Language Arts And Reading Instruction: Poetry

Kenn Nesbitt is a children's author who has compiled a poetry playground of funny poems, classic poems and poetry books for children. Also on this site are poetry lessons he created, activities, and a rhyming dictionary. (Grades K-6)

Poets.org has been providing online resources to teachers to help them bring poetry into the classroom. Not just for National Poetry Month in April, but throughout the school year. On the site, you will find poetry lesson plans, essays about teaching, a glossary of poetry terms, a poetry calendar, and more. Lesson plans are aligned with the Common Core and videos are included to highlight specific lessons. (Grades: 5 - 12)

Poem Hunter has thousands of poems online. You can search by poet, or topic of the poem. The site provide a list of the top 500 poems and poets of all time. You are also able to submit your own poem to the website. (Grades: 7 - 12)

The Poetry Archive is a supported by the Arts Council of England. On this site are resources for explore poetry, study poetry and teach poetry. Under the teach poetry section, is a library of lesson plans containing classroom activities for all key stages, built around Poetry Archive recordings and offering lively, engaging ways of working with poetry. (Grades PreK-12)

The National Council of Teachers of English partnered with ReadWriteThink, have created a list of poetry lesson plans for all grade levels. Each lesson also includes the Common Core Standards and State Standards. (Grades K-12)

Sponsored by Scholastic, this website takes a look at the genre of poetry by having students take part in step-by-step workshops with three of their favorite authors: Jean Marzollo, Karla Kurkin and Jack Prelutsky. (Grades 1-8)

Writer's Digest has selected the top twenty poems for kids broken down by the categories of: short poems, funny poems and rhyming poems. Most of them have a live link to the poem. (Grades: K - 6).

The Favorite Poem Project, cosponsored by Boston College and the Library of Congress, is dedicated to celebrating, documenting, and encouraging poetry's role in Americans' lives. Watch or listen to citizens read poems they love. (Grades 3-12).

This website from the Academy of American Poets includes information on the history of National Poetry Month. It also shares how other communities celebrate this month and gives ideas on how one can participate. Also features Poem in your Pocket Day resources. (Grades K-12).

Every April, on Poem in Your Pocket Day, people celebrate by selecting a poem, carrying it with them, and sharing it with others throughout the day. This site provides a little history of how this day started, how other communities celebrate this day and provides ideas on how you can participate. (Grades 4 - 12).

The Library of Congress and Billy Collins, a poet laureate, designed this website to make it easy for high school students to read or hear a poem on each of the 180 days of school. (Grades 9-12)

The Poetry Learning Lab is a great source of knowledge, including a glossary of poetry terms, links to public domain poems, and inspiring essays on poetry from writers and educators. (Grades PreK-12).

Created by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation, encourages students to learn about great poetry through memorization and recitation. (Grades 9-12).

Helps writers find rhymes, synonyms, and adjectives. also available in Spanish. (Grades 6-12).

Blog post that lists the steps involved in writing poetry and provides poetry resources

A listing of both selected teaching resources and children's poetry (K-8) that are available from the Curriculum Materials Center of the Cheng Library.