Poetry

Teachers use poetry to teach literature, to enrich students' vocabulary and spark their imaginations, and to add interest to more mundane lessons. The poetry sites below provide teachers and students with practical help for writing poetry, resources for poet studies, and opportunities to experience the sheer pleasure of reading poetry. Included: Poetry sites for students and teachers.

All students, no matter what their grade level, can benefit from a study of poetry. In addition to the simple sensory pleasure of listening to the rhythm, alliteration, or onomatopoeia of the words themselves, poetry sparks students' imagination and appeals to their emotions.

Teachers who are interested in introducing poetry into their curriculum will find a wealth of online collections, practical help for teaching poetry writing, resources for author/poet studies, as well as whimsical collections that children will love to hear read aloud. Help your students discover the magic of poetry with some of the following online resources.

Bartleby.com: Great Books Online
Bartleby.com offers complete electronic texts of classic books, and an extensive poetry archive of works dating from 1250 to 1920. Containing thousands of poems by hundreds of poets, Bartleby.com provides one of the largest free collections of verse on the Web.

Giggle Poetry
Giggle Poetry approaches children's poetry with a sense of humor, providing archives of humorous poems by Bruce Lansky and other children's poets. Here, kids can read poems, rate them, or learn to write their own. Teachers will find such resources as information on how to teach poetry, poetry lesson plans, and fun activities that will engage students in reading and writing poetry.

Knowing Poe: The Literature and Life of Edgar Allen Poe
This resource for language arts teachers provides engaging lessons on poetic devices, the narrative in short story, and intersections between literature and history. The site is filled with fun features, visuals, sounds, video, music, mysteries, and learning exercises. The classroom connections provided will help teachers make the best use of the site's materials and primary resources.

Poetry Express
Poetry Express features fifteen activities to inspire aspiring poets to get started, as well as examples of poetry-writing techniques, and tips for writing effective poetry. If that fails, visitors still can click e-muse for inspiration! The site also provides resources for sharing, editing, and publishing poetry.

Poetry4Kids
Children's poet Kenn Nesbitt offers a large collection of humorous poems for kids, as well as several lessons on how they can write funny poems too. Additional resources include links to other children's poets on the Web and suggestions on how teachers can incorporate poetry in their curriculum.

ALSO WORTH A LOOK

• The Poetry and Literature Center of the Library of Congress. Be sure to check out Poetry 180, a poem a day for American high schools.
• Poetry Class
• Poetry
• The Poetry Archive

For even more great sites for poetry, visit the Reference area of Education World's Site Reviews Archives.