Resources for Teaching Poetry
(As recommended by the National Council of Teachers of English)
Power and Poetry: Best Practices for High School Classrooms
Jim Mahoney and Jerry Matovick
Portsmouth: Heinemann, 2005
ISBN: 0-325-00730-6
Hip-Hop Poetry and the Classics
Alan Sitomer and Michael Cirelli
Beverly Hills: Milk Mug, 2004
ISBN: 0-9721882-2-2
Naming the World: A Year of Poems and Lessons
Nancie Atwell
Portsmouth: firsthand, 2006
ISBN: 0-325-007446-2
Weathered Pages: The Poetry Pole, 1996-2005
Edited by Jim Bodeen, Terry Martin, Dan Peters, and Rob Prout
Yakima: Blue Begonia, 2005
ISBN: 0-911287-52-3
Favourite Poem Project
http://www.bu.edu/favoritepoem/the project/index.html
Poets.org
http://poets.org
poetryfoundation.org
http://poetryfoundation.org
Ten Watershed Articles (English Journal)– Ten articles written by practicing teachers
(1912-2005) that “deserve to be reread and restudied in the present.”
1917: A. M. Hull, “New Classics for Old.” (6.8: 542-50)
A passionate and eloquent argument to include both the ancients and the moderns
in the curriculum.
1929: Carrie Belle Parks, “Poems for Any Fine Day.” (18.8: 653-58)
Suggests selecting poems that capture students’ interest through appeals to their
most honest feelings about poetry.
1937: Esther M. Weinstock, “Reviving Appreciation of Poetry.” (26.7: 564-68)
How this teacher aroused student interest in poetry by copying a different verse on a
dedicated corner of the blackboard everyday.
1938: B. J. R. Stolper, “The Group Poem: An Experiment in a New Sort of Verse.”
(27.4: 311-22)
By providing students with one word, eg – “fear”, a poem was created, read,
discussed and edited with remarkable effect.
1942: Matilda Bailey, “Conscripting Literature for a Present Emergency.” (31.2: 13036)
During the darkest days of World War II, Bailey draws from Shakespeare’s portrait of
dictatorship in Julius Caesar and Macbeth but also from Beowulf, Arnold, Shelley, and
Swift to argue, “We have often and very glibly said that literature is life, but our
teaching has all too frequently not exemplified our supposed belief. Now is our
opportunity.”
1954: Mary Baloyan, “Enjoying Literature More Through Group Dynamics.” (43.6:
308-12)
Class was organized into self-selected groups of six to read “about 150 pages of our
textbook and to supplement this study with a creative literary activity involving
reading, writing, speaking, and listening.” Group presentations followed.
1968: Rita Jean Childs, “A Psychedelic Poetry Unit…….Why Not?” (57.9: 1335-37)
Had students “stare at….., feel, smell, and even taste” natural objects brought from
home; appreciate impressionist paintings and music afresh; cover their classrooms
with provocative words clipped from magazines and taped to walls, windows, and
doors; and eventually write in imitation of the poetry of William Carlos Williams,
Rabindranath Tagore, LiPo, and Yukihira.
1989: Marilyn J. Hollman, “From Art to Poetry: Prance as They Dance.” (78.3: 24-27)
Poetry written in response to paintings from the last two centuries inspired and
enlightened the perception and writing of high school students.
2000: Heather E. Bruce and Bryan Dexter Davis, “Slam: Hip-Hop Meets Poetry – A
Strategy for Violence Intervention.” (89.5: 119-27)
Bruce and Davis teamed up to create a project in which students wrote and
performed hip-hop poetry in a performance-based workshop.
2002: Nancy Lubarsky, “Poetry as a Lens: Alternative Ways of Seeing the Novel.”
(91.3 – 72-78)
Trend towards intertextually weaving poetry with the reading of other genres and
media….with positives results.