The Academy of American Poets has served K-12 teachers for more than fifty years by providing free resources that assist them in incorporating poetry into their curriculum and classrooms. From creating the first Poets in the Schools program in the 1960s to organizing teacher meet-ups since the 1990s, we have always considered the role of teachers in inspiring the next generation of readers and poets to be essential. Today, we are the only poetry organization led by an Educator in Residence, Dr. Madeleine Holzer, who ensures the quality and excellence of our educational offerings, and an Education Ambassador Richard Blanco, President Obama’s Inaugural poet in 2012, who shares our resources with the many teachers he meets across the country. Poets.org is the only site produced by a poetry organization that offers a full range of online lesson plans, units, activities, and national projects for students, such as Dear Poet.
As Kelly O-Keefe-Boettcher, a high school English teacher from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, wrote, “My colleagues and I have noted how completely adaptable the Poets.org lessons are and how in one short conversation we were spring boarding into unit plans and interdisciplinary content. You can trust that at least 10 teachers in Milwaukee will be actively using your lesson plans in the upcoming school year.”
We invite you and your organizations to share these resources with teachers you know.
Because Poets.org does not have an endowment to support the site, we rely on the multitudes of members, donors, and partners who continue to make Poets.org possible. Poets.org is truly people-powered! Thank you for visiting Poets.org and helping us grow the audience for poetry.