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 your own story.

How do we set words and stories “loose into the world?” 

How do we “free the words that matter?” 

The following unit asks students to listen to the podcast and engage with the ideas and writing shared over the course of 7 episodes. Each lesson is designed to explore the theme of the episode and help you and your students “free the words that matter.” Students will be asked to listen, note-take, analyze words and ideas, and then apply their thinking to a writing task in each lesson.

Get the full teaching unit here.

Be sure to also check out this teaching unit Jessica Salfia created for teaching Crystal Wilkinson’s poetry collections Perfect Black.

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