To celebrate National Poetry Month, I want to share some of my favorite #TeachLivingPoets lessons, prompts, resources, and poems. And, as I always say, I encourage you to find your own favorites — who jives the best with your community of students and with you as an educator and reader. Favorite lessons I love doing this lesson created by Jessica…
This poetry analysis lesson is great for students to practice their research, close-reading, and annotation skills, AND it gets them hyped up March Madness poetry brackets, if that’s a thing you do (more on those below). The focus of today’s lesson is a poem by Boris “Bluz” Rogers, and I’m so excited to share it with you because he’s a…
Okay, so I know this isn’t exactly poetry, but isn’t it? What even is poetry? Can a visual or a commercial be considered a poem? Whether you think so or not, this lesson offers students an opportunity to practice the skills of close-reading and formulating insights and analysis using a highly engaging and currently relevant visual text: the Super Bowl…
Use this handout with the text of the poem to give to your students for this lesson. And, can we all just take a minute to appreciate that Amanda Gorman herself gave this lesson her stamp of approval?! And everything you need is in this Google Slides presentation! Here’s a sneak preview of some of the Slides: Here’s what I…
This post is written by Dana Huff and originally appeared on her website, huffenglish.com. Learn more about Dana here. Reading Teach Living Poets (affiliate link) by Lindsay Illich and Melissa Alter Smith inspired a lesson plan pairing “She Walks in Beauty” by George Gordon, Lord Byron with “To the Girl Who Works at Starbucks, Down the Street from My House on Del…
Today’s post is by guest author Valerie A. Person. A veteran teacher at Currituck County High School, Valerie teaches honors and academic English II as well as AP Literature and Composition. She agrees passionately with Virginia Woolf’s “teaching without zest is a crime,” striving to find engaging and meaningful ways for her students to learn. Recently, my sophomores read, discussed,…
My personal education goal this year is to incorporate more creative writing opportunities into my core English classes. In American Literature, my juniors had just learned about the symbolism of the green light so the timing was perfect to pause for a moment of creative expression. This activity can be done with ANY color and with any book that uses…
This lesson was created by Jessica Salfia and Karla Hilliard from Spring Mills High School, Martinsburg West Virginia. Crystal Wilkinson, Kentucky’s Poet Laureate, is the award-winning author of Perfect Black, The Birds of Opulence , Water Street and Blackberries, Blackberries. She is the recipient of a 2021 O. Henry Prize, a 2020 USA Artists Fellowship, and a 2016 Ernest J….
This lesson was created by Brian Hannon, who is the Director of Education at LMSvoice, and teaches at Hayfield Secondary School in Alexandria, Virginia. Tara Betts is the author of Break the Habit (Trio House Press, 2016) and the chapbook 7 x 7: kwansabas (Backbone Press, 2015). She is the Poetry Editor at The Langston Hughes Review and Founder of WhirlwindCenter. Betts is Poet…
This post is by guest author Kristin Runyon, who shares her passion for literature and poetry in the Charleston High School Library as the librarian for her remaining few years before retirement. March 2020–schools shut down and we all scrambled to figure out how to teach remotely. And we had a #TeachLivingPoets chat scheduled for March 31st. Leila Chatti’s “Tea”…
As an end-of-year project, educator Jennifer Stuckey had her students choose a living poet to showcase. Stuckey teaches English at Brookville High School in Virginia. Project Objectives: Have students explore the Living Poets Virtual Library to find their poet of choice! Project components: Title slide Bio slide Chosen poem slides A poetry broadside A thesis in which you make a…
I am so excited to share this COMPLETE UNIT for José Olivarez’s Citizen Illegal (Haymarket Books, 2018) created by my colleagues Tiffany Cavicchia and Melissa Scire. Click on the image to access a Google Slides that will guide you and your students through the book, with links to videos, assignments, and more! Unit preview More unit plans and ideas for…
Rita Dove served as poet laureate of the United States from 1993 to 1995, and as poet laureate of Virginia from 2004 to 2006. Her books of poetry include Collected Poems 1974-2004 (W.W. Norton, 2016), recipient of the 2017 NAACP Image Award, the 2017 Library of Virginia Award and a finalist for the 2016 National Book Award; Sonata Mulattica (W. W. Norton, 2009), winner of…
You want to use the Teach Living Poets Virtual Library with your students, but not sure how? Or maybe you don’t have time to devote to making a new assignment? No worries! Guest author and teacher Leigh Connole shares her incredible work here to use with the Virtual Library. Assignment description: Mrs. Connole, along with her colleague and friend, Ms….
Connect your students with other classes nationwide to learn together and discuss this history-making poem by U.S. Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman. Here’s what you need to know to make it happen. When: Friday, Jan. 29 Start time: 8am EST / 7am CST Moderator: @MelAlterSmith This will be a slow chat. We will have students active at different times of…
On January 20, 2021, President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris were sworn into office. At the Inauguration ceremony, U.S. Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman made history in being the youngest Inaugural poet. Here are several lessons, all shared with their creators’ permission, to help you teach Amanda Gorman’s poem and inauguration poetry with your students. Thank you Carrie Mattern,…
Today’s post comes from guest author Kelly Lawlor. Kelly is a high school English teacher with 10 years experience teaching grades 7-12. She started her career in Pennsylvania where she graduated from college. Currently, she lives in Massachusetts with her family and 75lb. boxer. Kelly does her best to support, encourage, and challenge students through different hands-on learning opportunities. She…
As we continue to navigate teaching this year, we find hyperdocs to be one of the most useful and effective resources for teachers and students alike. Illinois educator Kristin Runyon has created a FULL unit hyperdoc for U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo’s An American Sunrise (W. W. Norton & Co, 2019). Click HERE to access the hyperdoc. Learn more about…
Today’s lesson is by guest author Dominique James, daughter of Chicago and Southside sweetheart, graduated Summa Cum Laude from Howard University. She has completed research fellowships at the University of California-Riverside and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. After graduation, she was a TRIALS Fellow at Harvard Law School and a University of Chicago HBCU Bridge Scholar. She…
There’s a lot about this Fall that feels particularly heavy. We started the year remotely. Now, we only see half of our students at a time, the other half on Zoom.. We’re staring at many black boxes on the Zoom screen. We promised students an experiential English class, and yet we can’t play games, we can’t traverse the high and…
ORDER NOW! Teach Living Poets opens up the flourishing world of contemporary poetry to secondary teachers, giving advice on discovering new poets and reading contemporary poetry, as well as sharing sample lessons, writing prompts, and ways to become an engaged member of a professional learning community. This approach offers rich opportunities for students to improve critical reading and writing, opportunities for…
Hello Educators! My name is Brian Hannon, and I am an English teacher in Alexandria, Virginia. I just wanted to pass along a new resource that I’ve been working on this summer, the LMS Voice Curriculum Database. The LMS Voice Curriculum Database is a searchable collection of writing and analytical workshops that focus on poems by a diverse array of…
Today’s post is by guest author Charles Ellenbogen, who is in his 27th year of teaching. He teaches high school in Cleveland, Ohio, and has recently published a teaching memoir, This Isn’t the Movies: 25 Years in the Classroom. For middle grades (7-9) “The Empty City” by Michael Bazzett From The Echo Chamber by Michael Bazzett, Fall 2021 Introduction Have…
Lesson 1: Hip Hop Verse, Poetry, & Performance: Braggadocio Click here to view the full lesson plan. Mentor texts include lyrics by LL Cool J, Big Daddy Kane, and Grover Cleveland Winfield III. Lesson 2: Hip Hop Verse, Poetry, & Performance Writing Exercise Click here to view the full lesson plan. Thank you for reading! Do you have a story,…