Here's a must-have guide for instructors who use Robert Frost's poems in their classes. The 24-page guide focuses on poems included in Frost's first two volumes of poems, background information on the poet, and what Frost thought was an...

National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman delineates her reasons for claiming that all poetry is political. The video captures the poet's passion and commitment to speaking up and speaking out. It is a must-have resource.

New ReviewHere's a new take on a new year. After watching and discussing the video of Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman performing her "New Day's Lyric," young poets craft poems that reflect their feelings about the past year and their resolutions...

New ReviewYour land is my land! Young historians investigate the concept of Manifest Destiny used by the United States government to justify western expansion. Jigsaw groups read primary source documents to gain an understanding of the movement...

What makes giving meaningful? Class members discuss this question, then listen to Alberto Rios reading his poem, "When Giving Is All We Have." Finally, the class considers what the poet says about the question.

Who or what do you miss? That's the question that launches an activity that asks writers to craft a paragraph filled with sensory details that shows how they feel. Next, they listen to Richard Blanco reading his poem, "Translation for...

Before cell phones, tablets, and computers with access to YouTube, before gleaming multiplexes and even before television, there were small theaters with Saturday night black and white movies. Alberto Ríos's poem "When There Were Ghosts"...

What do you remember about your childhood home? Scholars listen to Oscar Gonzales reading his poem "We All Return to the Place Where We Were Born" in Spanish and English, then discuss what they learned about Gonzales.

Introduce fourth graders to poetry with a three-week unit that has them examine the structural elements of poetry, analyze poems, and craft their own original poems rich in sensory details and other poetic devices. Young scholars study...

Provide high school scholars preparing for the AP Literature exam with a list of terms they need to know about poetry. The list, which includes definitions and examples of types of poems, concepts, and vocabulary, is a handy reference.

Amanda Gorman, the United States's first National Youth Poet Laureate, is featured in a resource from the Academy of American Poets. Class members first read Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" speech and note what King wanted...

An animated interpretation of Clint Smith's poem "Ode to the Only Black Kid in the Class" explores the stereotypes Black Americans encounter.

After a close reading Marge Piercy's poem "Barbie Doll," class members craft an AP®-style explanatory essay in which they analyze the diction and other figurative literary devices the poet employs to deliver her commentary on modern...

Brendan Constantine's anti-gun poem, "The Opposites Game," comes to life in a short video that animates the poem as Constantine recites it.

To prepare for crafting their own memoir, class members examine poetry by Margaret Atwood, Billy Collins, Robert Hayden, and Claude McKay, stories by Richard Rodriquez and Willa Cather, and Barry Levinson's film Avalon. They examine how...

The poems of Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson are the focus of a unit that asks readers to consider how an artist's life and changes in society influences his or her work. After careful study of Whitman's and Dickinson's perspectives on...

How do Poe's choices of imagery, rhythm and rhyme scheme, and structure help build the desired single effect of "The Raven"? After listening to a dramatic reading of the poem, class members consider whether Poe's choices do create a...

After watching West of the West's documentary The Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island, class members imagine how Juana Maria/Karana may have felt about living alone on the island for 18 years and craft a blackout poem or a narrative in her...

Focus on poetry this summer to enhance those comprehension, fluency, and language skills with a set of resources intended to explore different types of poetry, specifically lyric poetry. The daily activities contain differentiation ideas...

Alice Walker's poem "Women" provides ninth graders the opportunity to demonstrate their ability to identify how a writer's choice of syntax and diction contribute to the development of the theme of the work.

Looking for a fresh approach to an end-of-unit project for The Odyssey? Check out a resource that has class members write their own hero's journey short story and then craft an illustration that depicts their tale. Apollonio di...

"A Bird Came Down the Walk" by Emily Dickinson is the focus text of a narrative poetry-based reading comprehension worksheet. After reading her poem, young readers respond to seven multiple choice and three short answer questions. The...

After reading a short narrative poem, fifth graders answer five multiple choice questions based on what they read. Each question addresses a different skill, including vocabulary in context, identifying main idea, drawing conclusions,...