April is National Poetry Month, and to celebrate, I’m sharing some of my favorite resources for teaching poetry!

Before we dive in, I want to start with a quick shout-out and say that I credit all I know about poetry to Georgia Heard.

Georgia was one of the original staff developers and consultants at the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project. As a classroom teacher, I remember sitting in the Horace Mann Auditorium at Teachers College and being enamored and inspired by listening to Georgia.

She is not only a poet herself but also speaks about the teaching of poetry and its value in the classroom in ways that are both aspiring and achievable (especially in my early years of teaching).

So, thank you, Georgia Heard, for inspiring me all of those years ago to keep poetry as a study in both the teaching of reading and writing!

Here, in no particular order, are some of my favorite poetry resources for you. I hope they inspire you to use poetry to help your students explore and express their feelings and opinions and to find the beauty in their everyday lives.

Awakening the Heart: Exploring Poetry in Elementary and Middle School by Georgia Heard

Awakening the Heart by Georgia Heard book cover

Georgia's book that impacted my teaching career is Awakening the Heart: Exploring Poetry in Elementary and Middle School. It’s filled with poems by professional poets, children, and Heard herself—all paired with beautiful illustrations.

Equally inspiring as it is practical, Awakening the Heart gives educators a tool for leveraging the power of poetry to teach everyday essential reading & writing skills.

Woke: A Young Poet's Call to Justice by Mahogany L. Browne

This beautiful collection of poems by a team of women of color touches on social issues, empathy, and discrimination. Poetry has long been used as a tool by activists to speak out on injustice, and in Woke, we see how the power of words can help educators shape student perspectives and discuss important topics in the classroom.

Rimshots: Basketball Pix, Rolls, and Rhythm by Charles R. Smith Jr.

Something I like to suggest when teaching a cycle of study on poetry in writing is setting up students to write an anthology of poems that center around an aspect of their identity. An example could be writing a collection of poems on something they love to do, like a hobby or a sport.

Rimshots is a perfect example of this and could be studied as a mentor text. It's all about basketball while also touching on themes associated with the game, like teamwork and persistence. The poems are snappy, energetic, and fun to share aloud. Plus, its varied use of font, colors, and illustrations can also double as a way to model artistic expression for when students write their own poems, too.

All the Small Poems and Fourteen More by Valerie Worth

All the small poems and fourteen more book cover

The poems in this book center around nature and wildlife, as experienced through the eyes of a child. Valerie Worth’s words, combined with illustrations by Natalie Babbitt, are a gentle reminder of the beauty and poetry that exists in our everyday. Short, snackable, and easy to digest, this is a great poetry book to share.

Bonus Activity: Take a Poetry Walk!

Getting outside and observing the natural world is one of my favorite ways to stir the inner poet in kids and adults alike. Check out this video I made on Poetry Walks, where I guide you through how to notice the happenings of our daily lives and put them on paper into poems.

I’ve also included some Poetry Walk Notice Cards for you to download for free to help you model observation skills for children!

Heartsongs by Mattie J. T. Stepanek

Author Mattie J.T. Stepanek was only three years old when he began writing poetry to confront his struggle living with a rare form of muscular dystrophy and cope with the grief he experienced having lost siblings to the same condition. Mattie ended up passing away in 2004 and said that he wanted to be remembered as "a poet, a peacemaker, and a philosopher who played".

What I enjoy about this book is that it allows students to read poetry written by someone close in age. His poems have an innocence about them while still being deeply thought-provoking, showing students that poetry can be simple and powerful and what's most important is the expression of felt emotions.

Life Doesn't Frighten Me by Maya Angelou

This is one of my favorite examples of a poem that has been turned into a picture book, illustrated by Jean-Michel Basquiat, a renowned graffiti artist during the 1980s in New York City.

Maya Angelou’s words are soul-stirring and profound; Basquiat’s work is a reflection of social constructs and the racial injustices and class struggles he experienced in the Black community. When experienced together, they share an impactful lesson in fearlessness well-suited for older grades who can understand and appreciate the depth of their art and message.