Happy National Poetry Month!
Poetry is not a one-month or one-unit experience in my classroom. Instead, I intentionally weave it into our literature work all year long because it deepens engagement and adds meaning for both me and my students. Here are a few small ways I weaved poetry into our lessons this month:
Using Poetry to Teach Character Development
We’ve been working on direct and indirect characterization, so I pulled an excerpt from Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga. In the passage, Jude describes her cousin using both “telling” and “showing,” which made it a perfect mentor text.
After analyzing the character development, students wrote their own short character poems about someone in their life. To support my ELD students, I gave them a simple structure:
- Start with what the person wears
- Show personality through what they do
- Include what they say
The scaffolding helped a lot—students who might normally struggle to get started were able to jump right in, and the results were thoughtful, funny, and surprisingly detailed.
Turning the Lens Inward: Writing About Themselves
As an extension, students wrote poems about their own identities. We used “Weird”, a poem from Just Like Me by Vanessa Brantley-Newton for a mentor text.
After noticing how the poem builds around a single adjective, students chose one word to describe their “best quality” and used it as the foundation for their own poem. I gave them some sentence starters, which helped keep the writing flowing while still allowing for individuality.
This activity ended up being one of my favorites—there’s something powerful about giving students space to name and celebrate who they are.
Exploring Conflict Through Poetry
We’re also studying literary conflict, so I had students read an excerpt from The Crossover by Kwame Alexander. First students reviewed conflict by noticing how the speaker reveals both internal and external conflict, especially around anger.
Then they wrote their own “conflict poems” using the stem:
Teacher, since you asked, I’ll tell you why I’m so ______…
What followed was honest, reflective writing that went way beyond what I typically see in more traditional assignments.
Letting It Go (Literally)
To keep building on conflict, we read “What She Asked” by Virginia Euwer Wolff. Before reading, we talked about what students do after conflict—walk it off, listen to music, talk to someone, etc.
Then I shared how I sometimes write to process frustration, which led into the activity.
After studying the mentor poem, students used the line:
Remember that classroom afternoon, every big and little thing was wrong…
…and created their own lists of annoyances, frustrations, and lingering conflicts.
After a few minutes of writing, I had them tear the page out, fold it into a paper airplane, and we ended class with a throwing contest—sending those problems flying across the room.
It was chaotic in the best way—and a surprisingly cathartic ending to the lesson.
Final Thoughts
None of these activities took more than a class period. Each one connected directly to our curriculum, and all of them got students writing, thinking, and (maybe even) enjoying poetry.
Poetry doesn’t have to live in April. It doesn’t need its own unit or elaborate setup. It can slip right into what you’re already teaching—and sometimes, that’s when it works best.
Kelly Virgin is a WCWP teacher leader who teaches high school English for the Kennett Consolidated School District.
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