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Common Core Connections: The Power of Poetry

CCSS Poetry Resources

CurricConnects booklist for poets and poetry

Figurative Language and the Common Core

TeachersFirst's Editors' Choices for Poetry Month

Heard, Georgia. Poetry Lessons to Meet the Common Core State Standards: Exemplar Poems with Engaging Lessons and Response Activities that help Students Read, Understand, and Appreciate Poetry. ISBN:  978-0-545-37490-3.
This is definitely a text worth purchasing! Teacher, poet, and founding member of the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project, Heard knows the challenges that teachers face, and has a clear understanding of the demands of the Common Core. She thoughtfully shares her passion for poetry and takes some of the mystery out of it for students and teachers. Included are many examples of poems to use, an extensive glossary of poetry terms, and a number of thinking maps for students to use.

Lowry, Lois. Gooney Bird is so Absurd. ISBN: 9780547119670. Lexile: 590
Consider this as a read-aloud chapter book if you are a second or third grade teacher. In this book of the popular series, Gooney Bird’s class is studying all types of poetry, and as usual Gooney Bird has a surprise up her sleeve. This is great to reinforce haiku, couplets, and free verse.

Montenegro, Laura. A Bird about to Sing. ISBN: 978-0618188659. Lexile: not available.
Natalie “freezes” during a poetry reading but is encouraged by other poets in attendance. They assure her that “when the time is right, the bird begins to sing,” and she ends up reading her poem beautifully on the bus back home, to the cheers of those around her.

Prelutsky, Jack. Read a Rhyme, Write a Rhyme. ISBN:  0-375-82286-0. Lexile: not available.
Add this book to your classroom collection, especially for motivated writers. Students who enjoy reading poetry and want to try writing it get help from Prelutsky in this volume. Prelutsky chose ten themes (birthdays, friends, etc.), and compiled several related poems from various poets, along with a component called Poemstarts. Prelutsky starts a poem, gives suggestions for what students might think about in order to finish the poem, and provides the occasional word bank of rhyming words. Use the book in a poetry center or as the basis for a “Lunch Bunch” poetry club or after school writing enrichment club.

Worth, Valerie. All the Small Poems and fourteen More. ISBN:  978-0-329-57336-2. Lexile: NP.
A compilation of several previous volumes of “small poems,” this book is wonderful for demonstrating how poets look at ordinary things in extraordinary ways.

Yolen, Jane. Least Things: Poems about Small Natures. ISBN:  1-59078-098-1. Lexile:  578.
Accompanied by amazing photographs, these haiku poems about the natural world are a reminder that poets capture big feelings in small packages.