Poetry Teaching Resources

Since we're currently on teaching poetry, I thought it would be good to have some resources for teaching poetry, and for sourcing for poems. Here they are:

1) Favorite Poem Project (http://www.favoritepoem.org/)

This is an interesting website that features people's favorite poems. It is mainly an American project, but provides useful resources for teaching poetry. What I especially like is the collection of videos of people reciting their favorite poems. It shows how poetry is not just meant to be read quietly, but aloud, and poems come alive when spoken out, and how they can mean so much to an individual. Do check out some of these videos, it could even be shown in class if you happen to teach one of these poems. Also, there is a small section on resources for teachers, including lesson plans

2) Teachers and Writers Collaborative (http://www.twc.org/)

This site aims to promote creative writing and opening up the imagination. While much of this collaborative centres on workshops and seminars, there's a section on resources that offers quite some information on teaching writing, on best practices and so on.

3) Poetry Slam

Very often in teaching poetry, we miss out one of the most exciting elements: poetry slam. I couldn't quite find a specific website for this, but this video shows how powerful poetry can be even in the hands of students: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpwoRX2msEE. Those familiar with Taylor Mali can also find lots of resources and videos, like for instance the inspirational "What Teachers Make, or Objection Overruled, or If things don't work out, you can always go to law school" (but mind his language). Apart from teaching students poetry with songs, we can consider widening their perspective on how poetry is meant to be read, to encourage students to read poetry aloud, and online videos (search poetry slam in Youtube and you get tons of results) can help.

4) Local poetry? (http://www.movingwords.sg/)

I think it's quite cool to bring in some local poetry that our students can perhaps identify more with. This is linked to the Moving Words movement: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheLiteraryCentreSG?blend=22&ob=5

People reading their poetry about travel in Singapore in an MRT station.