own poetry for a classroom poetry slam.

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Lindsay Ann Learning English Teacher Blog

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Slam Poetry Ideas from My Classroom to Yours

Teaching slam poetry takes students on a self-reflective journey that ends with peer-recognition as they share their heartfelt words with each other.

Tip #1: Give Context

One of the best slam poetry ideas I can give you is to take time (even if it's just for a day) to explore. Give students choice. Help them understand slam poetry as an art form and why it is growing in popularity.

Idea: Have students explore "spoken word" as a natural extension of oral storytelling tradition. Watch Phil Kaye's " Why We Tell Stories " and ask students the following questions: How did "spoken word" or "slam" poetry originate? What is the difference between "spoken word" and "slam" poetry?

Tip #2: dEFINE

Take time to help students understand what slam poetry is and is not.

Idea: Watch Sarah Kay's " If I Should Have a Daughter."

The goal here is to a ddress misconceptions and stereotypes associated with slam poetry and come to a new, deeper, collective definition of slam poetry as a jumping off point for student inquiry and writing.
Here are the top five misconceptions about slam poetry I hear from my students:

It's all about the speaker.

Only interesting people are slam poets.

Slam poetry has to be "in your face."

Slam poetry has to be sad or angry.

Slam poetry is like a rap battle.

Tip #3: Connect to Prior Knowledge

Take time to help students learn/review literary and poetic terms. View a variety of poems, or allow students to complete an inquiry project. This is a slam poetry idea students will love because it helps them to see the purpose behind an author's choices.

Have students identify these devices in professional and student slam poetry and analyze the impact of the stylistic choices.

Emphasize that it's not about the quantity of the devices in a slam poem, but about the quality and impact of them in one's writing.

Tip #4: Generate slam poetry ideas

Take time to help students explore possible slam poem topics and stories.

Some students will know right away what they want to write about (but may still benefit from exploring other less obvious options). Other students will need help generating a topic.

Great slam poetry ideas are interesting, personally meaningful, and story-driven.

Tip #5: Analyze slam poetry

Create opportunities for student-centered talk, analysis, and response to slam poetry. Slam poetry ideas for students' own writing will generate organically as students explore.

The beauty of slam poetry is that it is a visual, verbal feast. I've found that, for in-class analysis of slam poetry, it helps to have students preview the poem and quick chat focused on "likes/dislikes," "author's message," and/or "dominant images and impressions" before digging deeper.

Multiple readings of a poem, with the ability to annotate a hard copy of the text will help students to appreciate and respond to the poem in different ways.

There is a time and a place for a deep dive into a poem, but I would limit this to 1-3 poems you have hand-picked for their interest and literary merit. If you haven't caught my previous post, h ere are 40 of my favorite, most engaging slam poems to use during a slam poetry unit.

Try to flip the close reading to the students in a way that is not "sit and get" - jigsaw and ask groups to present different poems to the class, make an info-graphic or mind map to deconstruct a poem, engage in a collaborative discussion, color code the text, etc.

Tip #6: Write...a lot!

Help students to explore and workshop at least two different topics. OR, you could have students write two poems with different angles on the same topic.

Students who write multiple poems or have a lot of time to free-write while exploring slam poetry:

Gain writing practice.

Have stronger slam poetry ideas.

Participate in writer's workshop and/or peer review which increases student comfort level with sharing prior to their ending slam performance.

Engage in self-reflection, i.e. which one is the "best" and why?

Tip #7: try different approaches

As students work their writing muscles, trying on different types of slam poetry and different topics, use a writer's workshop approach which involves modeling, discussion of student samples, and sharing of student writing.

This type of student sharing is really important to help students build trust and confidence prior to the final slam poetry performances, and my students often end up revising and adding to one of their initial slam poetry ideas for their final product.

Tip #8: Model Peer Feedback

Model how to provide feedback in student-friendly terms. Also, make sure that students know what the skill looks like in effective exemplars. In addition, create a lot of peer sharing opportunities so that they can practice this skill and receive feedback from a variety of peers, maybe in a variety of different forms/ways.

A simple formula that can be used is 1+1 feedback: 1 specific question, personal response, or praise + 1 specific observation and suggestion for improvement.

Tip #9: Share Your Slam Poetry Ideas!

Teach students to be independent and self-reflective as writers.

Model what revision looks like and sounds like.

MOST IMPORTANT TIP ALERT: Write alongside the students and talk them through your revision process. Share your slam poetry ideas and writing with your students, even when they are not "perfect."

Write alongside your students and talk them through your revision process. Share your writing, even when it's messy.

Tip #10: Use Mini lessons

There is plenty of opportunity to build writing skills with targeted, skill-based instruction. I like to teach using short mini-lessons (so that students have plenty of opportunity for in-class writing). In these slam poetry lessons, I focus on idea development, diction, figurative language, sentence structure/organization, etc.

Show students samples of your own writing or ask them for feedback.

As you move around the room, find really excellent examples to spotlight and ask students why they work so well.

Seize teachable moments.

Give students ONE specific something to work on at a time.

On workshop days, I will have three categories posted on the board when students walk in (i.e. work on line division, get rid of unnecessary pronouns & passive voice, writing workshop), and they sign themselves up for the day's work. I usually use Google Classroom to post resources and tasks, and have students complete a question on classroom as their "ticket out the door" which asks them to provide an example of purposeful revision and discuss how it improves their draft, what their next steps are, and what questions they still have.

Tip #11: Rehearse

You'll definitely want to give students time to practice and rehearse. I like to give students at least one full day in class to do this, and keep them moving and practicing the entire time.

Have students find a buddy, exchange cell phones, and record each other performing (you need space for this). Then, students watch, reflect, and try again. (Psst...You have to stay on students so that they take the time to watch and try again...no one likes seeing him/herself, and it takes grit to try and try again in order to see improvement.)

Put students in groups of 3-4. Set clear expectations for rehearsal.

Here are my rules:

Everyone participates

After a performance, the group must come to a consensus as to the #1 area for improvement (i.e. facial expression doesn't match poem's tone).

The speaker will go again...until s/he has smoothed out the #1 area for improvement. (Psst...Again, you really have to emphasize the importance of this step, making sure students don't just run through their poem and sit down again. Practicing, even with a stanza, until the skill is improved is important!)

Repeat the cycle, giving another round of feedback to each performer.

Tip #12: Make Performance Fun
From the beginning, I think that the teacher sets the tone for slam poetry with his or her own level of excitement, writing and sharing of slam poetry ideas, and organization of the final slam performances.
I try, in my class, to make final slam poetry performances as much as possible like a live slam poetry competition with the opportunity for scoring and audience involvement.

I have tried pulling random students as "judges" and having them hold up scores for each performance which works; however, I like even to involve every student as a judge and determine a class "champion" in a democratic way.

Another option is to treat the final performances like a live poetry reading event, dimming the lights, and allowing students to snap their appreciation and drink warm beverages (coffee, tea, hot chocolate).
From the beginning, I think that the teacher sets the tone for slam poetry with his or her own level of excitement, writing and sharing, and organization of the final slam performances.
If you loved these slam poetry Ideas...Resources for you!

I hope you have found these slam poetry ideas to be useful!

To support my effort to bring engaging, student-centered, ready-to-use resources to hard-working ELA teachers, I hope that you'll take the time to follow my TpT store.

In addition, if you need some awesome, ready-to-use slam poetry teaching resources, here are some of my best-sellers:

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12 Slam Poetry Ideas for Teachers | English Teacher Blog

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Slam Poetry Ideas from My Classroom to Yours Teaching slam poetry takes students on a self-reflective journey that ends with peer-recognition as they share their heartfelt words with each other. Tip #1: Give Context One of the best slam poetry ideas I can give you is to take time (even if it's just for a day) to explore.

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25 Poems appropriate for Middle School Poetry Slams

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25 Poems appropriate for Middle School Poetry Slams

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Interested in using slam poetry examples in your classroom, but not sure which poem would best? I've got you.

Slam poetry is a little bit of an obsession of mine, and as a teacher that has taught grades 6-12 ELA, I'm always scrolling through slam poems to find ones that are both inspiring, awesome, and appropriate for the age group. It's hard to keep track of which ones are and which ones aren't, so FINALLY, here's a list of ones that are tried and true.

If you want ideas for how to use them, check out my introduction to slam poetry lesson plan here. The lesson could be appropriate for all ages.
Looking for a Slam Poetry Unit Plan? Click here! It's on sale!!->
Slam poems that may be appropriate for middle or high school classrooms:

Depending on your school, these next one might be a little intense, inappropriate, or advanced for middle school. BUT, all are definitely grounds for high school, and definitely still awesome:

Definitely inappropriate for my middle school, though they blow me away. Perhaps ok for high school:

This is just a start, but please, comment with more suggestions! I'm always looking for more!
Want some more help teaching slam poetry? I've got you covered. Check out these other resources: You might also be interested in:

If you haven't grabbed your Slam Poetry Unit Plan yet, what are you doing? Seriously, it's on sale now, go grab it! 166 pages of slam poetry goodness that your students won't just love, but grow in all those meaningful, I-am-powerful-hear-me-roar ways. Go get it, go get it!

Like the idea of using slam poetry in the classroom, but not ready for 3 weeks of it? This Slam Poetry Mini-Unit takes students through brainstorming, drafting, planning, and performing a meaningful slam poem, all in ONE week. It's the perfect chunk of lessons to add slam poetry into a poetry unit, or to fill a week with engaging, meaningful content for students.

You'd probably also like this Peer Conference/Feedback lesson plan. It's good to use for ANY type of writing and designed to lift both student's academic conversations and writing. Swoon.

Looking for more ways to celebrate and publish student work at the end of your units? Check out my post with a list of OVER 50 ideas you could do with your students to publish their writing. Why not hand over the list to them and let them pick?
Also these FREE resources:
Want to get your feet wet? Try this Slam Poetry Day One: Speak Your Truth for free. It's the perfect lesson to kick off your poetry or slam poetry unit with a meaningful bang.

20 Ways to Help Reluctant Writers in your Classroom -a list of ways you can make your classroom more friendly to students reluctant to write, as well as trouble-shooting ideas for students who refuse to write.

How to Teach Students to Own that Speech -a lesson plan I've also adapted for teaching Slam Poetry, this is the perfect lesson before your slam poetry competition.

Teaching Writing Pinterest Board -My spot to collect all the most useful resources I can find for teaching writing-if you like this post, you're sure to like this collection.

ELA Resources Pinterest Board -A collation of engaging, best-practice resources for ELA teachers.

My Teachers Pay Teachers Store -If you liked this, you're sure to like resources in my store. I've taught writing for grades 6, 7, 8, 10, and 12, so teaching writing is my store's specialty!

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25+ Slam Poems Appropriate for Middle School and High School | Teacher Off Duty

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Interested in using slam poetry examples in your classroom, but not sure which poem would best? I've got you. Slam poetry is a little bit of an obsession of mine, and as a teacher that has taught grades 6-12 ELA, I'm always scrolling through slam poems to find ones that are both inspiring, awesome, and appropriate...

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Digital Breakout resources with poetry examples

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Digital Breakout resources with poetry examples

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How to Build a Digital Escape Room Using Google Forms — Bespoke ELA: Essay Writing Tips + Lesson Plans

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Digital escape rooms are super popular in classrooms right now because they are highly engaging for students across content areas and skill levels. Escape rooms can be done physically with lockboxes, but sometimes, it’s much easier to make them digital through Google Forms. Digital escape rooms ca

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More resources for Digital Breakout games using Google Forms

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More resources for Digital Breakout games using Google Forms

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Breakouts are huge right now, but they are also a bit intimidating for teachers to create and implement. Just programing the locks for each kit has caused me anxiety. How would I find the time and patience to set all the locks? How would I reset everything in time for the next class? A digital breakout with Google Forms is the perfect solution. Read on for ideas and resources to create clues, and step-by-step instructions on how to set up a Google Form with locks and different pages.

I started to write this out as part of the blog post, but it was too difficult to explain in words. Instead I made a 10-minute video that walks you through each step from start to finish to create your locked Google Form.

Click the image below to check it out at YouTube.

Breakouts are really fun, but I also wanted to make sure mine was relevant to a subject beyond just team building. I created one for Macbeth (click here to check it out at my TpT store) and the first step was deciding what content to focus on. I finally settled on iambic pentameter, the Globe, Gunpowder Plot, theme, and Shakespearean insults. I had a few more ideas, but I couldn't figure out how to make the clues work.

In the end I only went with five topics since I expect students to spend about 10 minutes on each topic. I suggest having a few extra ideas from the start so you can easily drop the ones that are too difficult to turn into clues.

Click here for a one-stop-shop list of FREE websites and apps to creatively make clues for your Breakout. This is where I found the ticket and text message generator listed below. Lots of ideas and resources and they're all free!

Fake Concert Tickets

I used fake concert tickets to help teach about the Globe. I made theater tickets for a handful of Shakespeare's plays and included as much factual detail as I could: the name of Shakespeare's theater group (both groups!), correct dates for the plays, admission fee for the pit versus bench, and even location of the theater and Hampton Court Palace for their performance for King James I. As students analyze the tickets for clues, they can't help but learn all of these details about the Globe and the plays.

I turned them into clues by hiding directions in quotes from the plays. Students need the right set of directions to open the lock. You could also have clues hidden in event codes, the names of events, or additional comments on the tickets. Click here to make up your own.

Fake Text Messages

When I saw the text message generator, I knew I wanted to use that for Shakespearean insults. I sorted through to find a few dozen insults from various plays - ones I knew the students would enjoy. I looked for a common theme in some of the insults and created a clue from there. I also like the idea of having students manipulate the clues, so I cut out all the comments and have the students reorganize them in the correct order. The correct order will give them the answer to the clue. Here's an example of what it looks like when the students first begin the Breakout.

You can use this to have students order events or quotes for a text, identify different characters by the quote, or you can hide a message in a text message that students need to sort through. For mine, I included letters on each text that spell a word when correctly lined up. The word is the key for the digital lock. Click here to make up your own.

Podcasts

The website 5minutehistory.com is perfect to introduce students to a topic and have them pull information for a clue. As the title implies, it is not in-depth and can be heard in just five minutes. I used this for the Gunpowder Plot and had students get various names as the key to the digital lock. To give it the feel of a puzzle, I used the same letter for each name I wanted: the mark, the mole, the mastermind, and so on. It took some extra time, but I did not want this to feel like a worksheet in any way.

I also like this website because you can listen, read the transcript, or both. The more choice the students have the better.

Posters

Have you tried Canva.com yet? You need to if you haven't. It's free and you can easily create engaging posters to display around the room as clues. I used this with theme to create something similar to movie posters. I used three different stories that all have the same theme as Macbeth in order to introduce the theme.

You can hide clues in posters or create a handful of posters that all have some sort of similarity that is the clue.

Rebus Clues

Made easy using www.myrebus.com. Here is an example of what you can do with rebus clues.

Could you figure it out? It says "Look under the teacher's chair for a clue." And then I would have an envelope with a clue taped under my chair. Going this route you would want to do a different location for each group so they don't catch on to what is happening.

Number Clues

Want to incorporate some math into your clues? Try this website (click here) where I was able to quickly make the worksheet below. You could designate certain answers as the key for the lock.

Regardless of the subject you are teaching, this is a good option if you are short for clues. In groups of students, it's likely one or a few enjoy number problems like this one!

I've seen a few different ways to do this. I like to include a certificate for an ice cream from the cafeteria for each Breakout winner, but I also like to document their success for a more intrinsic motivator. I'm attaching here a few free Breakout celebration posters students can pose with for pictures. You can post the photos on a bulletin board, include them on a school web page or Instagram account, or just let students take selfies to document their awesomeness.

Creating activities like this one has actually helped me evade the elusive teacher burnout. Sure, it's more work for me than creating a worksheet or even a gallery walk. But I enjoyed unleashing my creativity, and my students had a blast while they were learning and collaborating! An awesome lesson never fails in helping me out of a slump.

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How to Create a Digital Breakout for the Classroom - Engaging and Effective Teaching

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Ideas and resources to create digital breakout clues and a link to a how-to video for step-by-step instructions on how to make locked pages in Google Forms.

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K-12 Education

Higher Education

Business

Free account

This account is available for anyone who is at least 13 years old and has a valid email address. It allows you to create up to 5 VoiceThreads, comment by microphone and text, and share your VoiceThreads via a share link. Click here to learn how to register.

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K-12 Education Higher Education Business Free account This account is available for anyone who is at least 13 years old and has a valid email address. It allows you to create up to 5 VoiceThreads, comment by microphone and text, and share your VoiceThreads via a share link.

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Little Bird Tales: Capture the Voice of Childhood. We offer a fun,unique way to create,record and share stories online. Kids can make drawings,upload photos or artwork and record their voice online,creating a slideshow format book,then share it with family and friends as gifts or a keepsake. Environmentally friendly and great for schools,too.

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Create a quick poetry win by having students create book spine poetry from book titles using these free graphic organizers. Book spine poetry works great as a quick activity for your next poetry unit, as a sub plan, or as an activity for quick finishers. If you want all the fun of book spine poetry without all of the mess and re-shelving in your school library, this is the poetry activity for you!

♦♦♦♦Click here to view other awesome poetry activities!♦♦♦♦

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Here's what you'll receive in this resource:
★ Traditional Book Spine Poem Template (2 Pages) which asks students to create a poem comprised solely of book titles.

★ Hybrid Book Spine Poem Template (1 Page) which asks students to begin and end their poem with a book title, but write the other lines themselves.

★ Teacher Notes (1 Page) so that you can get started quickly.
This resource is helpful for:
★ Teachers who are looking to save time with ready-made resources.

★ Teachers who love using poetry in the classroom.

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Looking for more no-prep resources?
⇒ Be sure to check out theseELA classroom essentials!

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Ways to connect with me:
★ I'd love for you to be my newest follower! Click on the link so that you'll be the first to know about new products, freebies, and discounts!

★ I really love hearing about how you've used this resource in your classroom, so I hope you'll take time to stop back and leave feedback! In return, you will receive TpT credits that can be used on future purchases!

★ Stop by the Lindsay Ann Learning Blog!

★ Follow me on Instagram.

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Copyright © 2016-Present, Lindsay Ann Learning

⇒ Permission for use by one teacher in his or her own classroom.

⇒ Not for public display or digital sharing.

⇒ If you intend to share with others, please purchase an additional license.

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Create a quick poetry win by having students create book spine poetry from book titles using these free graphic organizers. Book spine poetry works great as a quick activity for your next poetry unit, as a sub plan, or as an activity for quick finishers.

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April is National Poetry Month, but students need access to poetry all year long! Poetry is unlike any other genre of literature and many of the literary devices that are specific to poetry can boost students' creativity when writing other genres, like fiction, come alive when put to use.

Focus Poetry is a technique of shared reading that provides multiple opportunities to teach a wide variety of skills in a small amount of time each day. When elementary educator Julie Ballew incorporated poetry lessons into her daily schedule, her students gained a deeper understanding of how to read and write poetry.

To transform your own students into poetry pros, learn how to implement this structure in your classroom. In only a few minutes per day, your students will build the skills to read, analyze, and understand poetry.

First, you will need some wall space that you can dedicate to poetry. It will need to be large enough to accommodate the following elements:

A poem, written or typed, large enough for everyone to read

A list of poetry skills (to grow all year long)

A list of grammar skills (to grow all year long)

A list of new vocabulary (to grow all year long)

Take a look at your standards, whether they are local, state, or Common Core. What poetry skills are students expected to learn this year? Decide which skills you want to prioritize. Next, search your standards for grammar and/or conventional skills that your students are expected to learn and add the relevant ones to your list.

Make a chart of the standards you want to cover in your poetry lessons with space to mark off the dates the skills were covered to keep track of your progress. Examples of skills that your class may need to learn in their poetry lessons include:

Identify and use playful language (tongue twisters, palindromes-which are words or phrases that are read the same backwards as forwards-and riddles)

Describe characteristics of various forms of poetry (narrative, lyrical, humorous, free verse)

Identify multiple meaning words/homographs (or, two words that are spelled the same but that don't necessarily have the same meaning or pronunciation)

Use context clues to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words

Read with accuracy and fluency

Once you know what skills you want to teach, it becomes easier to narrow down your list of poems. For example, if you have chosen to study prefixes and line breaks this month, you can search your poetry books for poems that best exemplify these conventions.

Write your chosen poem on a large piece of chart paper and make sure the words are big enough that they can be read by the whole class. You will also need to have a smaller version of the poem to give to each student at the end of the week. As the year goes on, they will collect each week's poem and build a poetry anthology of their very own!

Teaching poetry works best when there is a predictable structure. Each poem can be studied for one week and the daily activities should stay the same. Here is one suggested schedule for how to structure your week:

Monday: Read the poem together and discuss the author's purpose and the meaning or theme. This initial comprehension work sets up students to study the poem more closely the rest of the week.

Tuesday: Read the poem together and discuss key vocabulary words. Write these words on note cards so you can add them to the vocabulary list.

Wednesday: Read the poem together and discuss a grammar skill found in the poem. This could be anything from prefixes to commas. Write the skill on a note card so you can add it to your wall list of grammar skills.

Thursday: Read the poem together and discuss a poetic device (stanzas, line breaks, rhyme, alliteration, etc.) found in the poem. Write the skill and a brief definition on a note card so that you can add it to your wall list of poetry skills.

Friday: Read the poem together and have students respond to it orally or in writing. You can lead a discussion about inferences they are making or give them a copy of the poem so they can highlight the rhyming words or draw a picture of how it makes them feel.

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Teach Poetry in Less Than 10 Minutes Per Day | Scholastic

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April is National Poetry Month, but students need access to poetry all year long! Poetry is unlike any other genre of literature and many of the literary devices that are specific to poetry can boost students' creativity when writing other genres, like fiction, come alive when put to use.

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Digital escape rooms, also referred to as digital breakouts, are a great way to bring gameplay and problem solving to any lesson or unit. They can be an exciting and engaging activity for the whole class or as an option for early finishers.

In a spin on the popular Escape Room challenge, a digital version combines a virtual "room" (often a Google site) filled with clues that must be figured out in order to unlock a form (usually a Google form). They can be created around any theme and the locks can be easy or extremely difficult depending on the intended audience.

So how can we get started using digital escape rooms with our students? Where can we find pre-made games to share with our class? And what are the best tips and tools for creating them ourselves?

In our weekly #DitchBook Twitter chat (Thursdays at 7 p.m. PST / 8 p.m. MST / 9 p.m. CST / 10 p.m. EST), moderated by Mandi Tolen and Karly Moura , we discussed these questions and more. Participants shared tips and tools to get started along with tons of FREE resources.

Below you will find ideas for using escape rooms in your classroom, over 30 links to digital escape rooms you can use tomorrow, plus tips and tools for creating them yourself.

Want to try one out before you dive into using them with your students? Check out this Ditch that Textbook themed digital escape room created by Mandi and Karly and see if you can break free from Ditch That Textbook headquarters!

There is a special badge waiting for you at the end. Share it with us on Twitter using the #Ditchbook hashtag.

6 ideas for using digital escape rooms in your classroom

30+ digital escape rooms to try with your class

The #ditchbook community also shared their favorite digital escape rooms and we curated them all for you! Scroll down or click here to find over 30 digital escape rooms already created and ready to use with your class.

15 tips and tools for creating your own digital escape room

Ready to level up and begin creating your own? We've got you covered there as well. Scroll down or click here to check out this collection of tips and tools you can use to get started.

Want to get in on the next #DitchBook Twitter chat?
For notifications of new Ditch That Textbook content and helpful links: Interested in having Matt present at your event or school? Contact him by e-mail! Matt is scheduled to present at the following upcoming events:
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30+ digital escape rooms (plus tips and tools for creating your own) - Ditch That Textbook

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Digital escape rooms, also referred to as digital breakouts, are a great way to bring gameplay and problem solving to any lesson or unit. They can be an exciting and engaging activity for the whole class or as an option for early finishers. In a spin on the popular Escape Room challenge, a digital version ...

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I used this free  lesson for inspiration for my  breakout  program

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I used this free  lesson for inspiration for my  breakout  program

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I've talked before about using teaching with puzzles and games and using Escape Rooms in ELA, but I thought I'd address using escape rooms in upper elementary. Our 4th, 5th, and 6th graders can definitely benefit from collaboration and critical thinking, which is why I made a Poetry Escape Room for that level. Check it out:

Some things you'll notice:

*There's a variety of skills tested. This means some "easy wins" for reluctant readers or struggling learners.

*Each task is valued in the final Secret Message. This means that students can "divide and conquer" the different tasks and everyone will still have their contributions valued.

*A variety of poems are used. This means that you can always spiral learning by revisiting the entire poem later on in the school year. Students can also keep their booklets as a reference guide.

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Poetry Escape Room for 4th-6th grades - Nouvelle ELA Teaching Resources

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I've talked before about using teaching with puzzles and games and using Escape Rooms in ELA , but I thought I'd address using escape rooms in upper elementary. Our 4th, 5th, and 6th graders can definitely benefit from collaboration and critical thinking, which is why I made a Poetry Escape Room for that level.

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Interactive Poetry Activities Your Students Will Love

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Do you want to make poetry so fun and engaging that your students will ask for more? Here are some simple activities to get you started. 1. Blackout Poetry There are so many reasons blackout poetry is great: kids love it, it's creative, and it forces you to clean the falling-apart books from your classroom library without the guilt of tossing them in the trash.

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This is a popular post that I am reposting due to requests. Have you ever thought of using Playdough to help you reimagine a writing project? Sometimes when you're stuck, trying a different creative pathway opens new insights. Let me know if you try it and have fun!

What do you think of when you hear the word revision? For most writers, revision signals that you've already completed at least one draft of a piece of writing and now it's for pruning and polishing the work to get it ready for publication. To many of my college students, it seems to mean a painful process that the teacher recommends to get a better grade. And to the fourth graders I worked with in a poetry residency, it seems to mean recopying a piece of writing and fixing spelling errors. But as I've grown in my writing skills over the years, revision has come to mean something very different to me. Revision means I've already done the hard work of thinking up an idea and committing it to paper. Getting the first draft is much more likely to scare me then revising what I've already written. But I'm a seasoned writer with lots of revision experience tucked into my writer's backpack. How could I teach this skill to fourth graders?

I knew my best bet for finding teaching resources was to do a web search, and I found a wonderful, hands-on activity on the blog Teaching Authors: Six Teaching Authors Who Also Teach Writing. As I read through the post entitled "Revision! A LINGO Poem! Poetry Friday! and a Play Dough Exercise!" by April Halprin Wayland , I knew I'd found my lesson. But even April's well-structured lesson needed a bit of revision for the group that I had in mind. Here's a description of the lesson I did at Swansfield Elementary in Columbia, Maryland, as part of a five week poetry residency in the fourth grade sponsored by the PTA and funded through a grant from the Howard County Arts Council. While I thought the playdough activity would be fabulous, I realized that the teachers might need a heads-up, so I sent an email the day before telling them what to expect.

When I walked into the room carrying a plastic tub of small Play-Doh cans, the kids were immediately excited. After I assured everyone that they would indeed get to make something with the playdough, I wrote the word "Revision" on the board. Then I broke it down into the prefix "re" and the root "vision" to explain that revision is the act of seeing a piece of writing in a new way and making it better. The students were used to seeing me wear my purple poetry glasses-to help me see the world with different eyes-so it was not a big leap for them to imagine seeing a piece of writing in a new light. We had constantly revised as we worked on our group poems-changing words, selecting phrases, and deciding what to keep and what to set aside. But what did playdough have to do with writing poetry? Let me recap the lesson and you'll find out.

Here's what you need:

construction paper for a smooth and clean work surface

one can of Play-Doh for each child

a writing sample to revise as a demonstration

drafts of student work to revise

1. Each child places a piece of construction paper on the desk to provide a work surface and to keep the desk clean.

2. Classroom helpers pass out the cans of playdough. It's nice if you have enough cans for each child to select two colors, but the students seemed very happy having one can to work with.

3. Direct the students to make a sculpture of anything they want. Most students made animals, food, or people.

4. Tell the children that since they are creating a piece of art, it needs to have a title and when they finish the sculpture, they write the title on the artist's mat. I allowed about 12-15 minutes for this portion of the activity. Most students seemed to need this much time.

5. Next, the students take a gallery walk around the classroom to observe everyone's sculptures. They consider the question, "What inspires me?" as a way to cue themselves to think about revision. I allowed about 5-6 minutes for this portion of the lesson.

6. Once they complete the gallery walk and sit down, students are directed to make one change to their sculpture, any change that they can imagine (except to squish up the work and begin again). Then there are to make a note about what they changed.

7. Select several students to present their sculptures to the whole class using the title of the work and then describing the one change they made.

8. Demonstrate your revision process on a poem that the class drafted together; discuss why you chose to make certain changes.

9. Allow the students to revise a draft from a previous lesson.

The room buzzed with possibility and excitement as the children tore open the jars of playdough and began squishing it around. The process was the same in every class-some students got to work immediately and had a definite result in mind while others just held the playdough and said they didn't know what to do. I advised them to "Just roll, pinch, and squeeze it until an idea comes to you. Let the dough guide your imagination." Within a few minutes, everyone was completely absorbed in the activity and quietly lost in the world of possibility. The gallery walk provided a space for the students to admire everyone's work before revising their own and sharing with each other. Due to the time constraints imposed by a 45 minute session, I had to limit the sharing and moved on to demonstrating the writing component of the playdough-poetry connection.

For my revision process, I selected the previous week's class-poem on telling a fairy tale in a different voice. The students had co-written a poem based on the story of Aladdin and told the tale in the voice of the genie. During that lesson, we had worked on the poetic devise of repetition, including sounds, words, and phrases. Additionally, many students wrote their draft poems in a paragraph format, so I showed them how to make the poem look pretty on the page-an idea that my friend Grace Cavalieri shared with me-a much simpler concept than explaining formal linebreaks and very visual-which connected nicely to the playdough session.

While I had to move on to the next class before the students completed their revisions, I felt that the goal of the lesson had been achieved-to show that revision is something all artists do and that it provides an opportunity to make changes to something that is already good. Happy revising! And if you get stuck for some inspiration, you can always count on playdough.

Resource: See the April Halprin Wayland's version of the lesson here:

"Revision! A LINGO Poem! Poetry Friday! and a Play Dough Exercise!"

on the blog Teaching Authors: Six Teaching Authors Who Also Teach Writing.

The blog originally ran on September 9, 2011.

Play-Doh image courtesy of: http://d3gqasl9vmjfd8.cloudfront.net/56b8aa77-0b48-4971-a222-dfddb7266154.png

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This is a popular post that I am reposting due to requests. Have you ever thought of using Playdough to help you reimagine a writing project? Sometimes when you're stuck, trying a different creative pathway opens new insights. Let me know if you try it and have fun!

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Teaching Tools | Resources for Teachers from Scholastic

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I love poetry, and I always want to share that love of poetry with students. Last year, I decided to add a new element to my poetry unit, Poetry Speed-dating. This simple activity allows students to explore some poetry in a low-stakes way.

Set Up Poetry Speed-Dating

The set-up is simple. Find a variety of poetry books and anthologies for students to browse. You can collect anthologies from the library, set up stations with access to various poetry websites you like, or have students bring in books of poetry from home. If students have a favorite poem from childhood (perhaps something from Where the Sidewalk Ends), this can be a wonderful place to start.

Allow students to browse. It really is that simple. I remind students to write down the names of any poems or poets that strike them, but beyond that, it's a free reading day. Let them spread out, swap books, and just enjoy exploring.

For an exit ticket, I ask students to write 3-4 sentences about any poem they enjoyed and why. They don't have to write about theme or devices - simply describe what they liked about the poem. This is the very beginning of the poetry unit, so the whole goal is enjoyment.

Some Great Books

Here's a list of books I have in my classroom during Poetry Speed-dating. If you plan to purchase any of these books, I'd appreciate it if you did so by clicking the links below. These are all affiliate links, which means that Amazon gives me a small percentage of each sale. I use this money to keep my site up and running.

Poetry for Young People: Lewis Carroll
Poetry for Young People: American Poetry
Poetry for Young People: Walt Whitman
Poetry for Young People: Animal Poems
Poetry 180 (collected by Billy Collins)
A Poke in the I by Chris Raschka
Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein
Blue Lipstick by John Grandits
Poems to Learn By Heart (collected by Caroline Kennedy)

You can also download this lesson and booklist as a PDF here.
Check out my Complete Poetry Unit HERE!
I can't wait to hear how Poetry Speed-dating goes in your classroom! What else do you do to hook students' interest in poetry? Let me know in comments! Don't forget to subscribe to the Newsletter to get monthly updates, book recommendations, and freebies!

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Poetry Speed-Dating - Nouvelle ELA Teaching Resources

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I love poetry, and I always want to share that love of poetry with students. Last year, I decided to add a new element to my poetry unit, Poetry Speed-dating. This simple activity allows students to explore some poetry in a low-stakes way. The set-up is simple.

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Fingerprint Poetry was an awesome way to start the year. It was an icebreaker, get-to-know-you activity, and a great transition back into writing after the summer off. Plus students get to write about their own favorite topic - themselves!

I was inspired with this idea when I noticed how my students never liked to write on straight lines. They love being artsy and letting their words flow like water. And what better way to personalize your writing than by making it on your own special fingerprint?

I first had them choose a finger and inspect it carefully. Were they a whorl? arch? loop? A lot of them had never really looked at their fingerprints up close, so they enjoyed this. .Then, they picked the fingerprint poetry template that best matched their own fingerprint.

I gave them 16 different options of what to write about, but ultimately tried to steer them towards a more 'stream of consciousness' type of writing or a 'brain dump' in which they fill the spaces with anything and everything they are thinking. It's a very free flowing activity.

Next, I asked them to think about how they could use color, textures, and pictures to bring their fingerprint to life. They always impress me with their creativity! As you can see, the results were fantastic.

If you want to purchase this activity, which includes writing instructions and 3 fingerprint templates, click here and enjoy! Thanks!

21,335 total views, 5 views today

Kristen Dembroski

Buy my book:

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Fingerprint Poetry was an awesome way to start the year. It was an icebreaker, get-to-know-you activity, and a great transition back into writing after the summer off. Plus students get to write about their own favorite topic - themselves! I was inspired with this idea when I noticed how my students never liked to write on straight lines.

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Using Pictures to inspire poetry writing

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Using Pictures to inspire poetry writing

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What do you call fiction writers who try to write poetry? Prosers.

What does the reluctant poet write? Averse.

I came across these puns on a list from Buzzfeed, and I couldn't help but notice their applicability to teaching poetry in the classroom. Sometimes when I ask my students to write a poem or even just to write about a poem they read, I get moaning and complaining and whining, and if I'm lucky, I'll get "a verse" from every student. Many students do feel like "prosers" when they are asked to respond to anything related to poetry - mainly the kids who strongly dislike poetry to begin with but also the students who realize writing poetry is not usually second nature.

Despite the divide between poetry and student interest, verse has wide applicability to all kinds of lesson plans...not just in ELA classes, but in any content area. There's no questioning the validity of poetry. In a recent post, I wrote about six simple ways to make poetry engaging. In this post, I'm expanding on those ideas by focusing specifically on how teachers can captivate reluctant writers through images. By using something almost everyone enjoys (pictures / illustrations...and let's not count out moving pictures), we can make poetry more attractive to reluctant writers.
Without further ado, let's take a look at thirteen creative ways teachers can use images to inspire students to write poetry.
Many students have heard of The Book with No Pictures, but not all of them are aware of books with no words. This type of children's book has a powerful potential for use in English classrooms (from elementary school through secondary school). How can wordless picture books be used for poetry purposes? Teachers can "read" one of these books to their class. Actually, in one of my Reading masters' classes, a professor read Flotsam (one of my favorites) to a group of adults. He paused on each page, and the class made observations about what was happening. These books can be used to make inferences, to make predictions, and to develop comprehension, reasoning, and sequencing skills. After reading the wordless picture book with the class, a teacher can then ask students to write a poem (any style!) inspired by the book the class just read together. Perhaps students write a couplet or a quatrain to accompany each page.

This is a fun idea I dreamed up as I was thinking about how to make poetry applicable to twenty-first century students. What does almost every student love? Easy: cell phones and texting. Let's harness that passion! Text messages are usually short, and so are couplets. Have students use an image (let them get creative...they can take a selfie, take pictures of nature or with their friends, record a video, cut out a picture from a magazine, print a picture from the Internet, or even draw a picture) as inspiration for a series of rhyming couplet text messages (texting couplets). You can see the assignment I created here.

There are a couple different ways to approach concrete poetry. In its true form, the words create the picture. However, in my experience teaching various grade levels, students who have an artistic side enjoy drawing an image first and then filling in the illustration or outlining it with their poetry. I say....why fight that battle? If students understand the difference between concrete poetry and the artistic angle they are choosing to take, what harm is done? Google and Pinterest both showcase some incredible examples of how students can either use words to make a picture or how they can draw a picture and fill it in with verse.

Not all students have access to old family photographs (this wouldn't be practical to demand from all students, so it would make for an excellent choice assignment); however, the idea can apply to photographs of any kind. Most parents would probably appreciate their children taking an interest in nostalgic family relics. You can ask students to bring in one or several photographs that students find inspiring and interesting. Help students brainstorm by asking them to write down words that describe the photograph as well as having them think about how the picture makes them feel. Students can then write sentimental poems or humorous ones based on these images. They could also complete this assignment after taking their own pictures...new ones.

Here's an example I wrote (which proves you don't have to be "good" at writing poetry to benefit from the learning experience):
Brainstorming List (Observations): Poem: The dog peers into my eyes. Silently asking Will you pet my sides? The cat creeps up from behind. Proudly purring, Just trying to unwind. No working today; Today we play. Friends for life.
We all know the student who loves to draw or truly enjoys a good graphic novel. Try offering students the opportunity to use the graphic novel or comic strip format for poetry writing inspiration. This assignment could work a couple different ways. 1) Students could choose an existing comic strip or several pages from a graphic novel. They could white out the text and fill in the blanks with verse. 2) Students who enjoy drawing could illustrate their own comic strip or graphic novel pages from scrap and also write poetry to accompany the images.

Six-room poems are effective for many of my students because it structures their brainstorming into specific categories and makes drafting the actual poem easier. How can a six-room poem relate to a picture? Quite easily. Just have students choose a photograph or even a video (short films work wonderfully) for inspiration. They can look at the picture as they brainstorm ideas for each of their rooms. If you've never heard of a six-room poem or if you're not sure how to go about teaching students to write one, this article provides clear and helpful directions.

Instagram appeals to a wide age-range. Why? The pictures! People love scrolling through pictures on social media and reading the captions. Students can get creative with their Instagram images by captioning them with a short poem (a haiku, tanka, limerick, or cinquain, for example). This option is also a perfect avenue for artistic students to practice their photography skills.

Hashtags are another popular element related to social media, and often, they are used in picture captions. They're so catchy. Teachers can ask students to think outside of the box about hashtags. Why not use them to write poems? They could be the only element of a poem (100% pure hashtag), they could be an important element in the poem, or they could just be used at the end of the poem for effect. Think of the hashtag as the new form of figurative language. Students can use them in the same way they use metaphors, personification, hyperboles, foreshadowing, repetition, symbolism, sound devices, puns, and etcetera. This website has some examples (some school-appropriate, some not); my favorite is the one titled "#hashtag" by Dara Brown.

I'm sure you've seen quotes that are crafted into images. They're pretty pervasive in our society. There's something about a beautiful visual quote that is cathartic for the soul. Ask students to compile a list of their favorite quotes for homework or as an in-class research assignment. Then, have them create a found poem using only words from these quotes. They can produce the final draft of their found poem on their very own original quote image (hand-drawn or computer-generated). Use them to decorate your classroom!

Every year, I have students who want to run for president, and if they don't want to, they should. They LOVE politics. These students might enjoy an assignment where they are asked to create their own political cartoon or use an existing one and write a poem to accompany it. Harness your students' interests when it comes to poetry, and their investment and attitudes will improve. The New York Time's Upfront magazine is a wonderful place to start because their cartoons also have corresponding questions for analysis.

Bespoke ELA posted this article on Facebook, and when I saw it, I began brainstorming the PLETHORA of ways teachers could use these satirical visuals in the classroom. Without a doubt, they could be inspiration for poetry. These particular images specifically focus on technology issues in our society. Teachers can ask students to find a satirical visual text they appreciate and then write a poem based off of the picture they discover.

When considering what types of visual texts are worthy of classroom analysis, we shouldn't leave out well-known artwork, like Salvidor Dali's Persistence of Memory, Van Gogh's The Starry Night, and Grant Wood's American Gothic. To prepare students to write this type of poetry, you can show them how throughout time, poetry has actually inspired paintings. Need somewhere to start? This website has good examples. Once kids can see how a painting has been inspired by a poem, it might be easier for them to do the reverse by analyzing artwork to develop original poetry.

And while we're at it, students might as well read poems about pictures and then write an original!

Regardless of which type of image students are using to inspire their poetry, teachers can guide students during the brainstorming stage by prompting them with questions, helping them think through the options for how to create their poetry, and even allowing them to create their own rubric based on self-determined criteria. You can view the brainstorming assignment I use with my students here.

To take it one step further, teachers can scaffold the poetry writing assignment by brainstorming possible topics, themes, and even words to include in the poems. Do you have students who still need more support? Write the first few lines of the poem together as a class, and let them finish it on their own.

The main observation I've noticed about teaching poetry is that the more requirements I give and the more "perfect" I expect the final product to be, the more resistance I get from students. Poetry doesn't have to be perfect. For the purpose of poetry in the classroom, just encouraging students to write and learn about the structure of a poem is a success.

A picture is worth a thousand words, but when it comes to poetry, we only need a few. Pictures, illustrations, images (of any kind) can inspire thoughts and ideas students might not otherwise have discovered. Try using pictures to inspire poetry with your students, and leave a comment below to share your thoughts.

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13 Ways Pictures Can Inspire Students to Write Poetry | Reading and Writing Haven

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What do you call fiction writers who try to write poetry? Prosers. What does the reluctant poet write? Averse. I came across these puns on a list from Buzzfeed, and I couldn't help but notice their applicability to teaching poetry in the classroom.

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Tip: If you allow students to select a character of choice, you may want to prepare an extra set of lines for character choices that may be less popular (save a copy of these so you can use them year after year). Then groups that end up with only one or two students will still have other ideas to use to create a collaborative poem even if there aren't any other people in their group.

Once students have a character, provide students with a prompt. My prompt is very generic: what would you character want us to know about him/her, his/her life, and the events in the story?

You can also offer starting lines as suggestions, or require students to use some or all of them. Requiring students to use each line at least once allows students to create repetition and may create more unity when students' individual lines are mixed in with their group's lines. The lines that I give students are:
*Write that I...
*Tell them that I...
*When you write my story, say that I...

Besides not mentioning that students will eventually be working in groups, I also don't initially describe this writing activity as a poem. I just ask students to do a quick write or free write from the point of view of the character they chose.
Tip: Tell students to skip a line between each line of their poem; it makes it easier to cut them apart later.

Once students have completed their individual writing and you have placed them in groups based on their character, instruct students to cut apart the lines of their poems and then begin to incorporate their lines with the rest of their group's lines.

You can require that the collaborative poem be a certain number of lines long and/or that a certain number of each student's original lines are included in the collaborative poem. I don't like to set these requirements because students will likely only do what they are required, but some groups may need that structure.

As groups are constructing their new poem, I encourage them to leave out lines that are too similar and allow them to modify lines to improve the flow (i.e. changing verbs to have a consistent tense).

I also ask students to number the lines of their new poem, so that if this work continues into another class period, they don't have to start all over.

After students have organized their lines and made any necessary changes to wording, I allow them to copy their poem out on large construction paper. I encourage them to play around with the size, color, and placement of their text.

The final step is to create a title for their collaborative poem that reflects its theme. If time allows, I allow students to decorate their poem with related images.

Be prepared to be wowed by the final results!

For more poetry lesson ideas and resources:

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The Literary Maven: Collaborative Poetry: Bring Students' Voices Together Through Group Writing

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Tip: If you allow students to select a character of choice, you may want to prepare an extra set of lines for character choices that may be less popular (save a copy of these so you can use them year after year).

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Laura  Randazzo – Solutions for the Secondary Classroom

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In the Venn diagram of my life, my "Mom" and "English teacher" lives overlapped beautifully this week when my daughter's middle school hosted a Poetry Night.

Parents were invited to join their tweens for a two-hour dinner and wordsmithery event. After a quick potluck and opening remarks, we were given time to get creative at a dozen different poetry creation stations that teachers had set up all around the multi-purpose room. Encouraged to visit as many or as few stations as we wanted, families were set loose to choose their own path. A bell sounded every 15 minutes, letting us know it was a suggested time to rotate, but my daughter and I ended up spending all of our time at just two stations - "Visual Poetry" and "Roll of the Dice Poetry." (Details/pictures below)

As a parent, I was surprised by my 12-year-old daughter's focus. Instead of racing from station to station, she wanted to stay put, giving deep and thorough consideration to our writing. We worked elbow-to-elbow on our "Roll of the Dice" poems (our favorite of the night), and she patiently helped me hammer out a sticky stanza toward the end of my piece. Later in the evening, she surprised me again by volunteering to read one of her poems to the audience of more than 100 people in the evening's Spoken Word finale.

As an English teacher, I was inspired, snapping idea photos and plotting to bring a similar experience to my classroom. While I don't have the bandwidth to create a full-school event, I could definitely adapt the centers/stations to my next poetry unit. I've already built a solid four-week poetry unit, but the addition of a final poetry experience like this would definitely get my students excited about poetry in a whole new way.

The evening was organized by Barbara Comstock, my kid's sparkplug of a 7th grade teacher who convinced a merry band of English, Art, and Spanish teachers to volunteer for the event. Bummed that many students don't view ELA as a "fun" class, she decided to do something to change that perspective, she told me. She even tapped into technology, promoting apps ( Verses Poetry, The Poetry Foundation, and Instant Poetry), setting up a hashtag for participants to follow the event via Instagram and Twitter, and using a Sound Booth to create a digital portfolio of students' work from the evening.

By the end of the night, my kid had written two original poems, recorded one of them for online publishing, and performed one of them live before an audience. I'd say that's a great reason to stay up past bedtime on a school night!

Here's a sample of Mrs. Comstock's Poetry Night stations:
(Click on the image to enlarge. All images and ideas are shared here with permission.)

Teach on, everyone!

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In the Venn diagram of my life, my "Mom" and "English teacher" lives overlapped beautifully this week when my daughter's middle school hosted a Poetry Night. Parents were invited to join their tweens for a two-hour dinner and wordsmithery event. After a quick potluck and opening remarks, we were given time to get creative at...

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Laura  Randazzo – Solutions for the Secondary Classroom

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In the Venn diagram of my life, my "Mom" and "English teacher" lives overlapped beautifully this week when my daughter's middle school hosted a Poetry Night.

Parents were invited to join their tweens for a two-hour dinner and wordsmithery event. After a quick potluck and opening remarks, we were given time to get creative at a dozen different poetry creation stations that teachers had set up all around the multi-purpose room. Encouraged to visit as many or as few stations as we wanted, families were set loose to choose their own path. A bell sounded every 15 minutes, letting us know it was a suggested time to rotate, but my daughter and I ended up spending all of our time at just two stations - "Visual Poetry" and "Roll of the Dice Poetry." (Details/pictures below)

As a parent, I was surprised by my 12-year-old daughter's focus. Instead of racing from station to station, she wanted to stay put, giving deep and thorough consideration to our writing. We worked elbow-to-elbow on our "Roll of the Dice" poems (our favorite of the night), and she patiently helped me hammer out a sticky stanza toward the end of my piece. Later in the evening, she surprised me again by volunteering to read one of her poems to the audience of more than 100 people in the evening's Spoken Word finale.

As an English teacher, I was inspired, snapping idea photos and plotting to bring a similar experience to my classroom. While I don't have the bandwidth to create a full-school event, I could definitely adapt the centers/stations to my next poetry unit. I've already built a solid four-week poetry unit, but the addition of a final poetry experience like this would definitely get my students excited about poetry in a whole new way.

The evening was organized by Barbara Comstock, my kid's sparkplug of a 7th grade teacher who convinced a merry band of English, Art, and Spanish teachers to volunteer for the event. Bummed that many students don't view ELA as a "fun" class, she decided to do something to change that perspective, she told me. She even tapped into technology, promoting apps ( Verses Poetry, The Poetry Foundation, and Instant Poetry), setting up a hashtag for participants to follow the event via Instagram and Twitter, and using a Sound Booth to create a digital portfolio of students' work from the evening.

By the end of the night, my kid had written two original poems, recorded one of them for online publishing, and performed one of them live before an audience. I'd say that's a great reason to stay up past bedtime on a school night!

Here's a sample of Mrs. Comstock's Poetry Night stations:
(Click on the image to enlarge. All images and ideas are shared here with permission.)

Teach on, everyone!

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In the Venn diagram of my life, my "Mom" and "English teacher" lives overlapped beautifully this week when my daughter's middle school hosted a Poetry Night. Parents were invited to join their tweens for a two-hour dinner and wordsmithery event. After a quick potluck and opening remarks, we were given time to get creative at...

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This week, my class has been working on descriptive writing, similes, and metaphors. Thursday night was out Meet the Teacher night, and I wanted the kids to create something visual to put up and impress the parents, and that's when I thought about Paint Chip Poetry!

I went to the local Wal-Mart and cleared them out of paint chips, and had my grade 4's choose a colour. They then had to come up with 6 lines of poetry to describe their colour. I asked them to consider the 5 senses and use rich adjectives and imagery so that their parents could see, hear, smell, feel, and taste their colours.

We wrote some sample lines together as a class first, and then I let them go. I was so impressed with the images they created, and they were a huge hit with the parents!

Here are a few of the Paint Chip Poems that my grade 4's created.

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This week, my class has been working on descriptive writing, similes, and metaphors. Thursday night was out Meet the Teacher night, and I wanted the kids to create something visual to put up and impress the parents, and that's when I thought about Paint Chip Poetry!

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I received this frantic text from a friend:

HELP!!! I'M BEING HELD PRISONER...

Just kidding. It was

HELP!!! I'M BEING OBSERVED THE DAY AFTER STATE TESTING AND I DON'T HAVE A COOL LESSON TO TEACH!

Same thing, right?

My first thought was why is she yelling at me?
My second thought was Wow! T hat stinks. I'm glad it's not me.

Until it was me. Being observed. The day after state testing. Sheesh.

It's easy to understand why that's a stinky time to be observed. During testing, the kids have to sit for hours without moving or talking. They're allowed to breathe, but not too loudly or Johnny in the next row will hear their sinuses vibrate. They spend that silent time trying to sit still while reading passages about carpet fibers, and then they have to write on demand about the carpet fibers.

But the day after testing? Fiesta time! Arriba, arriba. Andale!

And they deserve it.

So what's a teacher to do on that first day after state testing? Or for that matter, what's a teacher to do when having an observation on any challenging day, like the day before a vacation? Or the day before an exciting field trip? Or the day Justin Beiber comes to town? Fortunately, I already knew what I was doing, which was a good thing, because even after teaching many years, observations make me quake in my Tieks. We were going to have some creative fun with poetry stations.

Poetry Stations

Poetry stations allow the kids to move around, to share ideas, and to think creatively. In short, it was exactly what they needed after testing. In addition, it is a student-centered lesson, so all I had to do was manage the rotations, circulate, comment, and ask the right questions. The rest would take care of itself. Anyone observing would be able to see that the kids had the background knowledge they needed to write and discuss poetry. It would be obvious that we had read poetry and their eyes, ears, and mind were trained in noticing its nuances.

I'll show you four easy to set up stations that are perfect for middle school kids and don't require much in the way of extraordinary preparation.

The timing is flexible, as are the number of stations. If you only have one class period to spend on it, use fewer stations, but have duplicates. This will ensure that the kids get to experience every station. (Are you reading between the lines here? Duplicate stations ensure that you won't hear whining about not "getting to go to" every station. None of us speak Whinese.)

Preparing Poetry Stations

This is how I like to prepare.

Every station was supplied with a sign and one set of instructions. I like to provide one set because I like the kids to work together to figure out what they have to do. Using old tennis ball canisters (minus the balls- we don't need that problem bouncing around), I tape the station's sign on one side of the canister and the directions on the other.

I also placed a basket at each station. It contained regular and colored pencils, and any handouts or blank paper needed.

That's it. Simple. Here are some poetry writing stations you can use.

1. Found Poetry

I had been cleaning out my bookshelvesand I had several books that were falling apart at the binding. I tore out the remaining pages and placed them in the basket, along with the directions for writing Found Poetry.

The kids loved this. They couldn't believe I tore a book up, and they were so passionate about their poems, which turned out to be awesome!

2. Out of the Box Poetry

Choose four random words and have students craft a poem using those words. I like to use words from different parts of speech. The key is to make sure the words are rich with meaning but are truly random. You should probably tell students that they can't string any two words together, or else you will end up with your random adjective describing your random noun... performing your random verb. Sort of like hairy novels strumming... And as an added challenge, it's nice to suggest students use a specific literary device or two. So the station might look like the one to the right.

Sometimes we do Out of the Box Poetry as a creative Do Now, and the kids always beg for more. It's fun for them, and they learn how to "play" with language.

3. Template Poetry

My kids love template poetry. The beauty of starting with a template is that when they try it, even the kids who don't usually care for writing can find their inner Rober Frost. The confines of the template helps students focus. And once they have their ideas down, I always tell them that this is their poem and they can alter the template in any way they see fit when they revise.

There are plenty of templates available on the internet. Here is a favorite of ours that you can download for free:

4. Object Poetry

Place an object on the table. It can be something lying around the room or something unusual that you bring in from home. Ask students to craft a poem about the object. The poem should be from the point of view of a speaker who feels strongly about it. The emotion doesn't matter as long as it is powerful: love, hatred, jealousy, etc...

It's wonderful to see the wheels turning while kids try imagine the reasons that the speaker might hate something like a teddy bear. Another option is to write from the points of view of two speakers with opposing feelings about the object. Or the poem could be written from the point of view of the object itself. You know, an old teddy bear speaker writes You cast me off...like dirty gym socks on a damp day... Not my best, but you've got the picture.

Kids are insightful. They will surprise you with the feelings inspired by simple objects.

Station Logistics

I rotate the kids every ten to fifteen minutes, but I don't follow a hard and fast rule about it. I try to get a feel for when they're itching to get up and move. Our goal is to generate ideas and get a "taste" of several different poems. On another day the kids will choose their favorite and work on perfecting it, playing with the wording, and writing another draft.

When we near the end of the lesson, I ask students to stop and reflect on these questions with their group, before coming together to reflect as a class.
1. What were the benefits of this poetry writing activity?
2. What were the challenges?

You might hear some of the same pros and cons that I did.

Benefits:

~ The guidelines helped us focus.
~ It was helpful to have a starting place.
~ The ideas we were provided with were fun to work with.
~ It helped to have a group to help us figure out the requirements.
~ ...but there weren't too many requirements.
~ It gave us a chance to express ourselves in a way we wouldn't have thought of.

Challenges:

- It could be limiting.
- Sometimes it's hard to connect the words and ideas.

This is when I tell the kids that when they choose one to revise, they will be able to free themselves of the constraints originally presented. They can play with the words and alter any template or requirements. They should play with the words until the poem is completely theirs. Their words. Their ideas. Their poem.

I did share the stations idea with the friend who was being held "prisoner." I'm told it went quite well, as did mine.

Fiesta time!

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How to Make Poetry Writing Awesome With Stations - ELA Buffet

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I received this frantic text from a friend: HELP!!! I'M BEING HELD PRISONER... Just kidding. It was HELP!!! I'M BEING OBSERVED THE DAY AFTER STATE TESTING AND I DON'T HAVE A COOL LESSON TO TEACH! Same thing, right? My first thought was why is she yelling at me?

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Silkworm and I picked up these paint chips with another idea in mind, which we'll revisit in the near future, but upon reading the names of the colors and finding connections, we were inspired to do something different with them.

We wrote poetry--or maybe prose. We tried not to think too much and let the connections between the colors form themselves, and then we'd just build off of the idea. Some of them proved harder to work with than others, because the names of colors didn't sound good together, but the key is just to fit them into a poem. Don't worry about if the colors sound silly or like something you'd never write. Just let them flow. Play with longer and shorter paint chips with more or less colors. Work off of only one color or mix ten different paint chips. Let the changing of the colors create and guide the mood of the story.

(The blue one is our favorite from our bunch. We even folded it up to put in our memory shoebox.)

Paint chip poetry is a wonderful way to spark creativity. Each one can end up sounding other-worldly and naturally magical. Writers suffering from dreaded cases of Writer's Block would probably find them as useful prompts for creating settings, characters, or plots.

Let us know if you write any paint chip poems, and we'd love it if you'd share them with us! And you can read all four of ours below.

Yellow: A meadow of Tropical Cassia and Wild Chanterelle grew under our feet. There were two cottages before us, one painted Eastern Colonial Yellow and the other Vintage Scotch Yellow. A Summer Sunflower grew through the roof of the second house, tall and Rich Curry Gold. The world was the epitome of Warm Autumn Gold.

Green: The air smelled like Wild Lemon Basil. She'd just finished cleaning. Out the window was a field of Golden Wheat Grass and we could hear the Rushing Tiger River behind the house. The witch came in, her face Somber Bitter Green. She carried a basket of lettuce looking much more like Swiss cheese, from which a Garden Katydid proudly hopped off. Salad was cancelled and instead we ate Olive Toast at the Sorrento Estate.

Blue: An enormous Cloud Formation the shape of a fortress graced the sky that radiated the Essence of Blue. We were on an island in the middle of the ocean exploring a Bluebell Garden. We'd gotten Lost at Sea searching for the Cherished Blue Diamond and suddenly we fell into space. We got further lost in the Limitless Cosmos Blue. The inside of Neptune is Deep Heliotrope and so is the color of my veins.

White: The air was Quite White if air can be such a thing. His face, on the other hand, was turning Mountain Ash Gray. We handed him a Pocket Full of White and he mixed it with Cut Crystal. Someone played a Silver Celesta in the corner of the room with playful fingers. Japanese Windflower started to grow through the walls. In return for our help, he gave us the Jeweler's Lavender Gem.

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Silkworm and I picked up these paint chips with another idea in mind, which we'll revisit in the near future, but upon reading the names of the colors and finding connections, we were inspired to do something different with them. We wrote poetry--or maybe prose.

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Have you discovered Blackout Poetry yet? It’s equally fun for kids and adults and you probably have all you need to do it without buying a thing!

Blackout Poetry is a form of “found poetry” where you select words that catch your interest from a newspaper, book, or other printed text – along with a few additional words to make it flow. Then you “redact” all the words you don’t want. This is often (but not always) done with a black marker, hence the name “blackout poetry”. Your chosen words will form a new message, giving the text a whole new meaning.

You might have an idea of the direction you’d like to go with your poem, but with such a limited choice of words, it helps to be open-minded about the outcome! You can start by circling words you like in pencil or by placing a piece of tracing paper on top to help with word selection while you get the hang of it.

Take your Blackout Poetry a step further by adding patterns, designs, or a drawing to the areas you’re “redacting”. For example, instead of just filling in around your chosen words with solid black, you could create a drawing or design that relates to your poem. Just as with any illustration, your art should support the remaining text and add to its meaning.

Author Austin Kleon has popularized Blackout Poetry with his Newspaper Blackout book, and its companion website, newspaperblackout.com. If you’re on Instagram, check out the hashtag #blackoutpoetry or simply google “blackout poetry images” for more creative inspiration!

In the video below, Ariel Bissett uses old books and watercolor paint for a different fun effect:

Blackout Poetry is a creative way to repurpose your old newspapers and magazines. You can also be on the lookout for old books at yard sales and thrift stores. Or photocopy some pages from a kids’ book or a favorite current title. The possibilities are endless!

And while you’re at it, be sure to check out the New York Times digital blackout poetry maker, where you can make your own Blackout Poem and then see the poems that others have made from the exact same text. It’s fun to see how different they all turn out, even when starting with an identical piece of writing!

Making Blackout Poetry teaches you to look closely at words and play with language, all while being creative and having fun. You’ll never look at a block of text in quite the same way again!

WARNING: Blackout Poetry can be addicting!

PS – See my Instagram for individual pics of each of the poems above!

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Have you discovered Blackout Poetry yet? It’s equally fun for kids and adults and you probably have all you need to do it without buying a thing! Blackout Poetry is a form of “found poetry” where you select words that catch your interest from a newspaper, book, or other printed text – along with …

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Design a Digital Escape Room using Google Forms.

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Make Any Worksheet Into an Escape Room in the Classroom -

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An escape room in the classroom is a super fun way to engage your students in any topic. Make one easily with the worksheet you already have!