Teach This Poem, though developed with a classroom in mind, can be easily adapted for remote-learning, hybrid-learning models, or in-person classes. Please see our suggestions for how to adapt this lesson for remote or blended learning. We have also noted suggestions when applicable and will continue to add to these suggestions online.
Look closely at the visual art by Calida Rawles.
The following activities and questions are designed to help your students use their noticing skills to move through the poem and develop their thinking about its meaning with confidence, using what they’ve noticed as evidence for their interpretations. Read more about the framework upon which these activities are based.
Mahogany Browne is a featured poet of Dear Poet 2023. Every National Poetry Month we present Dear Poet, a multimedia education project that invites young people in grades five through twelve to write letters in response to poems written and read by award-winning poets. For National Poetry Month in April, students’ letters will be published in a booklet on Poets.org alongside poets’ responses. The submission period for Dear Poet 2023 is now open through March 3, 2023. Use the 2023 Dear Poet lesson plan and ask your students to write a letter to Mahogany Browne, Danez Smith, Richard Blanco, KB Brookins, Naomi Shihab Nye, or Marilyn Chin. Find out more.
Free Verse: poetry not dictated by an established form or meter and often influenced by the rhythms of speech. Read more.