The Poet of the Month Project is a great way to incorportate poetry into an existing curriculum. As an added benefit to a history course, instructors could select a different poet each month from the time period currently being studied in the history course [by using the project idea but implementing different selections than those listed below]. In a junior or senior high school English class, select poems suited to a particular season like the ones shown below. Many variations exist so that the project can be altered to suit the needs of the individuals in the class.
PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION IDEAS:
1. Hand out copies of the Poem of the Month, having students research his/her life, other works, historical background of the time he/she was writing, etc.
2. Offer extra credit to students who bring another selection by the same author to class [or who will read another selection by the same author to the class.]
3. Practice the Poem of the Month at the beginning or end of each class. Have students recite the poem from memory for a daily or quiz grade on the last class day of that month.
for the American Literature Course:
August "Fog" by Carl Sandburg
September "When the Frost is on the Punkin'" by James Whitcomb Riley
October excerpt from "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe
November "--'Twas just this time, last year, I died" [first line] by Emily Dickinson
December "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost
January "The Snowman" by Wallace Stevens
February "To My Dear and Loving Husband" by Anne Bradstreet
March "Telling the Bees" [suggested excerpt li. 1-20] by John Greenleaf Whittier
April "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd" [suggested excerpt li. 89-107] by Walt Whitman
May "Maggie and Millie and Molly and May" by e.e. cummings
for the British Literature Course:
August "Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?" [sonnet XVIII] William Shakespeare
September "Ode to the West Wind" by Percy Bysshe Shelley
October "The Three Ravens" 1611 anonymous ballad
November "The Winter Night" by Robert Burns
December The Starlight Night" by Gerard Manley Hopkins
January "She Walks in Beauty" by George Gordon, Lord Byron
PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION IDEAS:
1. Hand out copies of the Poem of the Month, having students research his/her life, other works, historical background of the time he/she was writing, etc.
2. Offer extra credit to students who bring another selection by the same author to class [or who will read another selection by the same author to the class.]
3. Practice the Poem of the Month at the beginning or end of each class. Have students recite the poem from memory for a daily or quiz grade on the last class day of that month.
August "Fog" by Carl Sandburg
September "When the Frost is on the Punkin'" by James Whitcomb Riley
October excerpt from "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe
November "--'Twas just this time, last year, I died" [first line] by Emily Dickinson
December "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost
January "The Snowman" by Wallace Stevens
February "To My Dear and Loving Husband" by Anne Bradstreet
March "Telling the Bees" [suggested excerpt li. 1-20] by John Greenleaf Whittier
April "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd" [suggested excerpt li. 89-107] by Walt Whitman
May "Maggie and Millie and Molly and May" by e.e. cummings
August "Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?" [sonnet XVIII] William Shakespeare
September "Ode to the West Wind" by Percy Bysshe Shelley
October "The Three Ravens" 1611 anonymous ballad
November "The Winter Night" by Robert Burns
December The Starlight Night" by Gerard Manley Hopkins
January "She Walks in Beauty" by George Gordon, Lord Byron
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