A Potpourri of Poetry Resources curated by Carol Frow and Amy Bouch

Happy National Poetry Month! As we all know, we should be incorporating poetry into our students’ lives throughout the year, but April always has that special spotlight on poetry! Several opportunities focused on poetry are included below. We would love to hear if you have used any of these resources or any additional resources or ideas that you may have to share!

Opportunities to hear poets discuss their work:

• National Writing Project (NWP) Radio: The Story of a Poem (YouTube Playlist)

• Poets from the NWP Writers Council are interviewed about their poems, their composing processes, and writers’ craft.

• National Writing Project (NWP) Radio: The Write Time (YouTube Playlist)

• Author Ann E. Burg and Educator Amy Bouch

• Ann E. Burg has four verse novels for middle grades. Her newest book, Flooded: Requiem for Johnstown, is featured in this video. Bonus: WPCTE Vice President Amy Bouch conducts the interview!

• Author Kwame Alexander and Educator Tyler Jones

• Kwame Alexander is the author of several verse novels including the Newbery winner The Crossover. Kwame Alexander discusses his most recent book, Becoming Muhammad Ali, in this interview.

• Author Laurie Halse Anderson and Educator Rebecca Marsick

• Laurie Halse Anderson has several award-winning books. In this interview, she does briefly discuss Shout, her memoir in verse.

• Library of Congress: Poetry Spotlight: Victoria Chang and Brenda Shaughnessy

• “Poets Victoria Chang (“Obit”) and Brenda Shaughnessy (“The Octopus Museum”) discuss their poetry collections, which address issues of loss, fear and the future of the planet.”

• Poets.org Poetry Breaks

• “Poetry Breaks features short videos of internationally renowned poets reading their work, reading the work of other poets, and discussing their takes on poetry in a variety of locations.”

Opportunities for students to interact with poets and experience poetry:

• Dear Poet 2021

• Students can listen to poets reading their poems and then write them a letter!

• Poetry 180 - Students can listen to a poem each day of the school year.  There’s no analysis or interpretation.  Students can just hear poetry for pure enjoyment.

Opportunities for teachers to write poetry:

• Ethical ELA #VerseLove 

• This opportunity focuses on teachers as writers! A prompt is provided each day during the month of April. Teachers can post poems and respond to other writers.

Opportunities for teachers to find poetry lessons/resources:

• NCTE Verse

• NCTE members who sign up will receive a daily email that: Focuses on a different poet each day as identified by NCTE members; Provides resources related to that poet; Responds to the prompt, “This poet belongs in our classrooms because…”

• Teaching Poetry: Audio Recordings of Poetry and Literature from the Library of Congress - Wednesday, April 21, 4 p.m. ET

• Library of Congress experts will share two core resources for educators wishing to use audio recordings in their work with students: Archive of Recorded Poetry and Literature and Poetry of America

• PBS Learning Media 

• ReadWriteThink

• Poetry Foundation

• Poets.org

• Poetry Out Loud

• Common Lit

• Actively Learn

Opportunities for students to share their writing in poetry contests:

• Creative Communication

• Three opportunities each year - fall, spring, and summer

• Divisions: K-3, 4-6, and 7-9

• Lesson plans for teachers

• Book published with selected writers

• No entry fee

• Ligonier Valley Writers

• One contest in February/March

• Divisions: 4-6, 7-9, and 10-12

• Three categories per division

• Awards ceremony with winners published in a booklet

• No entry fee

• Scholastic Art and Writing Competition 

• One contest from September-December

• Division: 7-12

• Many categories but only one in poetry

• Awards ceremony and certificate

• Regional Gold Key winners move to national competition

• Entry fee but waiver available

• American Library of Poetry 

• One contest always due April 30

• Divisions: 3-5, 6-7, 8-9, 10-12

• Book published with selected writers

• No entry fee

• Carl Sandburg Student Poetry Contest

• One contest due by February

• Students write in any poetry style to the theme; theme changes each year

• Divisions: 3-5, 6-8, 9-12

• Winners share their work at a celebration

• No entry fee

• Appelley Student Poetry Contest

• One contest in November

• Divisions: 3-5, 6-8, 9-12

• Winning poems featured on the website and may be in a published anthology

• No entry fee

• Anthology of Poetry  

• One contest in October/early November

• Accepting poetry from K-12

• Book published with selected writers

• No entry fee

• Waldman International Arts and Writing Competition

• One contest due early January

• Divisions: 6-8, 9-12

• Poetry is one way to respond to this Holocaust themed contest

• Awards ceremony

• No entry fee

Opportunities for viewing lists of verse novels:

• 30+ MG/YA Verse Novels for National Poetry Month: Engaging Reluctant Readers, Enriching Enthusiastic Readers, and Appreciating Story, Form, & Language by Lesley Roessing

• Scholastic - 15 Novels Told in Verse

• School Library Journal - Diverse Novels in Verse for National Poetry Month by Terry Hong

• Libro.fm - Novels in Verse for Tweens and Teens

• New York Public Library - Powerful Words: Novels in Verse For Teens

If you know of any additional poetry resources or lessons ideas, share them in the comments! 

"A Potpourri of Poetry Resources" was curated by WPCTE President Carol Frow and WPCTE Vice President Amy Bouch.

How Special Education Certification is Making Me a Better Teacher for All Students by Hannah Lewis

When my teaching career began, I remember the number of jobs available for highly-qualified special education teachers. I even interviewed for a job teaching middle school English at a small local school district, only to be turned down because the other candidate had both an English and a special education certification. At the time, I was resentful--I felt that I would be a good teacher for all of my students, no matter if they were receiving special education services, were gifted or talented, or were doubly-exceptional. I felt that many contemporary special education practices, including positive behavior support plans, were reminiscent of behaviorists like B. F. Skinner, dehumanized students, and did not fit nicely into my humanist pedagogy and worldview. 

Now, I’ve been teaching English for 7 years (almost entirely online). Over the course of my career, I’ve worked with pretty high numbers of students with IEPs, with disabilities ranging from relatively mild to quite severe. I’ve worked with colleagues in special education to provide individualized instruction for all of these students. This year, I decided I wanted to learn more about what special education was all about, really. I enrolled in Indiana University of Pennsylvania’s M. Ed. in Special Education with certification. While I still retain some of my misgivings about the ways in which we understand and use data, particularly in connection with students with disabilities, I’m developing a deeper understanding of the intentions behind these initiatives and I’m learning more about how all human beings think, behave, and learn. 

As an undergraduate, I majored in English and Philosophy--I didn’t decide to pursue a career in K-12 education until after I’d graduated with my B.A., and my certification program hit the highlights of educational psychology and learning theory, but I didn’t really get into the nitty-gritty of the neuroscience of learning. Don’t get me wrong, my program now is an education program, too--I’m not getting a degree in neurology or psychology by any means. However, I’m learning about the ways that our brains work. 

How does this impact my instruction? And what does it teach me about my students who don’t have disabilities, or whose disabilities aren’t related to learning? 

It turns out, a lot of my expectations for students were sometimes based on faulty, naïve thinking. For example, I often expected students to be able to manage their emotions, organize their day, and study effectively as long as they were motivated and disciplined. It turns out--and probably many of you who have worked in brick-and-mortar classrooms and interacted with students on a more frequent basis, or who have children in your families--this is an absurd belief. Students need to be taught how to study, how to prioritize tasks, how to interact appropriately with one another, and how to appropriately engage in many other behaviors that we general education teachers often just expect them to do on their own. Like academic skills like reading and writing, some students learn these skills fairly easily through imitation, or they can stumble onto their own systems with enough practice (“teach themselves”). However, none of them naturally and intuitively pick these skills up, and some may need much more practice with them than we might assume. 

I don’t know why I was surprised--my own experiences should have made this obvious fact clear to me. I have always been fairly good at the kinds of things we value in schools. In particular, processing and producing language have always come fairly easily to me (not because I’m particularly gifted, but because I read voraciously as a child and internalized language that way, a testament to the genuine benefits of reading for young people).

However, other tasks, such as learning to drive, embarrassingly, did not come naturally at all. I remember my shame at trying to accelerate in anything resembling an appropriate way--but how could I accelerate while steering and watching my mirrors all at the same time? This kind of multitasking is what active reading and studying require and, just as it was only through repetitive, ongoing direct instruction that I mastered driving, the same kind of instruction is necessary for some of our students, particularly those who struggle with academic skills and for whom effective studying is all the more necessary. 

I’ll tell just a couple more embarrassing anecdotes to illustrate the absurdity of my belief that students were “unmotivated” if they didn’t take notes on difficult selections or effectively plan their work for projects. As I mentioned, I was a great student throughout high school without really needing to put forth much effort. (Indeed, it was I who wasn’t highly motivated to try hard, if anyone!) When I reached college, I distinctly remember my anger, frustration, and irritation when things began to change. I remember my honors freshman composition class, where I continued in my K-12 habits and procrastinated on every assignment. My writing process, I believed, didn’t require planning or revision; surely, I could produce high quality work on the first try.  When I submitted my first paper for that class and got it back with a C+/B- on it, spattered with comments, my very identity was challenged! How could I, someone who hoped to become a writer, have produced less than perfection--and so much less, it seemed?

 And in my physiology class, I encountered complex texts like I hadn’t seen before, even in my higher-level high school science classes. I tried making “outlines” of the chapters to study from, but my outlines were time-consuming to produce and were useless for studying. I would write down everything I didn’t immediately understand (which was almost everything), and the result would be an outline nearly the same length as the chapter. I scraped by in that class with a B- (thanks to a generous grading curve), but I remember very little. 

Fortunately, I survived my freshman year of college and now have numerous skills, from a robust writing process to more effective study habits, to show for it. However, these experiences, coupled with my developing understanding of the  (neurotypical and non-neurotypical) adolescent brain have taught me that, in fact, every student benefits when we explicitly teach things we expect them to already know or automatically pick up. How to study, how to engage in civil collaborative discussions, how to manage anxiety, how to monitor reading comprehension, and how to revise writing are a few of the concepts I actively incorporate into my instruction for all students. 

The results have been positive, and I find that my students engage more deeply with the selections we read. Those inquiry-driven humanist discussions I wanted to hear and those creative student-produced pieces I wanted to read haven’t gone anywhere. Student work is better and student confidence is higher. In fact, even parents tell me how thankful they are that their child now knows what to do when they read something they don’t understand. 

Ultimately, special education is just education. Each child is unique, and special education focuses on students on the margins of what we consider typical functioning; however, each student’s strengths and needs inform their behavior and academic functioning.

We all know this, I think--it just took years of teaching and an advanced degree to take me from knowing to understanding. Hopefully, these experiences will resonate with some of you, save you some time and some frustration, and allow you to learn from my missteps and save you from making some of them yourselves.

Teaching Reading During COVID: Technology With a Purpose by Janel Prinkey

Online Libraries: A Godsend in the Age of Covid

For years in my Reading classroom, I have asked my students to read outside of class for 20 minutes--only on days that end in “y”. Typically, I’m met with one of two reactions: an eager grin that signified “Challenge accepted”, or a coy one that meant “Not going to happen, Ms. Prinkey.” This year was different, not due to the students I teach, but the added obstacle of checking out books to students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Every Reading teacher knows that the easier it is for students to find a book to read that interests them, the better chances are that they will actually read it. 

For context, you should know that I am also responsible for maintaining and curating my school’s high school library in addition to my duties and responsibilities as a 7th and 8th grade Reading teacher. The prospect of having to quarantine books after students used them, and having to have students place orders for books, had me almost in tears. Then came a likely solution: signing up for online libraries.

By having my students sign up for the Free Library of Philadelphia, as well as our local library, students no longer had to touch physical copies of books, yet they had access to the latest and greatest much more quickly than they would if they had to wait for me to place an order, wait for the purchase order, process and label the new books, and then check them out to students. The instant gratification was real. 

This is a process I intend to keep moving forward, after COVID-19 has been tamed, through the establishment of our own virtual library. The problem that I ran into this summer when I did my research was that eBooks are expensive! I thought there was no way that our district could afford the kind of experience that I wanted for my students. But then, what felt like a miracle happened--I found the Connected PA/NJ online library consortium! Once my district purchases access for my students this July, I should have close to 3,000 titles for my grades seven through twelve, small school for merely $3,200. Compared to the near $30 per book price of traditional eBook buying, this is a steal. If you do not have the money to subscribe next year, you still get access! This is a unique feature to this consortium, as it allows you to access the titles once you’ve subscribed to them just once, they never go away!

 And that is not considering the program offered through Mackin called Comics Plus which allows simultaneous access to graphic novels and comics for an entire school for under $1,000. With this subscription, and the collections I will purchase through the consortium, I should have access to approximately fifty eBooks per student at my school!  I hope to report back next school year with how successful this process was. Until then: unbridled excitement.

Edpuzzle: A Flipped Classroom, Modern Day Read-Aloud

Another essential component of a Reading classroom is the class read-aloud. In my curriculum, I teach students to differentiate between different genres of both fiction and nonfiction, and often find that I simply do not have time to read aloud in class. Interruptions through announcements and pep rallies sometimes stretch a book out way beyond the three weeks that it should have taken. Enter Edpuzzle.

I decided to ask students to read and work on their independent work in class when I realized that many of them were simply not doing it. By recording myself reading aloud to students and then using Edpuzzle to edit the video and incorporate questions I would ask students in class, I’m realizing something wonderful. Students who would not typically raise their hands are typing their answers in Edpuzzle with fervor. And their experience is richer for it.

I have also been able to read more to the students without the interruptions of daily life at school. Using Edpuzzle, we have read Restart by Gordon Korman, Prairie Lotus by Linda Sue Park, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, and are in the process of reading Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly. After that, I hope to read The Benefits of Being an Octopus by Ann Braden, and possibly another book before summer!

Our flipped classroom works like this: I assign students one chapter of our current read-aloud (or two if they are short), for a total of about 20 minutes for homework. Then during class we read silently and answer questions about our independent reading books for about twenty minutes. This leaves us with about 20 minutes of our class to be able to work on our skill assignments and writing practice. If there is time left, students scramble to get their headphones, eager for the next chapter of The Hunger Games, no longer giving me that wry smile, but instead enthusiastically participating in our virtual read-aloud. “The Hunger Games was boring at first, but got better toward the middle and end. I’m definitely reading the next one! [Catching Fire]”- An Edpuzzle response from a reluctant reader. It is not a perfect model, but it is working well for us!

I am thankful for both of these technological tools because of their seamless integration into my classroom. They have made a very stressed Reading teacher very happy.

Author Bio: 

Janel Prinkey teaches 7th and 8th grade Reading for a rural school district in Western Pennsylvania. She is an avid reader and writer and enjoys spending time with her Yorkiepoo, Arya. When she is not traveling the world, she is either playing mediocre golf or spending time with her family and friends.

Participating in NCTE’s African American Read-In by Amy Bouch

Participating in NCTE’s African American Read-In

It is crucial for educators to read, suggest, and incorporate texts from as many backgrounds, cultures, experiences, races, abilities, etc. as possible. I strive to do this as much as I can, but I also appreciate that NCTE has an event, the African American Read-In, that focuses on centering African American books and authors during Black History Month. 

As posted on the NCTE website, “The National African American Read-In is a groundbreaking effort to encourage communities to read together, centering African American books and authors. It was established in 1990 by the Black Caucus of the National Council of Teachers of English to make literacy a significant part of Black History Month. This initiative has reached more than 6 million participants around the world.”

Although I first became a member of NCTE as a sophomore in college in 2010, I did not know about this NCTE event until last year (2020). One of the many great aspects about this event is that teachers can choose how to participate! There are endless options to have this event fit into every classroom. 

To help put my experiences and sharing into perspective, I teach 8th grade English. In my district, this means that I mainly focus on writing and grammar standards; there is a separate class that mainly focuses on the reading standards.

Last year in 2020, I highlighted several authors and books by giving book talks about books I had read (or hoped to read in the near future) as well as playing YouTube videos of authors reading excerpts of their novels. I borrowed books from local public libraries as well as our school library and then shared those with students for them to read. I also incorporated some excerpts as model texts for our grammar study. For my first year participating, I was overall thrilled. My ideas for future years included having students give books talks or read excerpts as well as trying to connect through a video meeting with an author (I still hope to do this in the future!). 

This year in 2021, where lending books is a much trickier task and time and mental capacity is more limited for all, I focused more on highlighting authors through model texts in grammar study. I thoughtfully included to highlight two African American authors during two Friday remote learning days. 

To review the grammar that we had covered so far in 8th grade, we focused on Amanda Gorman and the biographical information on the main page of her website. Poetry, and Amanda Gorman, are having a huge moment right now, so I wanted to incorporate that. Personally, for the Super Bowl this year, the most important part was being able to watch Amanda Gorman’s poem after the coin toss. I wanted to make sure that students knew just how awesome and amazing it was to have a poem recited during the most-watched athletic event on television. The slides that we used for review can be accessed here.

The next grammar concept that we focused on was verbal phrases (shout-out to all the other 8th grade teachers who focus on this standard!). Jason Reynolds is an author loved by many (if not all!) teachers and students, so I wanted to highlight his writing and books as well. Jason Reynolds has a fantastic read aloud of the first chapter of his book Ghost, the first book in his highly-popular Track series. This excerpt also happens to have a perfect section for identifying and analyzing participial phrases. This excerpt, as well as more excerpts from books by African American authors and links to authors reading excerpts from their books, can be viewed here.

Earlier this year, I invited students to read Class Act by Jerry Craft and participate in the virtual author event hosted through the Words & Pictures Program by Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures. This experience wasn’t during the official African American Read-In event, but as I mentioned earlier, it is always great to incorporate a wide range of authors and texts!

Other suggestions for participating in the African American Read-In could include reading picture books, which is great for any grade level. Students could volunteer to read a book and then discuss grammar concepts, themes, and more. Parents and community members could also participate by reading and sharing about a book, poem, or article. When discussing the draft of this blog post with my friend/fellow teacher/writing feedback buddy, Janel Prinkey, she suggested reading pieces by various African American poets and comparing grammatical styles as well as incorporating “First Chapter Fridays.” Ultimately, as long as the reading selection is focusing on African American authors and texts, you are participating in the event and helping to amplify more voices. If you have any further suggestions, please share in the comments!  

Overall--participate in the African American Read-In if you haven’t yet! Keep in mind you can incorporate voices from African American authors at any time in the year, and even participating a little bit is better than not at all. 

Amy Bouch is a reading-obsessed 8th grade English teacher at Chartiers Valley Middle School. She is also the Vice President of the Western Pennsylvania Council of Teachers of English (WPCTE) and a Teacher-Consultant for the Western Pennsylvania Writing Project (WPWP). When she isn’t teaching, she is making her way through all of the U.S. National Parks and traveling the world with her husband. Connect with her at abouch@cvsd.net.

Looking Backwards: The WPCTE English Festival by John Manear

The annual WPCTE English Festival has become the signature activity for WPCTE for the last twenty-nine years.  When I accepted the position of Executive Director in the late 80s, it was to allow for the continuity of the council’s work when new officers were elected every three years.  Two initiatives that the council promoted are still in effect today: free membership and the annual English Festival.

The late Dr. Albert Labriola from Duquesne University served as WPCTE President beginning in 1990.  He and I felt that the membership would be interested in an activity which would involve students in the promotion of reading.  We visited Youngstown University’s English Festival, already in operation for several years.  We came back and presented our observations and a proposal to our council, and the rest is history.  Twenty-nine years of history.    

The purpose of the Festival is enrichment. As adapted from our influence from the Youngstown Festival, participating students are required to read six novels selected by the committee.  Schools register teams of 3-5 students who challenge teams from other schools on the Festival day in activities such as Trivia, Talk Show, and Insights.  A modified schedule was also adopted for the grades 4-6 Festival day which started up the following year at a different date and location.  A featured author of one of the book selections is invited to make a presentation and sign books.  Some of the national and local authors who have participated have included Bette Green, Chris Crutcher, Todd Strosser, M. E. Kerr, Naomi Shiab Nye and Sharon Draper and locally Patricia Easton, Sharon Flake, and Philip Baird.

The location for the Festival for grades 7-12, due to the involvement of Dr. Labriola, was Duquesne University.  It was the generous offer of the university facilities and its services from the outset that has made the inception, expansion and continuation of the Festival possible.  The same holds true for the use of my school, Seton-La Salle High School, for the Festival for grades 4-6.

The timing of the Festival has a history of its own.  Originally, the Festival day was scheduled in order to take advantage of Duquesne’s spring break when classes would not be in session.  All went well for a few years until, for several years in a row, March snowstorms attacked.  We were not able to reschedule because of our use of the campus, commitment of author engagements, and last minute school cancellations.  That is when we wisely rescheduled to May.

 

The attendance at the Festival began with about 30 schools and 500 students.  After that, and with the addition of the day for grades 4-6, we have typically hosted over 1200 students each year.  The records also reveal several schools and teacher moderators have returned repeatedly over the years.  Likewise, several members of the committee have been loyal supporters for many years.

With the unfortunate necessity to cancel the 2020 Festival, we are optimistic that the 2021 virtual Festival will continue to motivate and inspire our membership and the students we hope to make lifetime readers.

Author’s Bio: John Manear is a classroom teacher of 57 years, an NCTE member for 55 years, and a WPCTE member for 52 years.  He has served two terms as WPCTE President, and since 1989, as Executive Director.  He has served on the Executive Board of NCTE, and as a member of the Secondary Committee.  He served as the local chair of both the 1993 and 2005 NCTE conventions here in Pittsburgh.  Since the inception of the English Festival in 1993, he has served as Coordinator.