Well known for addressing social issues in the world through her poetry, Maya Angelou's moving poems serve to teach historical topics in this lesson. To understand the world that surrounded her, students practice their visual literacy skills as they first examine photographs from the Library of Congress. These primary sources illustrate some of the events that affected her life and thus her writing. Next students research these events in order to create trading cards using the ReadWriteThink Trading Card Creator Student Interactive. While reading Angelou's poems, students share the trading cards to better understand the background for her writing.

Through haiku, students learn to slow down and become mindful of their natural surroundings, enabling them to capture experiences vividly through description. In this unit, students read and listen to examples of haiku, and learn about the history and structure behind this Japanese poetic form. They engage in both outdoor and classroom activities that encourage mindfulness and the exploration of sensory imagery. After writing, illustrating, and pairing their haiku with instrumental music, students collaborate with classmates in creating movements to their poems. The final project is a student compilation of choreographed haiku performances put to movement and music.

In this lesson, students use art and poetry to explore and understand major characteristics of the Romantic period. First, students are introduced to the historical, societal, and literary characteristics of the Romantic period. Next, students deepen their understanding of Romanticism through an evaluation of William Wordsworth's definition of poetry. Students then complete an explication of a painting from the Romantic period, noting its defining characteristics. They use the TP-CASTT method to complete a literary analysis of Wordsworth's poem "The World is Too Much With Us," using their knowledge of Romantic characteristics to classify the poem as Romantic. In the final session, students begin to write an essay showing their understanding of Romanticism.

Annie Finch is a contemporary American poet whose work is deeply engaged with the connection between feminism and formalism. This essay, “Female Tradition as Feminist Tradition,” which was published in her essay collection The Body of Poetry (2005), traces the historical and psychological paths that have drawn contemporary women poets toward the use of traditional formal structure, despite a lack of critical and theoretical attention.

In his essay “The Fire,” Blaser writes, “the real business of poetry is cosmology.” He discusses poetry and the quality of its connection to the world, a world that is entered by the poet’s writing: “the processional aspect of the world has to be caught in the language also.

The Harlem Renaissance was a vibrant time that was characterized by innovations in art, literature, music, poetry, and dance. In this unit, students conduct Internet research, work with an interactive Venn diagram tool, and create a museum exhibit that highlights the work of selected artists, musicians, and poets. The goal of this unit is to help students understand the historical context of the Harlem Renaissance and what kind of impact it had on African Americans in the United States. Critical thinking, creativity, and interdisciplinary connections are emphasized.

Who are all these people? Where is this waste land they inhabit? What is this chaos of impressions we are privy to? Wherefore such madness?

The onset of winter weather varies from year to year and from place to place, but December 21, the winter solstice, is considered the first official day of winter.

Students are inspired to do their best writing by writing for an authentic audience—their future selves. Through a series of brainstorming exercises, students begin to think about their future. They further explore their thoughts by answering a set of prewriting questions. Next, they read and discuss the poem “Ex-Basketball Player” by John Updike, analyzing the details and the format of the poem. Students are then introduced to a writing assignment in which they write a poem about themselves in five years. They write their poems and go through a series of peer feedback and revisions. Two copies of the final versions of the poem are given to the teacher—one to grade and one to mail to students in five years.

Through a variety of techniques such as the “new sentence,” language writers sought to engage the reader in new ways, making them active participants in the process of reading and meaning-making. Like other language writers, Hejinian’s own work is a blend of philosophy, literary theory, and experimental lyricism. Her essays on poetics are important in understanding her work and the aims of the language movement in general.

On this day in 1961, Robert Frost recited a poem he had written for the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy. Frost was 86 years old.

Gerard Manley Hopkins, author of the poems “God’s Grandeur,” “Pied Beauty,” and “The Windhover,” among others, was one of the most innovative poets of late 19th-century England. Since the posthumous publication of his poetry in 1918, his original poetics has influenced modern and contemporary poets.

The sources of Mackey’s poetry are diverse and include West Africa folklore and music, American jazz, Bedouin traditions, the Koran, and African American music and history.

Created in partnership with Motionpoems, this animated film explores the complex and multifaceted beauty that can be overlooked by unobservant eyes. Jamaal May, “There Are Birds Here” from The Big Book of Exit Strategies. Copyright © 2016 by Jamaal May. Reprinted by permission of Alice James Books. Produced by USC Film School.

As a person who loves poetry and believes that there is a poem out there for each of us when we need it, I want students to find poems they enjoy. I also know that reading poems thoughtfully can help them expand their world views whether they enjoy them or not.

Using simple, illuminative paper-cut puppetry, this enchanting video imagines the moment of witness that inspired Gwendolyn Brooks to write her landmark poem, “We Real Cool.” Created by Manual Cinema in association with Crescendo Literary, with story by Eve Ewing and Nate Marshall and music by Jamila Woods and Ayanna Woods.