“What is poetry?” Daniel asks.
“Come with me,” says Spider, “and I will show you.”
— Daniel Finds a Poem by Micha Archer

In Daniel Finds a Poem, readers journey with Daniel as he walks through the park and asks his animal friends, “What is poetry?” Each creature responds in their own way. Spider speaks of dew, Frog talks about cool water, and Owl praises the night sky. As Daniel listens, observes, and reflects, he discovers that poetry is all around him. Poetry is what you see, hear, feel, and imagine—just like what our students can discover during a walk outside.

Using Daniel Finds a Poem as a mentor text, you can create a powerful classroom-building activity that also helps destigmatize the practice of writing poetry through found poems.

Creating a sense of belonging in the classroom isn't just a goal—it’s the foundation for all other interactions. This activity is a great way to build community at the beginning of the year, or to reconnect after a longer break. Found poetry invites writers to “find” words and phrases from existing texts or the world around them. For this activity, you might take students outside, but you could also use books, signs, notes, or even snippets of spoken dialogue—then arrange them into a new poetic form.

In this variation, students become the source text. You collect their words and transform them into a poem that reflects your shared classroom identity. The best part? When everyone shares their favorite line to create a collaborative community poem, it almost feels like teaching magic.

Poetry has the power to be transformative, inspirational, and healing. Poetry is what I turn to when I find myself reluctant to read, or if I am having a bad day. It taps into the power of feelings, and most recently, the work I have done with graphic novels and novels-in-verse in my classroom has been the most impactful. Kids report at the end of the year that these two sets of activities are what stuck out to them as memorable, important, and meaningful. Especially during this time period, where many of us have found or are in the process of finding that our school year is cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we turn to the power of poetry. The work of teaching is now different in nature and in context. We turn to the ability to work remotely and still provide the same level of commitment and inspiration to our students. The buildings perhaps are closed, but the process of learning is still open. One thing I am turning to particular in the month of April is poetry. Arguably, we will need poetry as part of the process of healing long after this crisis is over. Yesterday, in my bullet journal plan-with-me post, I spent some time curating a personal collection of poems that made me excited about poetry. I think this is an important exercise to do at the beginning of this month and in the process of kicking off any poetry unit.

Go ahead and make your list now and come back to the rest of this post when you can. Really. Even if you aren’t a poetry fan, you might find some comfort and joy in the lines you read. Your list (hopefully) will get you excited, motivated, and ready to begin to think about how you want to teach poetry to your students.

Then, take what you need from this resource post. I have outlined my favorite poems to teach, my favorite teaching resources, 75+ collections of poetry, novels-in-verse, and picturebooks I love, and I have linked how I teach Where I’m From poems. Maybe you are the one who needs poetry right now. Maybe your students need the poems you will share. As we move forward through social distancing and a pandemic, let’s remember to come back to the power of words on the page as often as possible.