Smith said it’s one of her favorite lessons because “it’s such an unfolding of understanding that happens” as the students walk. “What it does is it allows students to get a physical understanding of the pace and movement of the poem … that they didn’t get in their initial reading, just sitting at their desk and reading the poem out loud.”
“Lyric of the new day” by Amanda Gorman
Smith teaches this poem right after winter break. “Because Gorman wrote it as a poem to welcome the new year, it is perfect for starting the new semester and realigning with purpose and hope as we question the mistakes of our past,” she said.
The poem deals with themes of reckoning with the past, gathering, hope and healing, and includes a range of literary devices. “This poem provides students with the opportunity to witness a master of wordplay and language,” Smith said. “By having students notice the nuances of Gorman’s craft, they witness how a poem ‘works’.”
Smith asks her students to highlight specific literary devices in certain colors and then create a piece of art based on the poem. Gorman herself has praise X’s lesson.
“Hair” by Elizabeth Acevedo
“Acevedo manages to teach ancestral history and wisdom with this poem about her own hair and hair (and experiences with it) that are part of the heritage that belongs to every woman of African descent,” said Julia Torreslibrarian in the metro Denver area. “Her poem is both intimate and universal, a reclaiming of self in a world that constantly tries to make black women surrender themselves in the pursuit of ‘beauty.'”
Torres said the poem is valuable for teaching metaphor and symbolism, “abstract language that can be difficult for students to understand.” Acevedo also uses juxtaposition in the poem. Torres shared two examples of her students’ reactions to the poem:
- “Personally, I’m not a person of color, but I know how important hair is to this culture. Because it’s such a big part of her, she takes a lot of pride in her hair. It’s curly and has so much volume and texture. Making it beautiful in my opinion. I feel like he shouldn’t hide it. – KA
- “When people have self-confidence, they will always be proud of their state of life.” – DN
“This Is Not a Small Voice” by Sonia Sanchez
Adrian NeubauerColorado fifth graders loved this ‘short and sweet’ poem. As not quite young, Neibauer said his students “are often seen as little kids without an opinion of their own.” The poem’s themes of voice and activism inspire them to find their own voices. “Students can easily relate to the themes of humanity, the power of voice and activism,” said Neubauer.
The poem also provides examples of teaching anaphora. “I like how Sanchez uses repetition to help students with their poetic fluency,” Neibauer said.
“Wild Horses” by Paisley Rekdahl
Another one with a theme of activism, Neibauer said “Wild horses” is “a great introduction to the more challenging topics of suffrage and protest.” It is written from the point of view of Seraph Young Fordthe first woman to vote in Utah and the modern nation, and required some background training for her, as well as suffrage and indigenous history.
“It’s a more challenging poem, but the students respond well to the historical meaning put into the poem,” said Neubauer, who paired it with the Rolling Stones. song of the same name and likes to discuss the images in both. The poem is also rich in vocabulary words, such as “acculturation,” for young readers.
A Bird Made of Birds by Sarah Kay
“The heart, care and precision of the imagery of this poem have always stayed with me,” said R. A. Villanuevaa professor at Sarah Lawrence College and a middle school teacher. “There is a real devotion to the strangeness and sublime beauty of the world – and a trust in confusion as a spark for creativity.
Villanueva, who is also a poet, shares with the students TED talk in which Kay describes his inspiration and performance of the poem. “Hearing her storytelling flow into her performance inspired incredible conversations about the catalytic specifics that drive poems,” Villanueva said. “And because A Bird Made of Birds is also a set of personal responses to different kinds of knowledge and visualizations, I can introduce (students) to ekphrasis / ekphrastic poetry.”
Two of the visual elements in Kay’s speech and poem are the anatomical heart of a blue whale and murmuration of starlings. Villanueva’s students look at diagrams showing the scale of whale hearts and watch a video of starlings murmuring. “Once they see all these diverse layers together, wonderful things happen: They can write freely through the connections they discover, practice annotation and note-taking skills, and apply some basic craft vocabulary,” he said.
“To Estefany Laura, the third grader who made me a card” by Aracelis Girmay
This poem “pulsates with mystery and playfulness,” Villanueva said. In it, the writer tries to decipher an unrecognizable word in a hand-drawn card given to her by a small child. “This is not a mere description or mere reporting of a memory; she is able to convey the excitement of her imagination and her genuine, childlike joy in connecting with her former student’s affirmations. It’s a hopeful, tender poem,” Villanueva said.
His students—those in sixth grade and those in graduate school—first encountered the poem in animated video recitation. “Hearing Aracelis Girmay’s own voice, her own crescendos and pauses, helps bring their experience of the poem to life. They are free to join the tension and then celebrate the epiphany with the speaker,” Villanueva said.
Students then read a printed copy in small groups, analyzing Girmay’s unusual arrangement of lines and stanzas, her stretching of punctuation conventions, and her shifting rhythms. “We talk about how enclosure it works like musical notation, how onomatopoeia helps the poet wrestle with the sounds and meanings of the words she loves,” Villanueva said. “The mix of laughter and close reading analysis is amazing to hear.”
One Voice by Amy Nezhukumatatil
This poem alludes to the letter which Harry T. Byrne received from his mother just before his vote to direct the Tennessee General Assembly in favor of ratifying the 19th Amendment. Susan Barberhigh school English teacher in Atlanta, Georgia, taught the poem during election season. All of her students are seniors, many of whom have the opportunity to vote for the first time. For them, the poem “reinforces the idea that every voice — their voice — matters,” Barber said.
Barber encourages students to notice the poet’s use of anchoring and stanza breaks and to unpack the metaphor of an eagle and an eaglet learning to fly. “I love the way Nezhukumatatil turns to natural imagery as a means of understanding ideas and everyday events,” she said.
“Maybe the World Ends Here” by Joy Harjo
With its descriptions of many life experiences that take place around the kitchen table, Barber said this poem is full of comparisons and contrasts for students to unpack.
“I love the way Harjo appreciates life through a common object,” Barber said of former Poet Laureate of the United States who is the first Indian to hold this title. “Everyone can relate to the table and the experiences around the table, so students always enjoy this poem.”
Barber said the poem connects to the idea of ”breaking bread” and can lead to discussions about the intimacy of eating together. She likes to teach it near Thanksgiving break, when students anticipate family gatherings around the kitchen table.
“New National Anthem” by Ada Lemon
Zach Tsaian English teacher in Minneapolis, Minnesota, said he loved it this poem “returns to ‘classical’ text” – the national anthem. “It gives college prep students an opportunity to exercise their own voices and feel like they belong, too.” Their voice matters too,” he said.
Czaia focuses on diction with this poem, using an exercise from the Teach Living Poets website that has students make concentric circles on butcher paper and choose the most important word from the poem to place in the center. In the middle circle they list images and personal connections to the central word, and in the outer circle they write about the overall meaning and theme of the poem.
“The students definitely responded positively to this poem and appreciated its connection to the history they had studied in the past,” Czaia said.
America Loves Me to Death by Michael Kleber-Diggs
In this poem, Kleber-Diggs reveals the pains of being black in America. And he does so amid what Czaia called “two very accessible but also formally interesting strategies.” The first letters are an acrostic spelling out the title of the poem. The last word in each line comes from another text – the Pledge of Allegiance. This last form is called “poem with a golden shovel” and was created by poet Terence Hayes and inspired by Gwendolyn Brooks.
“This attention to structure and pattern allows students to examine Kleber-Diggs’ profound critique of systemic American racism,” Chaya said of the combination of acrostic and golden spade.
Czaia used “America Is Loving Me To Death” as a mentor text for students to write their own golden shovel poems. He said his students like the poem and some have written letters to Kleber-Diggs, who lives in St. Paul, Minnesota. “across the river” from Czaia’s school. Czaia said that as Kleber-Diggs responded to those letters, his students also visited his class — something only living poets can do.
“Camaro” from Phil Kay
Brett VogelsingerEnglish teacher in Pennsylvania and author of Pauses in Poetry: Teaching with Poems to Improve Student Writing in All Genressaid his classroom quiets down after watching Kay perform this spoken poem. “Kaye’s delivery adds an extra dimension to the words, which are already wonderful,” Vogelsinger said.
The poem weaves together memories of a childhood crush, a long-ago journey, and a later reunion after a breakup. “It speaks to how moments stay with us for a long time and reminds us how sadness and love can interact in our memories,” Vogelsinger said. “Students like to talk about how the memory of the elementary school past and the more recent memory of the Camaro interact to affect the present moment, and how and why two people can remember (or forget) the same moment in time.” a different way.”
Students can also analyze the poet’s use of repetition, flashback, imagery, and figurative language. And Vogelsinger said, “There will always be at least one student in the class who will also pick up on the sly alien hint!”
Burning the Old Year by Naomi Shihab Nye
As the name might suggest, this is another good one poem for teaching after winter break. “The images are clear and beautiful, and the idea of what we hold on to and what we let go of is important,” Vogelsinger said.
“The metaphors shine in this poem,” Vogelsinger said. After reading the poem, his students discuss the meaning of the two metaphors in the lines “So much of the year is combustible” and “so little is stone.” He then asks them to answer two questions in their notebooks:
- What do you hope is combustible from last year?
- What do you hope is a rock?
