Poetry

Paul Revere's Ride Unit from Glencoe  (M, O, T)
When Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote the stirring poem celebrating Paul Revere's famous 1775 midnight ride, it was the impending civil unrest that motivated him. You can learn more about Longfellow and Revere in this 54 page downloadable lesson for middle schoolers from Glencoe. April is a great month for this topic since it is poetry month, and also includes the anniversary of Revere's famous ride and of the surrender at Appomattox Courthouse that ended the Civil War.

Newspaper Blackout Poetry  (Y, M, O)
Even students who aren't poetry fans may enjoy this cool way of "writing" poetry. "Using a black marker," Austin Kleon "takes away the words he doesn't need, creating new poetic verses. He has compiled his poetry into a book called Newspaper Blackout and invites others to upload their own blackout poetry on his Tumblr page." Take a look at the examples on the linked page and let your kids try it out. The user submissions on his Tumblr page come from all ages, so if you visit that, preview for appropriateness for your family. Reading through the submissions inspires creativity and may encourage your budding poet to create his or her own blackout poetry.

PIZZAZZ  (Y,M,O,T)
An acronym for People Interested in Zippy and ZAny Zcribbling. Its purpose is an online website for ESL learners, but has good resources for poetry and other types of writing.

Poetry Foundation.org  (Y,M,O,T)
The Poetry Foundation.org publishes Poetry magazine. Their goal is to select good poetry and get it out to a large audience.

Poetic Terminology.net  (Y,M,O,T)
The site lists typed of Poetry and gives a concise definition and example.

Shadow Poetry  (Y,M,O,T)
A poet's writing resource.

Knowing Poe  (O)
All about Poe

Walt Whitman: Patriot Poet  (M,O)
From PBS.org

Haiku and Beyond  (Y)
A Study of Japanese Literature - by Denver Public Schools. Grade 4

Poetry Class  (Y,M,O,T)
PoetryTeachers.com provides easy-to-follow instructions on how to teach your students to write different types of funny poems. The lessons are written by published children's poets and include fun examples along with the suggestions.

FREE Online Rhyming Dictionary  (Y,M,O,T)
My daughter loves using this online tool when writing poetry. Just put any word in the form and specify whether you want results with end rhymes, first syllable rhymes, last syllable rhymes, beginning rhymes, or double rhymes. Your child is sure to find a word to use in their poetry or limerick from the results

Poets Org.  (Y,M,O,T)
Support American poets

Modern American Poetry  (Y,M,O,T)
MAPS=Modern American Poetry Site. Includes more than 30,000 pages of critical essays, images, biographies, and syllabi relating to 161 poets.

The Digital Dante  (Y,M,O,T)
Contains the original Italian version of The Divine Comedy and two English translations. The site also includes The Convivio in English as well as several other works in Italian and Latin. Don't miss the text of Milton's Paradise Lost.

Sea Life Poetry  (Y,M)
Using Internet resources listed with the lesson plan, students discover oceans and sea life and use this material for different forms of poetry. Good way to integrate language arts into an ocean unit study.

Poetry  (T)
From ProTeacher.com

Poets.org  (T)
Curriculum & Lesson Plans

Poetry  (T)
From Education World. Links to lesson plans, activities, articles, and projects for teaching poetry.

Ideas for personalizing poetry  (M)
From Scholastic.com

Rhyme with  (Y,M,O,T)
Internet rhyming dictionary. Warning - program does not edit content for words some consider inappropriate.