Walt Whitman!

Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman is one of America's most famous poets, and he has written such poems as "O Captain! My Captain!," "I Hear America Singing," and "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd." And, of course, the incredibly famous but incredibly long "Song of Myself."

Here is a powerful presentation of lines from Whitman's poems set to music and infused with pictures. It is a great way to show your students how relevant poetry is to things in their communities and to issues going on around the world.

This is a clip from the movie "Dead Poets Society," and it includes a line from Whitman's "Song of Myself." It also introduces the themes of self-expression and creativity that are present in Whitman's poetry. Hopefully it will encourage your students to write their own poems and express themselves!

Write your own poetry!

Fill-in-the blank poetry gives reluctant poets confidence because they are able to supply words to make "real" poems. Although it encourages students to conform to set patterns and rhyme schemes (which is definitely not a characteristic of lots of great poems), it helps them to dive into writing poetry and gives them the courage to be more creative the next time they attempt a poem.

A visual thesaurus shows a word map of the word you are trying to find synonyms for. The linked one is cool because of the graphics when you choose to look up a related word.

This Web site will help you rhyme (almost) any word!

Shakespeare ... yuck!

I admit, I shy away from Shakespeare's poems because I am afraid of not doing them justice, but the best way to teach is to be a learner along with your students. Here are some tips for introducing Shakespeare's poetry and teaching meter, along with four class activities. Once students understand Shakespeare's poetic devices, they will have a better understanding of his drama.

Shakespeare wrote many sonnets, and this is a collection of lesson plans dealing with sound in poetry using various poems from him and other poets. Hopefully these links will help you tackle Shakespeare and give your students confidence in their ability to scan poems.

Robert Frost!

Robert Frost

"Nothing Gold Can Stay" is a symbolic poem, and using the following video interpretation could introduce a discussion about the symbol of the tree in the poem (plus it has great classical music).



Finally, this is a link to a Web site with a lesson plan connecting the poem "Mending Wall" to the messages in popular songs. You can connect pretty much any poem to a song, but this will give you an example of how one teacher did it.

Nikki Grimes!

Nikki Grimes

This site lists five of Nikki's poems and extensions that teachers can use in their classrooms to help students connect the poetry to their own lives.

In a video interview, Nikki shares her tough childhood and addresses the lack of representation of minority children in books and poetry, and her motivation for writing. There are several video clips, but I would just show the first two unless you are using a work that specifically connects to one of the other videos.

Pablo Neruda!

Pablo Neruda

Many of Pablo's poems are infused with deep melancholy and passion, showing students how writing poetry can enable the poet to analyze their feelings and try to make sense of life.

Here are a few poems you might want to try:

"If You Forget Me"

"Ode to a Large Tuna in the Market"

"Nothing but Death"

April = National Poetry Month!

Here are some quick tips for integrating poetry into your classroom.



A lot of students dread poetry units, and I think that part of that fear of poetry comes from the misconception that there is a "hidden meaning" in poems that is nearly impossible to figure out. Students don't even know what to look for in a poem, and don't have confidence in their ability to read the poem closely.



When guiding students through poems, it is helpful to give them some concrete things to look for in a poem that will help them grasp what the poem means. A popular method is called TPCASTT.