Latest Lesson Plans
“What If”: Trusting Students with Difficult and Challenging Model Texts
In this article, teacher Brittny Ray Crowell brings the poem, "I saw Emmett Till this week at the grocery store,"…
Feel: Exploring Emotion in Poetry with Kendrick Lamar
Teacher Andrew DeBella shares how he uses Pulitzer Prize winning artist Kendrick Lamar's music to create a visceral experience of…
Writing a Dream Poem
In this article from the T&W archive, educator Bill Zavatsky teaches his students to create free-verse dream poems, using dream…
Origin Story Lesson Plan Using Afro-Latina by Elizabeth Acevedo
National Book Award finalist Candice Iloh shares a lesson using the spoken word poem "Afro-Latina" by Elizabeth Acevedo, to ground…
The Well of Words: The Poetry Workshop as a Place of Social-Emotional Learning for Adults
T&W writer Libby Mislan reflects on the healing nature of processing emotion through poetry. To meet the perceived needs of students, she created the “Poetry as Processing” workshop where students learned SEL skills and wrote from their experience of this telling 2020 year.
Origin Story Lesson Plan Using Afro-Latina by Elizabeth Acevedo
National Book Award finalist Candice Iloh shares a lesson using the spoken word poem “Afro-Latina” by Elizabeth Acevedo, to ground students in their multiple identities and lived experiences and to utilize literary devices and source material in generative writing exercises.
Teaching Creative Writing in Covid Times
Teacher Ben Berman reflects on the challenges and opportunities for deeper care and connection with students, brought on by the pandemic and virtual learning. Read how creative writing continues to serve an essential purpose through COVID.
A Korean Poetry Competition Motivates Students to Write
Teacher, Elizabeth Jorgensen helps students engage in the creative writing process by giving them an opportunity to publish or gain recognition for their work. Read how her students express themselves through the sijo and find success in The Sejong Cultural Society’s annual poetry competition.
How is THAT a Poem? Winning Over Skeptical Students with E. E. Cummings
Laura Wheatman Hill shares ideas to intrigue students with E. E. Cummings’ poem “l(a…(a leaf falls on loneliness)” and teaches students how a poems’ subject matter can often inform its structure.
We Share the Earth and Sky: Reading Student Poems in the Pandemic
Read about how teaching artist Peter Markus encourages students to step outside themselves and into the “Poetry Portal” and continues to encourage his student poets to write during a pandemic.
Now I Will Tell You…
Amina HenryWriter-in-Residence, Spring 2020 Amina Henry is a Brooklyn-based playwright, adjunct lecturer (Brooklyn College, SUNY Purchase) and teaching artist (Teachers & Writers Collaborative, Hunts Point Alliance for Children). Recent productions include Hero Theatre’s production of Troy, an adaptation of The Trojan Women by Euripides (Los Angeles, CA), and New Light Theatre’s production of The Great Novel…
Twenty-four Poets Keep Their Third Eyes Open
This article discusses how teaching artist Matthew Brailas teaches fourth grade students a wide range of literary devices through a fun activity called the “Third Eye Experiment.”
Remembering Each Room, Each Door, Each Brick: Writing Letters to Home with Refugee Students
Read this article by a teacher who reflects on her years of working with migrant students from Central America on a local farm, doing hands-on learning and English-language education, using T&W poetry writing exercises.
What’s in a Name? Finding Hidden Pictures in the Letters of the Alphabet
This is a fun out-of-the-box exercise by Frank Ingrasciotta in which we visualize and describe the letters of the alphabet as pictures then write poems that riff on these pictures using the letters of our own names. The lesson works especially well for visual spatial learners and reinforces those skills for other young writers.