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? Continue reading
Two Lessons for Hip Hop Verse, Poetry, & Performance: Braggadocio & Voice
This lesson is by Grover Cleveland Winfield III, the son of the late Grover C. Winfield, Jr. and Theodora Pollard Winfield. He earned his M.F.A. in Creative Writing, with and emphasis in poetry, from Old Dominion University in May of 2004. Entering his seventeenth year in education, Cleveland Winfield currently teaches English 10 and Cultural Topics: Literature, Writing, & Performance at Rappahannock High School in Warsaw, Virginia. In addition to his teaching duties, Cleveland Winfield serves his school system as the Faculty Athletics Representative for Rappahannock High School and as the chairperson of the Richmond County Public Schools Multicultural Diversity Committee.
Lesson 1: Hip Hop Verse, Poetry, & Performance: Braggadocio
Run a Writing Marathon
Sweat Bands and Running Shorts Optional; Notebook and Pen Required
The need for human connection has never been so achingly present for me as it has the past few months of sheltering in place. All teachers are missing their students, their moments with coworkers, and the daily work of the classroom. It makes me remember how important forging relationships and actively engaging with those young adults who cross our doors remains. One of the greatest memories I have of moments like that is my first writing marathon with my students.
My Favorite Poem Project with Robert Pinsky
This is the ninth installment in a series at #TeachLivingPoets. The Poet Laureate Project features a different U.S. Poet Laureate each month during the 2019-2020 school year. Guest author Ann Cox highlights one or two of their poems, suggests activities to use these pieces in the classroom, and touches upon their contributions to the promotion of poetry in America. Ann Cox has over 20 years of experience teaching high school English, including AP Lit, Creative Writing, and Speech. She also spent several years as a teacher consultant for the Illinois State Writing Project.
This month I’m featuring former Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky, who served in the position from 1997-2000. As the nation’s official poet, the Poet Laureate’s task is to increase U.S. citizens’ appreciation for reading and writing poetry. During his term, Robert Pinsky created the Favorite Poem Project, which asked Americans to share their favorite poem with the nation.
Kendrick Lamar Workshop Project
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 is a teaching artist at Young Chicago Authors and creates word-based multimedia projects, for which she received a 2018 Propeller Fund grant from the Andy Warhol Foundation. Whether as an event host, performer, or teaching artist, Dominique seeks to inspire celebration and share joy.
(Photo by Reese Amaru) Visit Dominique’s blog here.
DAMN. 3 Years Anniversary Workshop Series
(originally posted on http://www.nikki-rosa.com/blog and shared here with permission)
For the project, I used the workshop contents to reimagine the physical album, designing my own versions of the album cover, liner notes, and tracklist. I am also posting an image that organizes the info into a single document. The images and the document are below and the downloadable PDF with hyperlinks can be found here. I’m also posting links to the pieces. Happy creating! Continue reading
Considering Elegy with Clint Smith & Danez Smith poems
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.
Exploring Family Relationships with a sonnet by Terrance Hayes
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.
This lesson plan features one of Terrance Hayes’s American sonnets from American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin, as well as a poem by the Poet Laureate of Ohio, Dave Lucas. Students will compare and contrast the two poems, exploring the father-son relationship in each. This lesson is designed with distance teaching and online learning in mind, and can fit right into any thematic unit on family dynamics and complexities. Continue reading
At the Kitchen Table with Joy Harjo
This is the eighth installment in a series at #TeachLivingPoets. The Poet Laureate Project features a different U.S. Poet Laureate each month during the 2019-2020 school year. Guest author Ann Cox highlights one or two of their poems, suggests activities to use these pieces in the classroom, and touches upon their contributions to the promotion of poetry in America. Ann Cox has over 20 years of experience teaching high school English, including AP Lit, Creative Writing, and Speech. She also spent several years as a teacher consultant for the Illinois State Writing Project.
This month I’m featuring our current U.S. Poet Laureate, Joy Harjo. She is the first Native American appointed to the position. Her many honors include the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers Circle of the Americas, the Wallace Stevens Award from the Academy of American Poets, and the William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America.
Harjo once commented, “I feel strongly that I have a responsibility to all the sources that I am: to all past and future ancestors…to all voices…all people, all earth, and beyond that to all beginnings and endings.” We can see Harjo touch upon several of these in her poem “Perhaps the World Ends Here.” Continue reading
Eduardo C. Corral’s “Border Patrol Agent” lesson
Today’s lesson is brought to you by Joel Garza @JoelRGarza, who chairs the Upper School English department at Greenhill School in Addison, Texas. He draws loads of professional growth from #aplitchat #ClearTheAir #DisruptTexts #TeachLivingPoets and #THEBOOKCHAT (which he co-founded with Scott Bayer, aka @LyricalSwordz).
Click HERE to view the lesson made by Joel Garza
Mini-lesson for “Tea” by Leila Chatti
This lesson was inspired by Chatti’s poem and the #TeachLivingPoets Twitter chat about the poem, and was created by the chat host, Kristin Runyon.
Click HERE for the full Hyperdoc
Considering borders, marginalization, & structure with two poems by Philip Metres
Today’s post is by guest author Charles Ellenbogen, who is in his 27th year of teaching. He teaches Language & Literature at Campus International High School in Cleveland, Ohio, and has recently published a teaching memoir, This Isn’t the Movies: 25 Years in the Classroom. As of this writing, he is safe at home with Kirsten, his wife, Zoe and Ezra, his children, and Lincoln and Chocolate Scales, their pets.
Students start with “Marginalia with Uprooted Olives” by Philip Metres from Shrapnel Maps (April 2020, Copper Canyon Press) Continue reading
