April is national poetry month

I am glad there is a month set aside to celebrate poetry. We've been studying—or I really should say sharing—poetry in my American Lit high school class. I like to have each student pick an American poet from my list, then pick a poem they want to share with the class. They make a copy for each student and each student reads that poem and discusses it. They also write a one-page response to give to me. For the students, this means they get exposed to 20 or so poets and get one poem from each of those to keep in their notebook.

I also have them find poems by two poet laureates (their choice) and respond to those poems. I really love this unit. I love seeing which kids prefer which poets. I can usually tell who will be a Walt Whitman fan and who'll prefer more structure.

I have lots of poetry stuff on my blog. Please take some time in April or whenever to enjoy some poetry with your kids!

Celebrating National Poetry Month with Hands-on Poetry Projects
Ultimate Guide to Creative Writing Resource for Students (lots and lots of links!!)
Synonym Wheels: This is a fabulous project for learning to use the thesaurus and for encouraging writers to use more interesting words.
Brightening Winter with Poetry Collages:  My post on combining words with artwork to brighten up the dull days of winter.
Newspaper Blackout Poems: Take a newspaper article, black out words you don't want and keep the others, until you see a poem emerge.  One of our favorite projects!
Reading Poetry with Children
And don't forget my WordSmithery creative writing program!

At the very least, take some time this month to read poetry with your children or by yourself. Find someone that you've never read before, find someone who speaks to your soul.