Writing Learning into Shape: Using Concrete Poetry to Explore & Reflect Content Knowledge

This post is written by Brooke L. Hardin. To learn more about Brooke, please visit the bottom of this post. What Is Concrete Poetry? Concrete poetry, sometimes called shape poetry, is poetry whose visual appearance matches the subject of the poem. The words of the poem form a shape or shapes which illustrate the poem’s […]

Where I’m From

This post will discuss how “Where I’m From” poetry helped provide a scaffold to better understand multilingual students and their evolving identities. This post is written by Emily Graham. Read more about Emily at the bottom of this post. The question “Where are you from” is one often heard by multilingual learners (MLs). Although all […]

Overcoming writer’s block with free-verse poetry

All writers are familiar with the brain-freezing sensation of staring at a blank page or screen without the slightest clue of how to start a daunting writing task. This writer’s block symptom is intensified for struggling writers such as multilingual learners, students with un/diagnosed reading/writing disorders, or speakers of dialects who experience Standard English as […]

The Power of the Pen: Poetry as the Bridge to Liberation

This post is written by Darius Phelps. You can read more about Darius at the bottom of this post. As bell hooks argued, some forms of writing create “a space where we are able to confront reality in such a way that we live more fully.” Having been an educator for thirteen years, I believe […]

Why is poetry important in the classroom?

As a future educator and a current student, I find poetry an amazing outlet for students to express themselves. I, personally, use poetry to release these great big emotions I feel. In my high school, we had a lot of mental health concerns in our student body with little to no action. I was a […]

Like painters, writers can stir the mind

This piece is written and submitted by Dr. Angela M. Cozart. I have to admit, I hated poetry when I was in school. I hated having to figure out what an author was saying. Why couldn’t they just come out and say what they wanted us to see and hear? I remember reading ‘The Windhover’ […]

Use digital spaces and poetry to share a walk in your world

The #WalkMyWorld project started as a community focus on poetry and multimodal exploration; it then developed into a community of inquiry. Participants explored the experiences of others by responding to and authoring multimodal poetry. In #WalkMyWorld, educators and students created a social space of engagement to explore civic uses of social media. This exploration served […]