Goodbye (for now), National Poetry Month!

It's been a spectacular month, and we're sad to see it go, but the departure of National Poetry Month doesn't mean our love of poetry has to go with it!

Find out more about inspiring your students with poetry by clicking on some of these fantastic links:

Academy of American Poets: For Educators
Free poetry resources, curriculum, essays on teaching, tips for teaching, ideas

EDSITEment: The Best of the Humanities on the Web
Literature and language arts lesson plans for grades K-12

826 National Teacher Support
Publications about writing and teaching from 826 National

Favorite Poem Project
Poetry lesson plans, K-12

Folger Shakespeare Library Poetry in the Schools
DC-area Poetry in the Schools program info

Library of Congress Poetry & Literature Lesson Plans
Resources for grades 6-12

National Education Association: Bringing Poetry to the Classroom
Lessons, activities, and AV resources

Poetry Foundation Articles for Teachers & Students
Links for students and teaching ideas for instructors

Poetry Out Loud Teaching Resources
Teacher resources for national student recitation contest Poetry Out Loud

Poetryclass
Ideas and methods for teaching poetry

ReadWriteThink
K-12 reading and language arts classroom resources for educators and students

Teachers & Writers Collaborative
Digital resources and lesson plans for teachers

Web English Teacher
Links to activities and lesson plans related to specific types of poetry and poets

Writers in the Schools
Educator resources blog from the Writers in the Schools (WITS) program

Youth Speaks Teen Poetry Slam
Nonprofit teen spoken word organization based in San Francisco

We LOVE to READ the SONnets BY the BARD!

The HAPpy GOATS are GRAZing IN the GRASS.

They LIKE to EAT the FLOwers AND the HAY.

And AFter THAT they'll READ a SHAKEspeare PLAY!


We could speak in iambic pentameter all day, but we'll let these charming goats do the talking (bleating?) for us. This poster serves as an excellent visual aid to help students understand the rhythm of iambic pentameter. It's available as a high-resolution 20" x 30" digital download, and there is also a mini version (8.5" x 11") that comes free with our Sonnet Lesson Plan. If you happen to have access to an enormous printer, then hey, that's great! Otherwise, you can do what we did and send the file to Walgreens (or Kinkos, or any other online printing service).

As it turns out, behinds are a BIG HIT with the middle school crowd. The poster we put up created such a buzz that another class took a "field trip" down the hall just to marvel at the goat butt. We think Shakespeare would be proud. 

FYI, this poster is also available as a hard copy print in several sizes from Zazzle!

"What need I fear of thee?": Teaching Shakespeare's Sonnets

Spoiler Alert: Shakespeare is not as scary as your students might think. 

Actually, we don't find him very scary at all. (Well, maybe some of his tragedies qualify as scary...)

Teaching Shakespeare shouldn't have to be intimidating either; one great method of introducing his work to your students is to start with one of his 154 sonnets. Read one of our favorites here:

    Sonnet 18

    By William Shakespeare

    Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? 

    Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

    Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

    And summer's lease hath all too short a date: 

    Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

    And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; 

    And every fair from fair sometime declines,

    By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;

    But thy eternal summer shall not fade

    Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;

    Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,

    When in eternal lines to time thou growest: 

       So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

       So long lives this and this gives life to thee. 

 
Our CCSS-aligned Sonnets Lesson Plan includes activities, a poster, and instructions, and it uses "Sonnet 18" as a starting point. From there, students learn about the structure, form, and meaning of this sonnet. They stomp and shout the syllables of iambic pentameter, and then they practice using extended metaphors, rhythm, and argumentation. Step-by-step plans take five or six days, and students will emerge unscathed, having analyzed a sonnet and written one of their own!



We agree that Old English may sometimes prove challenging, but the words quatrain, couplet, and volta should be part of any young poet's vocabulary. Check out our store for more details.

April is National Poetry Month!

March comes in like a lion and out like a... poet? Maybe we don't have that quite right, but we do know one thing: we couldn't be more excited about this year's National Poetry Month!

As advocates of writing and reading, we encourage you to check out the Academy of American Poets website this month for some great ideas to bring poetry into your classroom. If you teach grades 7-10, take a look at these free lesson plans that are aligned to common core. And while you're at it, sign up for a gorgeous free poster (while supplies last) to hang at your school.

We plan on celebrating this month with a nod to a true master of verse: William Shakespeare. Stay tuned for featured products, facts, and freebies that center around the Great Bard!

But for now, we'll leave you with a poem to celebrate the season. Enjoy William Wordsworth's famous ballad, "Lines Written in Early Spring" (1798):

    Lines Written in Early Spring

    by William Wordsworth

    I heard a thousand blended notes,

    While in a grove I sate reclined,

    In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts

    Bring sad thoughts to the mind.

    To her fair works did nature link

    The human soul that through me ran;

    And much it grieved my heart to think

    What man has made of man.

    Through primrose tufts, in that green bower,

    The periwinkle trailed its wreaths;

    And 'tis my faith that every flower

    Enjoys the air it breathes.

    The birds around me hopped and played:

    Their thoughts I cannot measure:——

    But the least motion which they made,

    It seemed a thrill of pleasure.

    The budding twigs spread out their fan,

    To catch the breezy air;

    And I must think, do all I can,

    That there was pleasure there.

    If this belief from heaven be sent,

    If such be Nature's holy plan,

    Have I not reason to lament

    What man has made of man?