How can a poetry idea in a poem inspire a new poem? Who are some "classic" American poets who can inspire student writing? Who are some contemporary poets who can inspire student writing?

• Name classic and contemporary American poets and at least one poem by each.
• Explain one poetry idea at work in a classic or contemporary poem.
• Explain the poetry idea at work in one of their own poems.

• Review each activity in this unit and any poems you choose to use with your class. Prepare copies of poems and assignments as appropriate for your group.
• The first two activties are complementary and are structured in the same way. In Activity 1, students prepare a performance/reading of one or more published poems, learn a little about a classic American poet, and then use the assigned poem as a model for their own work. In Activity 2, students work with contemporary poems. The poems vary in level of difficulty; you might want to take this into account when assigning poems for performance. Feel free to use one section or both as best suits your curriculum. Any of the writing assignments could also stand alone.
  
  There are six poetry selections in Activity 1 and five in Activity 2, allowing for as many as eleven student groups. The variety and number of writing assignments allows you to be flexible — for example, eleven groups can work simultaneously, or five groups can be assigned both a classic and a contemporary poet to study.
  
  In Activity 3, students attempt the assignments other groups undertook. Group presentations can be adapted to create a class poetry reading in Activity 4.
• You can locate a poetry idea in any poem you use, and the poetry idea can be the basis of student poems. Every poem has the potential to lead to a writing assignment.
• Poems, both student-written and professionally published, should always be the focus of this unit. However, information about a poet's life will resonate more with students when they are interacting with the poet's work through their own performance and writing.
• If students are beginners at poetry writing, it's best to emphasize each poem's strengths when giving feedback. Encourage students to share, and after each reading, try to point to something in the poem that worked. Rather than saying, "That was very good," offer more specific comments that show you did a close reading of the work. You might say, "I could really picture the guinea pig when you described how...." Such comments show respect for the work, and that's important to model for the class. Additionally, you will begin to see students looking for the same elements you praise and attempting to include similar elements in their own work.
  
  A group can perform a poem simply by dividing the reading among group members. Alternatives include: using a combination of group and individual voices, having one or more group members read while others act out the poem as it is read or strike appropriate poses to demonstrate specific lines or images. Works of art such as paintings and photographs can also be incorporated into performances.
  
  Some delightful examples of choral performance of poetry (with complete instructions) may be found in Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices by Sid Fleischman. Consider doing some of these as the students prepare to design their own readings. (And, if you study insects as part of your curriculum, it's also a great source of poems you can use!)
• Consider putting some classic, contemporary and student-written poems on big charts. It will make them easier for the class as a whole to see. It would also be fun to have the poems on long butcher paper rolls placed in the halls. Students could read the poems as they walk back and forth to their classrooms. Feature a poem a week on a bulletin board or elsewhere.
• Be on the lookout for opportunities to use poems in other content areas. Poems can help establish an anticipatory set. Before your first activity on weather, for example, read aloud Eve Merriam's Weather, available on the EDSITEment-reviewed website of the Academy of American Poets. Poems have content that can motivate discussion. For example, read brief selections from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "Paul Revere's Ride," also available on the Academy of American Poets website, and ask students to analyze how well the lines relate historical fact.
• Specific sources of information on each poet are listed within the activities below. In addition, the EDSITEment-reviewed website Internet Public Library offers links to reference books with general biographical information on individual poets. You can also locate websites for many poets through Author's Websites, a link from Internet Public Library.
• Obtain background information on poetry for children and on finding a poetry idea for classroom discussion or a potential assignment by visiting these areas on the EDSITEment resource Academy of American Poets:
  • Kenneth Koch: Excerpts from Rose, Where Did You Get That Red?
  • Jim Trelease: Excerpts from The Read-Aloud Handbook
• Some of the poems listed below have accompanying video and/or audio links. You will need RealPlayer software to utilize the video/audio files. Before the activity, check to be sure you have the most recent version of RealPlayer and that the files work on your computer. You can download RealPlayer Basic free of charge from Real Networks.
• Refer to the complementary EDSITEment unit All Together Now, designed for students in grades K-2. In that unit, poetry ideas serve to inspire collaborative poems. Much of that unit can be adapted for older students.

• Activity 1. Interacting with Classic Poetry: Five Classic Poems
• Activity 2. Interacting with Contemporary Poems
• Activity 3. You Can Do It, Too
• Activity 4. Hey, We Can Put on a Show!

Activity 1. Interacting with Classic Poetry: Five Classic Poems

Divide your class into small groups selected to balance the talents of the students within each group. Assign each group a dramatic reading of a poem (in which every group member should take part in some way) and a writing assignment modeled on the poem, to be completed by each student. When introducing its reading, the group should share some information about the poet. At least one poem written by a member of the group should also be performed. Groups can include in their reading additional student work or more of the assigned poet's work as the teacher permits. (Note: The instructions below are directed to students.)

Group 1
"To J.Q." (page 11), by Paul Dunbar, available on the EDSITEment resource American Verse Project.

• Performing the Poem
  This poem is a series of questions and answers; you should communicate that structure in your performance. For example, the whole group could read the questions together while individuals could recite the answers.
• Poetry Assignment
  Write a poem that is a series of questions and answers. If you like, make the questions (and/or the answers) fantastical. Don't worry about making the poem rhyme, but do make sure that no line has more than about 10 syllables.
• Sources of Information on Paul Dunbar
  
  • Brief Biography and Links to Other Poems and Websites, available on the EDSITEment resource Academy of American Poets

Group 2
"Birches," by Robert Frost, available on the EDSITEment resource Academy of American Poets

• Performing the Poem
  Help the listener understand the parts of the poem that tell how to swing on a birch tree.
• Poetry Assignment
  Write a poem about something you like to do. Feel free to end the poem with, "One could do worse than be a ... (rider of bikes, climber of trees, etc.)." Make sure you give the details about what you like to do. For example, tell where you ride your bike and what you do when you're riding. Pay more attention to describing exactly what you do, than to telling how you feel when you're doing it. Don't worry about making the poem rhyme, but do make sure that no line has more than about 10 syllables.
• Sources of Information on Robert Frost
  
  • Read about Robert Frost at the Inauguration of John F. Kennedy on the Library of Congress' America's Library, a link from the EDSITEment resource American Memory
  • Brief Biography and Links to Other Poems and Websites, available on the EDSITEment resource Academy of American Poets
• Video/Audio of a Poem by Robert Frost
  Stopping By Woods, available on Favorite Poem Project, a link from the EDSITEment resource Internet Public Library

Group 3
"The Negro Speaks of Rivers," by Langston Hughes, available on the EDSITEment resource Academy of American Poets

• Performing the Poem
  Make sure your performance acknowledges the names of rivers in the poem.
• Poetry Assignment
  Write a poem that tells about many places you dream of going. Make sure you, like Hughes, name the place and tell what you "did" or would do there ("I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep."). Don't worry about making the poem rhyme, but do make sure that no line has more than about 10 syllables.
• Sources of Information on Langston Hughes
  
  • Biographical Information, available on the Library of Congress' America's Library, a link from the EDSITEment resource American Memory
• Video/Audio of Poems by Langston Hughes
  
  • Audio of Hughes reading "The Negro Speaks of Rivers", available on the EDSITEment resource Academy of American Poets
  • Dreams: Text and Link to Audio/Video, available on Favorite Poem Project, a link from the EDSITEment resource Internet Public Library
  • Merry Go Round: Text and Link to Audio/Video, also available on Favorite Poem Project
  • Mother to Son: Text and Link to Audio/Video, also available on Favorite Poem Project
  • My People: Text and Link to Audio/Video, also available on Favorite Poem Project

Group 4
"Paul Revere's Ride," by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, available on the EDSITEment resource Academy of American Poets

• Performing the Poem
  Remember that this poem tells a story. Help the listeners understand what happens.
• Poetry Assignment
  Write a poem that tells a story, especially a story from history. Feel free to begin with, "Listen my children and ..." as in this example about Rosa Parks:
  

  Listen my children and we will discuss
  Someone who refused the back of the bus.

  Feel free to let the poem rhyme or not rhyme, but keep the poetry lines short!
• Sources of Information on Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
  
  • Biographical Information, available on the Library of Congress' America's Library, a link from the EDSITEment resource American Memory
  • Links to Other Poems and Websites, available on the EDSITEment resource Academy of American Poets

Group 5
"The Donkey," by Theodore Roethke, available on the EDSITEment resource Academy of American Poets

• Performing the Poem
  Make sure your performance helps the listener understand what's funny about the poem.
• Poetry Assignment
  Write a poem about an animal you have, had or wish you had. Feel free to begin the poem with "I had a _______, that was __________." Try to make the whole poem be four lines long with the first and second lines rhyming and then the third and fourth lines rhyming.
• Sources of Information on Theodore Roethke
  
  • Brief Biography and Links to Other Poems and Websites, available on the EDSITEment resource Academy of American Poets
  • Selections from "I Am! Said the Lamb", also available on Academy of American Poets
• Video/Audio of Poems by Theodore Roethke
  Video/Audio of "The Sloth" (text and/or video reading), available on Favorite Poem Project, a link from the EDSITEment resource Internet Public Library

Group 6
"I Hear America Singing," by Walt Whitman, available on the EDSITEment resource Academy of American Poets

• Performing the Poem
  Whitman writes that many of the individuals in the poem are "singing." Help the listeners understand the difference between, for example, the way the carpenter or the shoemaker "sings."
• Poetry Assignment
  Write a poem in which you imagine many people in different places engaged in activities all at the same moment. Make sure that, like Whitman, you tell exactly what each person is doing (The carpenter ... measures his plank or beam / The shoemaker ... sits on his bench). Feel free, instead of professions, to identify people by name. They could be celebrities or people you know (if you have permission to include them). What is each doing at four o'clock in the afternoon, for example?
• Sources of Information on Walt Whitman
  
  • Walt Whitman Wrote a Letter, available on the Library of Congress' America's Library, a link from the EDSITEment resource American Memory
  • Brief Biography and Links to Other Poems and Websites, available on the EDSITEment resource Academy of American Poets
• Video/Audio of a Poem by Walt Whitman
  From Song of Myself, available on Favorite Poem Project, a link from the EDSITEment resource Internet Public Library

Activity 2. Interacting with Contemporary Poems

As in Activity 1, divide the class into small groups selected to balance the talents of the students within each group. Assign each group a dramatic reading of a poem, in which everyone should take part in some way, and a writing assignment modeled on the poem, to be completed by each student. When introducing its reading, the group should share some information about the poet. At least one poem written by a member of the group should also be performed. Groups can include in their reading additional student work or more of the assigned poet's work as the teacher permits. (Note: The instructions below are directed to students.)

Group 1
What Will You Be?, by Dennis Lee, available on the EDSITEment resource Academy of American Poets

• Performing the Poem
  Help the listeners appreciate what makes the poem funny.
• Poetry Assignment
  Write a poem in which every line begins with, "When I grow up I'm going to be a ..." It's okay if what you're going to be is silly. Rhyming is fine for this poem.
• Sources of Information on Dennis Lee
  
  • Brief Biography and Links to Other Poems and Websites, available on the EDSITEment resource Academy of American Poets

Group 2
"Catch a Little Rhyme," by Eve Merriam, available on the EDSITEment resource Academy of American Poets

• Performing the Poem
  Help the listeners appreciate the rhymes in this poem.
• Poetry Assignment
  Write a poem in which each pair of lines rhymes (rhyming couplets) while telling a silly story where one event leads to another. Feel free to start the first line with, "Once upon a time I ..." and the second line with "but ..." You can continue the, "I ... but ..." pattern through the whole poem if you like. End the poem with a pair of rhyming lines that begins with, "In the end ..."
• Sources of Information on Eve Merriam
  
  • Brief Biography, available on the EDSITEment resource Academy of American Poets

Group 3
"Last Night I Dreamed of Chickens," by Jack Prelutsky, available on the EDSITEment resource Academy of American Poets

• Performing the Poem
  Help the listeners appreciate all the things the chickens were doing during the dream and the surprise when the dreamer awoke.
• Poetry Assignment
  Write a poem that tells about a dream (real or imagined) you had. Feel free to begin with, "Last night I dreamed of ________. There were ________ everywhere." Then follow with many lines beginning with the same word, such as "they" or "I."
• Sources of Information on Jack Prelutsky
  
  • Brief Biography and Links to Another Website, available on the EDSITEment resource Academy of American Poets

Group 4
"Jumping Rope," by Shel Silverstein, available on New York Times online, a link from the EDSITEment resource American Academy of Poets (Note: New York Times online requires free registration.)

• Performing the Poem
  Bring some of the rhythm of a jump rope into your performance.
• Poetry Assignment
  Write a poem about something of yours that got broken or changed in some way. The poem can be rhymed or unrhymed. Feel free to begin with, "This started out..." such as:

  Dad Parked the Car on My Bike"
  This started out as my bike
  Now it can be whatever you like.
  This bike is now a mess of metal.
  Somewhere in the middle, you'll find a pedal.
  This bike is now kaput, retired.
  Underneath that wire, you'll find a tire.
  Though I would not ride it on the turnpike
  This hunk of junk was once my bike.

  Or, you can repeat the line as Silverstein does. (Note: If you're artistic, you might want to include a drawing like Silverstein's that helps the reader appreciate the humor.)
• Sources of Information on Shel Silverstein
  
  • Brief Biography and Links to Other Poems and Websites, available on the EDSITEment resource Academy of American Poets

Group 5
Fifteen, Maybe Sixteen Things to Worry About, by Judith Viorst, available on the EDSITEment resource American Academy of Poets (Note: New York Times online requires free registration.)

• Performing the Poem
  Everyone has worries. Help the listeners appreciate the worries in the poem. Then surprise them with the ending. What was the real purpose of spending all that time listing worries?
• Poetry Assignment
  Write a poem that is a list. It can be a list of worries, or complaints, or excuses, or anything. Don't worry about making the poem rhyme. Try to write a last line that says something about the whole list. Maybe you can even surprise the reader like Judith Viorst did.
• Sources of Information on Judith Viorst
  
  • Brief Biography and Links to Other Poems and Websites, available on the EDSITEment resource Academy of American Poets

Activity 3. You Can Do It, Too

At this point, everyone in the class is an "expert" on a particular poetry idea, having written and performed a poem using that idea. Now give all student groups the opportunity to hear about the various other group assignments and to try their hand at some. Have students explain the poetry idea and share some poems that use it.

Now there are even more poems to share and perform!

Activity 4. Hey, We Can Put on a Show!

Each student group prepared a performance of a poem and shared at least one student-written poem. All of the readings combined can make a poetry reading.

As a class, find ways to tie together the different group readings and to develop appropriate transitions between performances. Consider having groups include poems from non-group members — written in Activity 3 — in their performance. Add other poems and performances as desired.

The students should prepare a handout, letter or some other kind of advertisement to distribute to other classes to heighten interest in having your class bring its performance to them.

• Have your students create individual poetry anthologies including students' original work, favorite published poems and illustrations. With technically savvy classes, consider having students build a Web page for their poetry using an HTML editor rather than composing a paper book.
• Incorporate poetry into your curriculum by encouraging some cultural explorations based on poems. For example, what elements of African-American history and culture can students find in work by Langston Hughes or Paul Dunbar? How does New England as a place or setting come through in "Birches" and "Paul Revere's Ride"? Some kind of investigation along these lines might work well for advanced students or in developing an interdisciplinary unit.
• Students can consider the poetry ideas in song lyrics. Through the Children's Music Web, a link from the EDSITEment resource Internet Public Library, students can locate lyrics to children's songs. Students may want to bring some of their favorite song lyrics to class to share (with the teacher's permission).
• Now that students have experience with the concept of poetry ideas, challenge them to find poems on their own that embody specific poetry ideas and to create their own poems based on the idea. The published poem and student-written poem can then serve as models for other students who might want to try the assignment.
• Invite a local poet to come into your classroom to share with the students and listen to their work. Thanks to Kenneth Koch, poet-in-the-classroom programs are widespread.
• Look for ways to use poetry throughout the curriculum. For example, do you do any science lessons on ecology and the problem of waste disposal? Then Shel Silverstein's "Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would Not Take The Garbage Out" might be a good starting point for discussion.
• Once your students are experienced poets, consider a field trip to a local art museum. Give students the opportunity to react to art with poetry.
• Students can complete further research on the lives of the poets referenced in this lesson.

Selected EDSITEment Websites

Academy of American Poets

New York Times

American Memory Project

The Library of Congress

American Verse Project

The Internet Public Library

Author's Websites

The Bookhive

Carol Hurst's Children's Literature Page

Children's Music Web

Favorite Poem Project

Shel Silverstein

Other Resources:

Recommended reading from the American Academy of Poets

• Carr, Jan, Beatrice Schenk deRegniers, Eva Moore, and Mary M. White, editors. Sing a Song of Popcorn: Every Child's Book of Poems. Scholastic, 1988. (Grades K-5; 160 pages)
• Dakos, Kalli. If You're Not Here, Please Raise Your Hand: Poems About School. Illustrated by G. Brian Karas. Simon & Schuster, 1990. (Grades 1-8; 64 pages)
• Greenfield, Eloise. Honey, I Love. Illustrated by Diane and Leo Dillon. HarperCollins, 1976. (Preschool-Grade 3; 42 pages)
• Hoberman, Mary Ann. A House Is a House for Me. Illustrated by Betty Fraser. Viking, 1978. (Preschool-Grade 4; 44 pages)
• Lansky, Bruce, editor. Kids Pick the Funniest Poems. Illustrated by Stephen Carpen. Meadowbrook, 1991. (Grades K-8; 105 pages)
• Lee, Dennis. The Ice Cream Store. Illustrated by David McPhail. Scholastic, 1991. (Preschool-Grade 2; 56 pages)
• Prelutsky, Jack. The New Kid on the Block. Illustrated by James Stevenson. Greenwillow, 1984. (Grades K-4; 160 pages)
• Prelutsky, Jack, editor. The Random House Book of Poetry for Children. Illustrated by Arnold Lobel. Random House, 1983. (Grades K-5; 248 pages)
• Schwartz, Alvin. And the Green Grass Grew All Around: Folk Poetry from Everyone. Illustrated by Sue Truesdell. HarperCollins, 1992. (Grades K-4; 148 pages)
• Service, Robert W. The Cremation of Sam McGee. Illustrated by Ted Harrison. Greenwillow, 1987. (Grade 4+; 30 pages)
• Silverstein, Shel. Where the Sidewalk Ends. HarperCollins, 1974. (Grades K-8; 166 pages)
• Taylor, Clark. The House That Crack Built. Chronicle, 1992. (Grade 4+; 30 pages)
• Thayer, Ernest L. Casey at the Bat. Illustrated by Barry Moser. Godine, 1988. (Grade 4; 32 pages)
• Viorst, Judith. If I Were in Charge of the World and Other Worries. Atheneum, 1981. (Grade 3+; 56 pages)
• Westcot, Nadine Bernard, editor and illustrator. Never Take a Pig to Lunch and Other Poems About the Fun of Food. Orchard, 1994. (Grades K-4; 62 pages)

Recommended reading from The Bookhive, a link from Internet Public Library

• Fleischman, Sid. Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices. Illustrated by Eric Beddows. Harper & Row, 1988. (Grades 4-6)

Recommended reading from Carol Hurst's Children's Literature Page, a link from Internet Public Library

• Bryan, Ashley. ABC of African-American Poetry. Atheneum, 1997. (ISBN 0689812094)
• Foster, John. Another First Poetry Book. Oxford, 1988. (ISBN 019917119X)
• Foster, John. Another Second Poetry Book. Oxford, 1988. (ISBN 0199162298)
• Foster, John. Another Fourth Poetry Book. Oxford, 1989. (ISBN 0199171254)
• Janeczko, Paul B. The Place My Words Are Looking For: What Poets Say About and Through Their Work. Atheneum, 1990. (ISBN 0027476715; Grades 4+)
• McCord, David. One at a Time. Little Brown, 1986. (ISBN 0316555169; Currently out of print, but available in many libraries.)
• Merriam, Eve. Fresh Paint. Macmillan, 1986. (ISBN 0027668606; Currently out of print, but available in many libraries.)
• Worth, Valerie. All the Small Poems and Fourteen More. Illustrated by Natalie Babbitt. Farrar, 1994. (ISBN 0374302111)