Poetry in the Digital Age: Embracing Technology in Your Poetry Curriculum
Personally, I have always loved exploring poetry. As a 15 year old, I would keep a notebook where I would scribble verses and rhymes, and I liked to think that the words I wrote held hidden meanings that would reveal themselves only to those who could understand.
Now, as an educator, I know that there are many benefits to including poetry in the classroom, however not all students get excited about the idea…
This is where technology and stations can help create an active learning environment, where students can explore and share their thoughts through various methods.
With April being national poetry month, here are a few things you can keep in mind and some free technological tools you can incorporate in your poetry curriculum.
Teaching Students about Social Justice and Diversity through the words of various poets.
Poetry is a means to teach about social justice and diversity, by providing a powerful platform for marginalized voices to be heard, and by promoting empathy and understanding of different experiences and perspectives. I love reading Maya Angelou’s Still I Rise with my students, then following it with her live performance. We break down the verses of the poem and the metaphors that seem to go over their heads during the first reading.
The Healing Power of Poetry: Why It's Important for Students' Mental Health
The healing power of poetry on mental health lies in its ability to provide a creative outlet for expressing emotions, processing difficult experiences, and finding meaning and connection in life. Through the process of writing or reading poetry, students can explore and connect with their thoughts and feelings, leading to greater self-awareness, emotional regulation, and overall well-being.
Poetry to Encourage Creativity and Self-Expression
By exploring poetry students can learn to express themselves in unique and imaginative ways. They can use language to evoke emotions, create vivid imagery, and convey complex ideas. The freedom to experiment with words, form, and structure in poetry can inspire creativity and encourage individuals to explore new perspectives and experiences. Breaking free of grammatical restrictions and sentence structure will also push students to think outside the box. I often like to make comparisons to musical lyrics and musicians, such as Tupac Shakur, who also wrote poetry.
Fun ways to use poetry in the classroom using technology:
Create Poetry Stations with QR codes and
Set up stations around your classroom with diverse poetry. Each station can represent a theme or a style of poetry. With each station leave a set of discussion questions and a digital link to a joint Padlet where students can leave their thoughts, comments and respond to peer comments. At one of the stations include QR codes that students can scan to listen to spoken word poems or slam poetry, like they would at a museum.
Poem Generators
Another way to embrace technology in your poetry curriculum is to use digital tools to create and share poems. There are many websites and apps available that can help your students create and publish their own poems, from traditional forms like sonnets and haikus to more experimental styles. For example, you could introduce your students to websites like Poem Generator or Poetry Machine, which allow them to input words and phrases to create their own unique poems. These website provide students with prompts and helps guide them through the creative process.
Another way to incorporate technology into your poetry curriculum is to use SeeSaw where you can create a classroom community that mimics social media. Students can share and promote their work. Their peers can see their posts and leave comments and provide feedback. This not only helps them develop their writing skills, but also provides them with a sense of community and support.
Poem Roulette
Explore diverse poetry by theme, style, poet or emotion, and scroll through a world of poetry with Poetry in Voice’s poem roulette. Students can access the site and select between poet, moods or #tags, the roulette will spin to offer choices from each category. Students can then skim through hundreds of poems to choose the one that speaks to them.
Take a leap and start your poetry unit this week! Use the poetry unit found here and make it your own! Create stations, incorporate technology and explore poetry roulette with your students!