April 2, 2019

Hi, 

Yes, April is School Library Month, but it’s also National Poetry Month. 

Here’s a sampling of resources to help you celebrate poetry:

• National Poetry Month poster, created by a 10^th grader, can download as a PDF or order a free copy
• Ideas for celebrating Poem in Your Pocket Day on April 18^th
• Kim Stafford, Oregon Poet Laureate, does visits; scroll to see 2019 engagements already on his calendar; questions: info@oregonpoetlaureate.org
• Edutopia’s “6 Tips for Teaching Poetry Writing to Teens”
• Disney’s “A Poem Is” series; some segnments are available on the DisneyJuniorUK YouTube channel; each is 1 to 2 minutes of children discussing what a poem is to them, followed by the reading of a specific poem
• National Council of Teachers of English’s Notable Poetry Books lists from 2011 – 2019; scroll to nearly bottom of page
• Gale resources
  • LitFinder has 130,000 full-text poems, many with supporting materials like explanations
    • Materials related to LitFinder that support National Poetry Month, like scavenger hunts, web banners, and pre-made social media posts
• Research In Context and Student Resources In Context (sec, elem) each have audio files of actors reading select poems, like “Casey at the Bat” (if prompted for password, use password portion of your Gale login)
  • One way to find those audio files: Open database // click on Advanced search // add “exploring poetry” (no quotes) in first text box // change Keyword to Publication Title // under Document Type, select Audio File // click on Search
  • Get same results in Research In Context and in Student Resources In Context

Have fun. 

Thanks,
Jen

Jennifer Maurer
School Library Consultant
State Library of Oregon