I love using students’ interests in one thing (March Madness) to get them excited about another thing (poetry). Lessons like this visual reading lesson inspired by the the Super Bowl LVI half-time show is one of my most visited #TeachLivingPoets posts. My March Madness poetry bracket last year was a huge success, but I wanted to make an updated one for 2024 filled with new poems that I know students will love.

All living poets!

All of these poems are classroom appropriate for the high school level, and most are good to go for middle school as well. You know your students best so I encourage to watch the poems before you share them with your students. One of the poems includes the word “damn,” but I’m pretty sure that is the only curse word in all of the poems.

When you download the Slides, it will force you to make a copy, so if you want to switch out one of the poems for another one you prefer, you are able to do that. I have provided an alternate poem that is 100% middle school-friendly at the end of the slides.

The slides also includes a blank bracket page if you want to print it out or share with students. Each poem has a video to watch which is linked in the bracket and has its own slide. I ask that you please keep the #TeachLivingPoets credits slide at the end of the Slides when using or sharing.

Everything is ready to go!

So what does this look like in class? My plan is to start out every class with a poetry battle as the warm up. We will watch the first two teal videos that are up against each other and take a quick heads-down hands-up vote of which one they like better. Could I be fancy and make a Google form – sure – but I’m looking for speed here. A quick show of hands is going to be my move. I’ll keep a tally for all of my classes and fill in the winner at the end of the day. The next day, I will announce the winner and we will watch the first two purple poems and vote. Then next day is the next pair of teal, then the next day, the next pair of purple, and I’ll keep alternating back and forth until the first round is complete.

For the round of Elite 8, I will show the two contenders again since it may have been a while since they initially saw them. We’ll keep alternating teal and purple through the rounds until we get to the final match up. Once we enter the Final Four, I plan on having some class discussions about the four final poems. What do they like? What about them has gotten them this far? What is the poem’s message? What do you notice about its structure? Things like that. Honestly, I want the students to drive the discussion so the more open-ended the questions, the better.

There’s also this simple and fun Reaction Form where students can quickly rate each poem and provide a reflection if you want something tangible for them to fill out as they move through the tournament.

I want this to be fun so besides some discussion and voting, so I personally don’t plan on tying any assignments to my March Madness poetry bracket. Last year, my classes had a full on battle (all in good fun) to determine which poem would win the ultimate title of Champion. (It was Savon Bartley’s “Elementary”).

Download the March Madness Poetry Bracket HERE.

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