Creative Poetry Month Lessons for National Poetry Month atop a photo of several young students in a classroom. the student closest in view is raising their hand while a blurry teacher in the background smiles at the student.

13 Creative Poetry Month Lessons to Engage Middle Graders

Bring poetry month lessons to the classroom this April (aka National Poetry Month)! We specifically chose these 13 meaningful poems to appeal to middle-grade students. April is the month we celebrate poetry and verse. What better way to introduce middle graders to the joys of lyrical expression than with 13 purposefully selected poems? From repetition to thematic analysis, these lesson ideas will help students discover the wonders of poetry. Note: I used the WONDERFUL resource, CommonLit, to find these inclusive middle-grade poems. My district pays for the full CommonLit version, but the free version is incredibly beneficial as well. Poetry Month Lesson on SYMBOLISM “Peaches” by Adrienne Su A speaker describes life as a child of immigrant parents. Students analyze the speaker’s use of peaches to symbolize her conflicted feelings about her identity as a

Carina Assayed March 22, 2023

Brightly colored hard cover books arranged in a circle in rainbow order. At the top of the image there is a white border with pink and blue text that says "Native American Heritage Month in Secondary ELA"

ELA Texts & Resources for Honoring Native American Heritage Month

Looking for text recommendations and engaging resources that you can use during Native American Heritage Month (and year round!), look no further! How many Native American/First Nation voices are present in your curriculum or your classroom library? If you aren’t sure, I have a free tool that allows you to see what’s missing, representation-wise, from your classroom library. Indigenous stories aren’t just underrepresented in schools, they are vastly underrepresented in publishing as well. According to data compiled by the Cooperative Children’s Book Center, only 1% of children’s books released in 2018 were written about Indigenous characters. That number deteriorated even further when we looked at how many books were written BY Indigenous authors. Even though there are hundreds of nations and tribal affiliations across Turtle Island – with a variety of diverse experiences, customs, and practices

Leila Hobbs November 9, 2022

A photo of a stack of books and a students hand writing in a notebook. At the top of the image there is pink and blue text that says How to Teach Haiku in Secondary ELA

6 Tips for Teaching How to Write a Haiku

Fun and easy-to-implement tips and activities to help your your students understand, appreciate, and learn how to write a haiku. I’ve blogged a lot about teaching poetry in Secondary ELA, and today I’m focusing on a specific kind of poem – teaching haiku. Your students probably learned how to write a haiku in lower grades, but I think it’s worth revisiting in middle or high school ELA to help students gain a deeper appreciation. Activities and Ideas for Teaching Haiku Start with a brief history of haiku Evolving from earlier forms of Japanese poetry that featured the alternating 5-7 syllable pattern, the haiku format as we know it has been around for over 400 years! In traditional Japanese haiku, there is more to the art form than just the syllable structure, like the inclusion of

Leila Hobbs November 7, 2022

Poetry for High School Students – 3 Tips to Boost Engagement

High-interest and low-prep lessons and activities you can utilize when teaching poetry for high school students. Poetry for High School Students Do your high schoolers’ eyes glaze over at the word “sonnet”? Do they find poetry “booorrrrring?” You aren’t failing them, and I’m here to help! Today I’m sharing some tips and lesson ideas that are sure to help engage even the most reluctant poetry readers in your class. 1. How do you make poetry interesting? Sometimes all it takes to help make poetry a more appealing subject to your high school students is changing the types of poems you are presenting to them. These blog posts are all focused on helping you to provide a wider and more inclusive variety of poetry for high school students in your classroom: Contemporary Poems by Black Authors

Leila Hobbs August 30, 2022

A photo of a wooden table in front of a snowy mountainside. On the table there is a coffee cup, a book, and a pair of reading glasses on top of the book. Above the image there is a white border with pink and blue text reading "Contemporary Poems by Black Authors"

7 Contemporary Poems by Black Authors for Secondary ELA

These contemporary poems by Black authors will help diversify your poetry unit, help students process current events, and even help engage reluctant poetry readers. Listen y’all, I’m not hating on the classics! Groundbreaking and hugely influential Black poets like Gwendolyn Brooks, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Maya Angelou, Langston Hughes, etc. all deserve a place in the ELA curriculum. However, it’s not enough for us to only teach the classics, especially when it comes to poetry. It’s easy for students to feel like poetry is “boring” or irrelevant, so today, I’m sharing seven contemporary poems by Black authors to help your students connect with the voices and experiences of their peers, not their grandparents. Contemporary Poems by Black Authors: “In This Place (An American Lyric)” by Amanda Gorman “There’s a place where this poem dwells— it is

Leila Hobbs July 12, 2022

An overhead photo of brightly colored books standing up. There is a white banner at the top with pink text that says "YA & MG Novels in Verse"

8 Captivating Novels in Verse for Secondary ELA Students

Whether you’re hosting a lit circle or adding to your classroom library, these novels in verse will be a big hit with your secondary ELA students. I love incorporating verse novels into the classroom! The fact that they have compelling stories, and easy-to-connect with characters makes verse novels an ideal choice for reluctant poetry readers. Students that aren’t typically interested in poetry, but who are interested in the story, can grow to appreciate the writing style. Keeping a few verse novels in your classroom library is also a great way to let students explore poetry in a “no pressure” setting. In this post, I’ll share some novels in verse for middle and high school ELA, plus some extension/enrichment activities that you can use to accompany the books. If you want to pick up any of

Leila Hobbs June 7, 2022

A stack of books with the overlayed text "Poetry. Engaging ideas for in-person, hybrid, or digital."

Tips & Resources for Teaching Poetry in Secondary ELA

These tips for teaching poetry in secondary ELA are perfect for National Poetry Month (April), and they’ll help you create engaging lessons year-round. Is there a subject that divides students (and teachers, let’s be honest) more than poetry? Some folx (like me!) find poetry to be magical, moving, and merry, others find it to be confusing, boring, and a chore. While that hurts my heart, I understand. Poetry is a unique and exciting literary experience. A wide range of formats expressing a wide range of emotions. But our students can’t appreciate that if all we focus on is memorizing literary elements. By creating an inclusive, relevant, and approachable poetry unit, we can help more kids to fall in love with poetry as an art form. Over the years I’ve blogged a lot about teaching poetry

Danielle Hall April 20, 2021

Teaching Poetry for Distance Learning

What can I say about this school year that hasn’t already been said? Teachers, whether you’re teaching online, virtually, or a blend of both, are making the best out of an impossibly difficult situation. And in case no one’s told you this today, you’re doing great. Your students are lucky to have you, but you don’t have to go it alone, I’m here to help! Ready to get started? Great! Let’s explore some new ways of teaching poetry in distance learning. I know that even on the best day, many students struggle to connect with poetry. And during virtual school? An ever tougher sell. So today I am sharing six resources, ideas, and activities to help engage and inspire your distance learning students. And if you aren’t teaching virtually this year, don’t stop reading! All

Leila Hobbs March 30, 2021

Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo

Want a contemporary novel for your curriculum? Need classroom library suggestions? Check out Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo. Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo If you love YA books, you’re probably familiar with Elizabeth Acevedo’s work. Her debut novel The Poet X was a breathtakingly beautiful novel-in-verse, and a breakout success. We featured her follow up novel, With the Fire on High, on the YA Cafe Podcast. WtFoH was an unexpected novel-in-prose, but equally wonderful. With Clap When You Land, Acevedo returns to her poetry roots and gives us another novel-in-verse. If you’re looking to add more Latinx voices to your classroom library, any of Acevedo’s books are a great choice. I also have a blog post featuring my favorite YA books by Latinx authors. Today’s post is written by the amazing

Leila Hobbs February 17, 2021

7 Books for Teaching Poetry

It’s April so y’all know what that means: National Poetry Month! I have compiled a list below of some books that are sure to interest even the most reluctant poetry readers and included some ideas for how to use them in the classroom. Even though I’ve labeled these as “books for teaching poetry,” they’re also great additions to the classroom library for any time of year. Enjoy! Ink Knows No Borders edited by Patrice Vecchione and Alyssa Raymond This is a collection of poems from acclaimed authors such as Elizabeth Acevedo, Samira Ahmed, Carlos Andres Gomez (and many more!). These poems offer students unique insight into the immigrant and refugee experience. Ink Knows No Borders features 65 poems on subjects like stereotyping, language gaps, isolation, and homesickness. This book allows students to gain empathy and

Danielle Hall April 9, 2019

7 Science Fiction Poems for Secondary ELA

Using science fiction poems (or speculative poems) in the classroom can be a great way for students to build a deeper understanding of the genre. Students often have a very narrow understanding of science fiction (limiting it to perhaps one or two television shows or movies), and we can help them extend this. Additionally, this particular genre will show students that poetry isn’t some dusty art form relegated to Shakespeare or Byron. This post includes Amazon Affiliate links. Any revenue that Amazon shares with me will be used for the upkeep of this site. 🙂 Here are some science fiction poems I love using in my secondary ELA class. 1. “Six Haiku” by Karen Anderson The white vapor trail Scrawls slowly on the sky Without any squeak. I love Haiku for their brevity, and Karen

Danielle Hall October 18, 2018

Poetry Speed-Dating

I love poetry, and I always want to share that love of poetry with students. Last year, I decided to add a new element to my poetry unit, Poetry Speed-dating. This simple activity allows students to explore some poetry in a low-stakes way. Set Up Poetry Speed-Dating The set-up is simple. Find a variety of poetry books and anthologies for students to browse. You can collect anthologies from the library, set up stations with access to various poetry websites you like, or have students bring in books of poetry from home. If students have a favorite poem from childhood (perhaps something from Where the Sidewalk Ends), this can be a wonderful place to start. Allow students to browse. It really is that simple. I remind students to write down the names of

Danielle Hall March 21, 2017

Expose your secondary students to a wide range of classic poetry using these engaging bellringers! Students create and analyze, finding fun and meaning in each of these thirty class poems.

Use Bellringers to Help Students Love Poetry

It can be tough to get students engaged with poetry, but I have found a solution! Poetry Bellringers. I created this resource as a way to share several classic poems with students in a short amount of time. There’s no over-analysis here – each activity is short and targeted. Also, since each activity is a Bellringer, or happens within the first few minutes of class, they can be used in conjunction with other poetry activities. What Poetry Bellringers Look Like: Each of these thirty bellringers has a snippet of a classic poem, or the whole thing if the poem is short. Then, each bellringer has a different creative or analytical prompt. Students could identify poetic devices in one poem, illustrate another, create a new poem in the same style, etc. Major Benefits: Exposure – If you

Danielle Hall November 1, 2016

Found Poetry for Fiction & Non-Fiction

In addition to studying poetry during National Poetry Month in April, I love integrating poetry throughout the school year. A favorite resource I use to engage my students in literature is Found Poetry! You can do this with any class novel or independent reading, and it’s a way for students to seek many “correct” answers. This is a fun, no-pressure approach to poetry, and the results are amazing! Found Poetry asks students to reshape a text into something new – a poem! I always ask students to engage with the text first, pulling out words and phrases that are evocative to them. Then, they go through and find a theme that emerges from what they’ve chosen, using some or all of what they’ve found on a first run. I take students through this process using my

Danielle Hall February 29, 2016

8 Fresh Ways to Celebrate National Poetry Month

April is National Poetry Month! Spring has sprung and April has arrived! If you’re like me, April is a favorite month because we can put our best Spring energies into teaching poetry. Here are some new ideas that you can put into play in your classroom this April. Poem of the Day Give students short poems to respond to as a bell-ringer. You can use the format One Thought, One Connection, One Question to get students thinking before you open the floor to discussion. Here are a couple of poems I love for this activity: First Fig by Edna St. Vincent Millay My candle burns at both ends;It will not last the nightBut ah, my foes, and oh, my friends—It gives a lovely light! Dreams by Langston Hughes Hold fast to dreamsFor if dreams dieLife

Danielle Hall March 26, 2015

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