Since Robert Frost encouraged our founder Marie Bullock to “get poetry into the high schools” in the 1960s, we’ve been assisting teachers in bringing poetry into the classroom. Here, you’ll find poetry lesson plans, poems for kids and for teens, essays about teaching, a calendar of teaching resources for the school year, a glossary of poetry terms, and more. Our lesson plans, most of which are aligned with the Common Core, have been reviewed by our Educator in Residence with an eye toward developing skills of perception and imagination. 

Read more about Teach this Poem’s impact. 

Dear Poet Participating Poets 2026

Dear Poet 2026

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.

Lesson Plans for Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month

As part of your celebration of Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month in May—and all year round—ta

Graduation: Poems for Kids

The following poems are about graduating, moving forward, and getting older, with poems like “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost, “Dreams” by Langston Hughes, and “Instructions on Not Giving Up” by Ada Limón.

Lesson Plans for Spring

Celebrate warmer weather, the departure of winter, and the beginning of spring with these lesson

Lesson Plans by Theme

Find poetry lesson plans organized by theme, occasion, and class subject, including lesson plans featuring poems about social justice, the environment, and many other topics.

Teach this Poem: The Classics

Teach this Poem is a weekly series featuring a poem from our online poetry collection …