Poetry

Poetry playlist is based on a lot of my favorite poems, but also very good for the classroom. Each video starts with a little intro about the poet, or the history, or just  the significance of the poem.  There are no worksheets or lessons that go with these poems. The idea was that students walk into class, listen to a poem, have a discussion about it, and then move on to the major lessons of the day.  Or, in my case, I use it as a time-filler: if I finish a lot early and have about fifteen-thirty minutes before the bell, I can throw up a video and wing it from there: point out metaphors, talk about history, point out parts of speech, talk about shared experiences...

Or, if you want to go EVEN farther, Mensa for Kids has a page just for the best poems and how to get kids to memorize them.  It is called "A Year of Living Poetically."  Great resources for the early finishers or just a send home over breaks.  

Garvey's Choice by Nikki Grimes

An Irishmen Foresees His Death by William Butler Yeats

My Last Report Card by Nikki Grimes

The Blind Men and the Elephant

Last Answers by Carl Sandburg

Young At Sea by Carl Sandburg

A Song in the Front Yard by Gwendolyn Brooks

We Lived Happily During the War by Ilya Kaminsky

In Heaven by Stephen Crane

Those Winter Sundays By Robert Hayden

Grandpa 

Mother Love by Nikki Grimes

Flag by Jacqueline Woodson

On Being Brought from Africa by Phillis Wheatley 

Invictus by William Ernest Henley

Bones in the Ocean by the Longest Johns

Summer Grass by Carl Sandburg