National Poetry Month Resources

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April is National Poetry Month, 30 days of celebrating the joy, expressiveness, and pure delight of poetry.

Launched by the Academy of American Poets in April 1996, National Poetry Month reminds the public that poets have an integral role to play in our culture and that poetry matters. Over the years, it has become the largest literary celebration in the world, with tens of millions of readers, students, K–12 teachers, librarians, booksellers, literary events curators, publishers, families, and, of course, poets, marking poetry's important place in our lives. In 2021, the Academy of American Poets looks forward to celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of this annual celebration! (Source)

I work with instructional technology and I teach high school science so I am not a regular user of poetry, but I do love exploring creative works of art. I do think there are many great resources that can be explored by all teachers and students to make connections to poetry. Today I wanted to share some digital poetry resources shared by our LMC Directors, our English Department, and my PLN.

I use "The Road Not Taken" with my students at the start and at the end of the school year. It is a discussion starter for how we will learn and then it becomes a bit of advice as my students leave at the end of the school year. 

We also enjoy some brain breaks a few times a year with Verse By Verse, Verse by Verse is a generative Google AI that connects students with historic poets to create new poems. 

Book Creator is  hosting a Poetry Competition that could be worth exploring. Book Creator is an amazing resource for teachers and students. 

Additional Poetry Resources

• Sonnet Generator - Choose a subject, enter a few adjectives, and let the site take care of the rest.
• National Poetry Month Competition and Resources - Control Alt Achieve collection of resources. 
• poets.org - Academy of American Poets site that was launched in 1996, becoming the original online resource for poems, poets' biographies, essays about poetry, and resources for K-12 teachers. One of my favorite features is the Poem-a-Day emails. 
• Verse by Verse - An experimental AI-powered muse that helps you compose poetry inspired by classic American poets.
• Seven Good Activities for National Poetry Month - Free Technology for Teachers collection of resources. 
• Poem Portraits - An experiment at the boundaries of AI and human collaboration. Donate a word to become part of an ever-evolving collective poem and create your own Poem Portraits.
• Springtime Magnetic Poetry with Google Drawings - Eric Curts magnetic poetry template. Drag on drop words to create a poem. 
• Black Out Poetry with Google Docs - Another Eric Curts creation. Give a student a page of text and the student blacks out all the text except the words they need to create a poem. This post also has some links to some additional poetry activities created by Eric.
• 7 Poems About Famous Artworks - Google Arts and Culture has collected 7 poetry passages alongside the art that inspired the poems. 
• Magnetic Poetry Happiness Kit - 200 magnetic tiles for the fridge or whiteboard. There are quite a few unique kits similar to this on Amazon. 
• Six Word Memoirs - A simple way to engage and inspire anyone and everyone to get to the essence of who they are and what matters most.
• Poetry Daily - An anthology of contemporary poetry. Each day, they bring readers a new poem from new books, magazines, and journals.
• Poetry 180 - Library of Congress resource that brings a poem for each of the 180 days of the school year. 
• Classroom-Friendly Poems - YouTube playlist of poems. 62 and counting. 
• Button Poetry - YouTube channel that shares a new poem daily.
• TED-Ed Poetry - Collection of TED video lessons connected to poetry. 
• Edutopia Poetry - Collection of articles and resources to engage students in poetic study. 
• 10 Googley Poetry Projects for National Poetry Month - Eric Curts shares a collection of awesome poetry resources to get students thinking and creating. 
• National Council of Teachers of English - 25th anniversary of National Poetry Month resources. 
• Creative Writing and Publishing Resources for You and Your Students - Control Alt Achieve collection of resources. 

What resources or activities would you recommend to encourage students to explore poetry? Please consider sharing in the comments below.