Poetry Friday

Poetry Friday: Poetry 2.0 & Langston Hughes

March 5, 2010 in Poetry Friday

Here at TeachingBooks.net, we think a lot about the wonderful ways that technology, the Internet, and Web 2.0 can enhance student and teacher enjoyment of poetry and poets (and books and authors in general). There are excellent web tools and…

Poetry Friday: Nikki Grimes

February 26, 2010 in Poetry Friday

Nikki Grimes’ book Talkin’ About Bessie: The Story of Aviator Elizabeth Coleman (Orchard, 2002) is the biography, written in 20 voices, of the first African American licensed female pilot. Listen to Nikki Grimes share more about Elizabeth Coleman and read…

Poetry Friday: Marilyn Nelson, Part II

February 19, 2010 in Poetry Friday

Poetry pays homage to the dead, sheds light on crimes and injustice, and helps us to explore intense emotions. In Fortune’s Bones: The Manumission Requiem (Front Street, 2004), Marilyn Nelson created a requiem to honor “Fortune,” an 18th-century slave who…

Poetry Friday: Marilyn Nelson, Part I

February 12, 2010 in Poetry Friday

I love discovering cross-curricular implementations of poetry. For example, using poetry to explore history. In celebration of Black History Month, consider exploring the life of historical figure George Washington Carver through poetry. In the Newbery honor-winning biography, Carver: A Life …

Poetry Friday: Eloise Greenfield

January 29, 2010 in Poetry Friday

I encourage you to find poetry in unexpected places—in places beyond books. For example, 80-year-old poet and author Eloise Greenfield reminded me that poetry can be found in rap music. In fact, Eloise found inspiration for her book Nathaniel Talking…

Poetry Friday: Carole Boston Weatherford

January 22, 2010 in Poetry Friday

I love how poetry can aid in revealing human nature. We learn more about the poet, or more about ourselves, or more about what it means to be human. In Carole Boston Weatherford’s book of poetry, Becoming Billie Holiday (Wordsong,…

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