April is National Poetry Month!

This April marks the 20th anniversary of National Poetry Month, which was inaugurated by the Academy of American Poets in 1996. Over the years, National Poetry Month has become the largest literary celebration in the world with schools, publishers, libraries, booksellers, and poets celebrating poetry’s vital place in our culture.

The Academy of American Poets offers some great suggestions for helping teachers and individuals get involved with celebrating National Poetry Month.

30 ways to celebrate national poetry month

1. Order a free National Poetry Month poster and display it at work or school.
2. Sign up for Poem-a-Day and read a poem each morning.
3. Sign up for Teach This Poem, a weekly series for teachers.
4. Memorize a poem.
5. Create an anthology of your favorite poems on Poets.org.
6. Encourage a young person to participate in the Dear Poet project.
7. Buy a book of poetry from your local bookstore.
8. Review these concrete examples of how poetry matters in the United States today.
9. Learn more about poets and poetry events in your state.
10. Ask your governor or mayor for a proclamation in support of National Poetry Month.
11. Attend a poetry reading at a local university, bookstore, cafe, or library.
12. Read a poem at an open mic. It’s a great way to meet other writers in your area and find out about your local poetry writing community.
13. Start a poetry reading group.
14. Write an exquisite corpse poem with friends.
15. Chalk a poem on the sidewalk.
16. Deepen your daily experience by reading Edward Hirsch’s essay “How to Read a Poem.”
17. Ask the United States Post Office to issue more stamps celebrating poets.
18. Recreate a poet’s favorite food or drink by following his or her recipe.
19. Read about different poetic forms.
20. Read about poems titled “poem.”
21. Celebrate National Poem in Your Pocket Day on April 21, 2016. The idea is simple: select a poem you love, carry it with you, then share it with coworkers, family, and friends.
22. Subscribe to American Poets magazine or a small press poetry journal.
23. Watch Rachel Eliza Griffiths’s P.O.P (Poets on Poetry) videos.
24. Watch or read Carolyn Forche’s talk “Not Persuasion, But Transport: The Poetry of Witness.”
25. Read or listen to Mark Doty’s talk “Tide of Voices: Why Poetry Matters Now.”
26. Read Allen Ginsberg’s classic essay about Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass.”
27. Watch a poetry movie.
28. Sign up for a poetry class or workshop.
29. Get ready for Mother’s Day by making a card featuring a line of poetry.
30. Read the first chapter of Muriel Rukeyer’s inspiring book The Life of Poetry.

Be sure to visit the Pepper Resource Center to find great ideas and resources on poetry! As a teacher, think about how you can incorporate poetry into your classroom in April. We would love to hear some of your ideas.

Words Matter: The Importance of Teaching Vocabulary

We’ve made advancements in many areas - technology, science, and global/social issues, but, as an educator, one area I don’t see great advancements in is language and vocabulary development. As an avid reader I have noticed that when reading classics, such as Jane Eyre, that the intensity of vocabulary usage is such that I either need to carry around my dictionary or load the book on my e-reader so I’ll have dictionary access. When reading more contemporary novels, I don’t seem to have that problem. The National Reading Panel (NICHD, 2000) identified vocabulary as one of five major components of reading. Its importance to overall school success, and more specifically to reading comprehension, is widely documented.

By definition, vocabulary is generally referred to as "words used in language." In the world of education, we think of vocabulary as words and their meanings to help a student to grow academically. We often hear about vocabulary as students prepare for tests such as the SAT. Ideally, vocabulary should be a focus throughout a student’s academic career - not just to prepare for a test.

Educators have always recognized the correlation between vocabulary and reading comprehension. Students who struggle with reading tend to read less because understanding the text is more difficult. Pepper client, EngageNY, cites in an article, Why Teach Vocabulary, “Direct instruction in vocabulary can help arrest this cycle….explicit instruction can help students learn enough words to become better readers. Direct vocabulary instruction is useful for students at all ability levels, but it is particularly useful for beginning students who have a limited reading vocabulary and little exposure to incidental vocabulary learning outside of school.”

The National Reading Panel (NRP) provides eight elements for providing rich vocabulary instruction:

• Provide direct instruction of vocabulary words for a specific text.
• Repetition and multiple exposures to vocabulary items are important.
• Vocabulary words should be those that the learner will find useful in many contexts.
• Vocabulary tasks should be restructured as necessary.
• Vocabulary learning is effective when it entails active engagement that goes beyond definitional knowledge.
• Computer technology can be used effectively to help teach vocabulary.
• Vocabulary can be acquired through incidental learning.
• Dependence on a single vocabulary instruction method will not result in optimal learning.

NRP’s Review of the Current Research on Vocabulary Instruction states, “Vocabulary knowledge is knowledge; the knowledge of a word not only implies a definition, but also implies how that word fits into the world.”

Pepper’s Building Academic Vocabulary in Middle School and Building Academic Vocabulary in High School courses are designed to provide more strategic selection and instruction of vocabulary words to improve students' reading comprehension and deepen understanding of key content area concepts. You can check out this course, as well as other great options, by visiting the Pepper Course Library.

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