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…
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,…
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…
This post is written by fellow LNC teacher Jessie Locke, who teaches 8th grade ELA. She is a graduate of Miami University (Oxford, Ohio), is in her 18th year of teaching, and is a National Board Certified Teacher. She taught elementary school for 8 years, and has been in 8th grade since 2014. I can’t wait for my own children…
Student choice. Genuine investment. Low-stakes writing practice. Poetry analysis. Digital citizenship. Personal engagement. Empowering student voice. A few years ago in the nascence of #TeachLivingPoets, I (Melissa) was brainstorming ways to get students invested in not just poetry, but poets. Reading individual poems wasn’t offering the kind of long-term appreciation I was hoping to nurture. At the time, I was starting my…
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…
When I get an out-of-the box idea for a poetry analysis lesson, chances are it’s inspired by my son, like this basketball-NASCAR mash-up with a Hanif Abdurraqib poem. The other day, my son asked for a pair of “nice shoes” for his birthday, and we got to talking about what he would want them to look like. Two things came…
This post is written by Jenny Bruesewitz, a high school turned middle school English teacher in Bay Village, Ohio. Jenny presented about ELA and the Makerspace at NCTE 2023 and OCTELA 2024 (Ohio Council of Teachers of English Language Arts). The #teachlivingpoets tone bottle activity changed my classroom. The creation process resulted in great discussion and a visible representation of…
This post is written by Zach Czaia, a poet and high school English teacher working in Minneapolis, MN. His second poetry collection, Knucklehead, was published in 2021 with Nodin Press. Check out his Substack, “Teacher / Poet” here. The longer I teach English literature, the more convinced I am that to do justice both to the subject I teach and the…
By Kashiana Singh This post is written by Kashiana Singh. When Singh is not writing, she lives to embody her TEDx talk theme of Work as Worship into her every day. Her chapbook Crushed Anthills by Yavanika Press is a loco poetic journey through 10 cities. Her second full-length collection, Woman by the Door was released in 2022 with Apprentice…
Created by Betsy Potash of Spark Creativity This guest post is written by Betsy Potash of Spark Creativity. Looking for a fun holiday pop-up poetry workshop you can try this December? How about challenging students with the hilarious, fun intricacies of a lipogram?! Melissa (you know, the founder of this site!) first shared this idea with me last year and…
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…
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…
Note: This bracket is from last year. For those who already used this bracket, I will be posting a whole new bracket with new poems in early March 2024! I love using students’ interests in one thing (March Madness) to get them excited about another thing (poetry). Lessons like Poetry and Basketball inspired by Ja Morant and the NBA All-Stars…
This activity can be used with any poem and at any grade level — high school, middle school, even elementary school. To get students in the right headspace for this kind of analysis, we brainstorm the connections between colors and feelings, we consider our personal associations with certain colors, and we discuss how color can be used to tell a…
This generative activity celebrates the women in our lives and comes to us at perfect timing – Black History Month and Valentine’s Day. Next month is Women’s History Month – also perfect! This lesson includes an engaging writing prompt and mentor texts by Tupac, Common, Talib Kweli, and Cleveland Winfield himself!
This post is brought to you by Zach Czaia, a poet and high school English teacher working in Minneapolis, MN. His second poetry collection, Knucklehead, was published in 2021 with Nodin Press. Check out his poetry podcast, Open Your Hands on Spotify or Google Podcasts or follow him on social media @czaiazach. Some Notes on Literature Circles & Poetry Collections…
Anytime I can find ways to combine poetry and basketball, I jump on it. Today’s lesson uses a poem by Boston Poet Laureate Porsha Olayiwola read at a ceremony honoring the late Bill Russell at the Celtics opening of the 2022-23 season against the 76ers. Skills of focus for the lesson: Sample slides: This lesson is appropriate for middle and…
“We find it hard to settle our brains down, and poetry offers us that silence, that quiet space, and allows us to reconnect with ourselves, with an idea, or with an emotion.” Ada Limón Ada Limón is the 24th U.S. Poet Laureate and the 1st Latina to hold the position. Her work has also won the National Books Critics Circle Award and…
This 10-day unit is created by Brian Hannon, Director of Secondary Curriculum for LMSvoice. He currently teaches AP Literature , AP Language , and Team-Taught English 11 in Alexandria, Virginia. Brian was the co-founder of the poetryN.O.W., and through his involvement with this organization, Brian went on to found the two largest youth poetry events in his area, the Hyper Bole and…
Philip Metres is the author of ten books, including Shrapnel Maps (Copper Canyon, 2020), The Sound of Listening: Poetry as Refuge and Resistance (University of Michigan, 2018), Pictures at an Exhibition (University of Akron, 2016), Sand Opera (Alice James, 2015), and I Burned at the Feast: Selected Poems of Arseny Tarkovsky (Cleveland State, 2015). His work—poetry, translation, essays, fiction, criticism, and scholarship—has garnered fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Lannan…
This 10-day unit is created by Brian Hannon, Director of Secondary Curriculum for LMSvoice. He currently teaches AP Literature , AP Language , and Team-Taught English 11 in Alexandria, Virginia. Brian was the co-founder of the poetryN.O.W., and through his involvement with this organization, Brian went on to found the two largest youth poetry events in his area, the Hyper…
My seniors visited our district’s elementary school to teach a poetry workshop and it was awesome! Our school’s motto is “Learn, Lead, and Serve,” and I can’t think of a better opportunity for our students to live our motto and serve as role models in our school community. How It Went Down Two groups of upperclassmen, each with about 5…