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Word Scramble Poem
Today’s prompt is inspired by Angelo Geter, AKA EyeAmBic, the Poet Laureate Emeritus of Rock Hill, SC. Before we dive in to the lesson, I want to share a couple of my favorite poems of his. In his collection More God Than Dead, he chronicles his journey into widowhood after tragically losing his wife, and deals with themes of grief,…
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“Do Us Good” by Amanda Gorman, a poem inspired by Wicked
You know me — when a new Amanda Gorman poem drops, I get excited! With the premier of the Wicked movie starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, Gorman unveiled her newest masterpiece inspired by the film, “Do Us Good.” Your students do not need to have seen the movie to be able to appreciate Gorman’s poem. This poem speaks to…
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Exploring structure in Hanif Abdurraqib’s poem “It Is Maybe Time to Admit That Michael Jordan Definitely Pushed Off”
This lesson will get your students up and moving! Hanif Abdurraqib is a poet, essayist, and cultural critic from Columbus, Ohio. His poetry has been published in Muzzle, Vinyl, PEN American, and various other journals. His essays and music criticism have been published in The FADER, Pitchfork, The New Yorker, and The New York Times. His first full length poetry…
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Words for the People – a teaching unit for the podcast hosted by Crystal Wilkinson, Kentucky’s Poet Laureate
This lesson was created by Jessica Salfia from Spring Mills High School, Martinsburg West Virginia. This unit is made possible by the Academy of American Poets with funds from the Mellon Foundation. Hosted by Crystal Wilkinson, Kentucky’s Poet Laureate, each Words for the People NPR podcast episode features an established writer and an emerging writer, sharing their wisdom to help you free…
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#TeachLivingPoets Favorites for National Poetry Month
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…
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For middles grades and elementary: Two poems by Michael Bazzett
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…
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Teaching Citizen Illegal: One teacher’s approach
Today’s post is brought to you by guest author Melissa Tucker, Rock Hill, South Carolina’s 2018 District Teacher of the Year. Melissa is an AP Lit, AP Lang, and World Lit teacher at Rock Hill High School. Grateful and tired mom of two handsome sons, her extended Bearcat family is always invited to her classroom. She continually seeks opportunities to…
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Introduction to Spoken Word and Slam Poetry
Today’s post is a collaboration brought to you by guest author, Joe Paris, and me, Melissa Smith. You can follow us on Twitter @ParisBMS and @MelAlterSmith. Joe has curated this amazing list of spoken word and slam poems to get your class started! He also wrote a post about organizing a slam at your school here. 1) What is Spoken Word?…
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Instilling a love for poetry with middle school slams
Today’s post is brought to you by guest author, Joe Paris. You can follow Joe on Twitter @ParisBMS. Joe Paris has been teaching 8th grade Language Arts in northeast Ohio for 19 years. He and his colleagues began the spoken word project six years ago and it’s their favorite thing they do with students every year. Slam into Summer and into…
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#TeachLivingPoets virtual library
Looking to bring in more contemporary poetry into your classroom but don’t know where to start? Or maybe you have a couple favorite poems and poets, but you’re looking to add some new artists? Thanks to my friend and rock star educator Scott Bayer, a resource now exists that you can use both as an […]
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Building a Classroom Community Through Narrative Poetry
Today’s #TeachLivingPoets post is brought to you by guest writer, Matt Brisbin. Mr. Brisbin teaches English at McMinnville High School in McMinnville, Oregon, and has been a high school English instructor for 12 years. Aside from reading and writing, his passions in life include spending time with his family and cheering on various sports teams at the high school, college, and…
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Get Moving with Teach Living Poets Stations
Today’s post is by guest author Angelina Murphy who teaches high school English in Los Angeles. She has her Masters in Education from University of California, Los Angeles where she focused her research on trauma-informed teaching and community of care. When she is not teaching, she also manages her blog about engaging teaching, technology, social justice, and teaching strategies at Magical Ms….
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Poetry Fridays: Making Poetry Part of Your Classroom Weekly Routine
The amazing Carol Jago was the opening and closing keynote speaker at the Poetry Foundation’s Summer Poetry Teachers Institute. Her goal was to provide us a handful of poetry activities that we could use in our first days back in the classroom, and on the last day, Carol asked us to set a personal goal for incorporating poetry into our…
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The Envelope Game – easy activity to use with any text tomorrow!
My students are reading Safia Elhillo’s poetry collection The January Children. We’ve had insightful class discussions, students are reading and annotating five poems every night, and today I wanted to do something more hands-on in small groups. Before we started reading the poems, we read Kwame Dawes’s foreword–a must-read, if you ask me. It prefaces her work with information about…
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How a poem moves – a workshop with Terrance Hayes
I had looked forward to this workshop for MONTHS. Terrance Hayes! A small, intimate workshop! I am going to learn about poetry from one of the greatest poets writing today. AND I get to attend his reading the night before? Get. Out. Of. Town. I was beside myself. Let’s start with the reading. Charlotte Lit sponsored a weekend with Terrance…
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Poems to celebrate Black History Month
Today’s post is brought to you by educator extraordinaire and guest author, Cait Hutsell. Cait is a high school ELA teacher in North Central Florida. She has almost exclusively taught freshmen for seven years, but has also taught AP Lang, Yearbook, and sophomore English as well. Her superpower is reading ridiculously fast; she finished 164 books in 2018! Cait is…
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Poetry Hexagons: get your students engaged with this hands-on hexagon activity!
Today’s post is brought to you by guest author Tia Miller. Tia teaches AP Literature, AP Language, AP Seminar, and Dual Credit English at Chapmanville Regional High School in southern West Virginia. She is currently working on her doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction from Marshall University. This past semester, inspired by Melissa Smith and other awesome teachers in my PLN…
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#TeachLivingPoets Gallery Walk
Today’s blog post comes from Carrie Mattern, a high school ELA teacher in Flint, MI who has taught in Flint for the last eleven years and in Brown City, MI for her first four years of teaching. At Flint Carman-Ainsworth, Carrie greets students as freshmen in English 9 and sends them out into the real world after completing English 12….
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“If They Should Come For Us” by Fatimah Asghar – chat archive and lesson
Teachers from all over the country gathered together virtually to discuss Fatimah Asghar’s poem “If They Should Come For Us” from her collection If They Come For Us (Penguin Random House, 2018). I taught this poem to my on-level American Lit juniors and AP Literature seniors the week prior to the chat, and found it to be an extremely successful poem with…
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Finding the Perfect Match: Poetry Blind Dating
Today’s #TeachLivingPoets post is brought to you by guest writers, Kristin Dreyer and Nikki Lehman, co-teachers at Chantilly High School in Chantilly, Virginia. They have been teaching at Chantilly for the past 18 years and have co-taught together three years throughout the course of their careers; this year they are embarking on an English 10 journey for the first time….
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José Olivarez’s Citizen Illegal – Teach Living Poets and #THEBOOKCHAT archive
#THEBOOKCHAT #TeachLivingPoets #aplitchat UNITE! Last week, several Twitter chat groups united to discuss José Olivarez’s new book Citizen Illegal (Haymarket Press, 2018). The chat was moderated by Adrian Nester, Scott Bayer, Joel Garza, and me, and educators and poetry readers from all over the country participated. This post will attempt to curate our chat and share some of the highlights…
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Teach Living Poets Resources – where to find poets and poems
Want to #TeachLivingPoets but feel like you don’t know where to start? Or where to find good poems? Then this post is for you. Here, you will find all kinds of resources to help you feel more knowledgeable and comfortable with teaching contemporary poetry in your classroom. How to find poets For a list of poets to follow, click here….
