NCTE 2024 Diverse Verse Panel Resource List
Thanks so much to everyone who attended the first Diverse Verse Panel at NCTE (Diversifying Verse: Expanding the Poetic Canon by Including BIPOC Poets in Classrooms and Collections). We encourage you to reach out to us if you have an idea for a blog post, or would like to assist with our effort as an educator liaison, or if you have any questions. Here’s our resource list - for panel attendees - and for all readers/followers of our blog! We appreciate your interest and support.
Why is representation important in poetry?
Poetry is a key teaching tool that fosters social and emotional learning, entices students to play with language, and inspires them to think outside the box. Poetry’s inherent rhythms and musicality attract kinesthetic learners and wordless space invites reluctant readers. Given the unique importance of poetry in engaging students to develop literacy skills, strengthen critical thinking, and inspire creativity, it is vital to expand the breadth of voices shared within poetry classrooms. Broad and diverse representation within an anti-bias poetry curriculum is essential to developing confident, empathetic, and communicative students with strong reading and writing skills.
Verse Novel Project (contributed by Lisa Stringfellow)
Glossary of Terms in Poetry
List of Middle Grade and YA Novels in Verse by BIPOC Authors
In addition to the verse novel list above, you will find verse novels categorized by subject on this Padlet: https:// padlet.com/venkatraman_padma/diverse-verse-543z1xl2afh46x5l
If you prefer visuals, feel free to also check out our pinterest page as a starting point.
HANDS-ON ACTIVITIES
Highlighted below are some www.diverseverse.com containing activity suggestions and writing prompts that also use and provide exemplars that increase representation in poetry:
1. On beyond Emily Dickinson…in our first call for poems by young people on the theme of hope, moderator Padma Venkatraman provides exemplar poems about hope written by living legend Jacqueline Woodson and other BIPOC poets (Elementary, MG and YA readers):
https://www.diverseverse.com/blog/poems-for-hope-2024
2. Learning about line breaks (YA, MG) from René Saldaña Jr.: https://www.diverseverse.com/blog/learning-line-breaks-rene-saldana-jr
3. Pushing the envelope with figurative language by K.A. Holt (MG): https://www.diverseverse.com/blog/interview-with-kari-anne-holt-evoke-to-know-activity
4. Explore Richard Blanco’s ekphrastic poetry and encourage your students to write poetry inspired by pictures (YA): https://www.diverseverse.com/blog/homeland-of-my-body-richard-blanco-review
5. Building a poem in 4 EZ steps with Ari Tison (MG, YA): https://www.diverseverse.com/blog/how-to-build-a-poem-in-four-easy-steps
6. How to read a poem by Anindita Basu Sempere (MG, YA): https://www.diverseverse.com/blog/how-to-read-a-poem
7. Make a mini-chapbook of poems with Edna Cabcabin Moran (Elementary): https://www.diverseverse.com/blog/pocketful-of-poetry-a-mini-chapbook
8. Exploring a 13 ways poem with Lesléa Newman (MG, YA): https://www.diverseverse.com/blog/thirteen-ways-of-surprising-yourself-and-your-reader
9. Creating a new poem from poem titles with Carole Boston Weatherford (MG, YA): https://www.diverseverse.com/blog/finding-poetry
10. Thoughts on using poetry to combat hate, the initial Diverse Verse post from padma Venkatraman (MG, YA, Elementary): https://www.diverseverse.com/blog/teaching-ideas-using-poetry-to-combat-racist-hate
Interviews, book reviews, and reflections:
1. Introduction to Thirukkural by panelist Suma Subramaniam: https://www.diverseverse.com/blog/couplets-from-the-tirukkural
2. Panelist Lisa Stringfellow reflects on a spoken word poem by Jasmine Mans: https://www.diverseverse.com/blog/the-little-mermaid
3. Panelist Valerie Bolling on writing rhyming picture books: https://www.diverseverse.com/blog/writing-rhyming-picturebooks
4. Reflection and writing prompt on silence by moderator Padma Venkatraman (MG, YA): https://www.diverseverse.com/blog/different-kinds-of-silence
5. Diverse Verse high school intern and poet Avalon Felice Lee on Janet Wong (Elementary,MG): https://www.diverseverse.com/blog/https/wwwdiverseversecom/blog-janetwong-lee
6. Review/ reflections on Garvey In the Dark by Nikki Grimes (MG): https://www.diverseverse.com/blog/https/wwwdiverseversecom/meeting-garvey-once-more
7. Reem Faruqui reflects on Margarita Engle’s Singing with elephants (MG): https://www.diverseverse.com/blog/reflection-on-singing-with-elephants
8. Interview with Federico Erebia: https://www.diverseverse.com/blog/padma-interviews-federico-erebia-about-pedro-and-daniel
9. Juneteenth poem by Zetta Elliott (YA): https://www.diverseverse.com/blog/padma-interviews-zetta-elliott-about-juneteenth-poem-perennial-collection
10. Nadine Pinede interviews Marilyn Nelson (YA) : https://www.diverseverse.com/blog/https/wwwdiverseversecom/interview-with-marilyn-nelson
11. Moderator Padma Venkatraman reviews Runaway (PB) by Ray Anthony Shepard: https://www.diverseverse.com/blog/https/wwwdiverseversecom/blog-page-url/ray-shephard-ona-judge
Additional Resources
Post on NCTE blog by panelist Valerie Bolling: https://ncte.org/blog/2021/03/poetry-light-children-need-let-words-shine/
Those who are looking to support Palestinian poetic voices may be interested in: Five Palestinian Poets for National Poetry Month by Laynie Rearick; Poems That Tell a Tale of the Struggle for Palestine by Adarsh Badri; Palestinian Poems with and for the Now by Rashah Abdulhaddi; Everyone Should be Reading Palestinian Poetry by Andrew Calis; Poets on the Role of Literature in Fighting Genocide interview with Farah, Fadil, Washington and Abdulhadi on Electric Lit