Poetry has been a powerful vehicle to get students to open up and speak their truths, to share their world views, and to build an unbreakable bond with their peers. Two activities are presented in this program that have worked very well in many classrooms and writing workshops: 1) An "Emotion Card Pre-Writing Activity" that quickly and easily demonstrates how a poem needs to "show not tell" and 2) a "Letter Poem" activity that will lead students toward a longer, more powerful, full-length poem. By integrating these easy-to-use classroom activities, the conversation around poetry and its use and purpose will fundamentally change for the better and students' voices will be heard loud and clear, and poetry will be less intimidating to teach and a lot more enjoyable and essential for students to write.

Originally released by EPF Media Group, 2020. Streaming video file encoded with permission for digital streaming by Infobase on February 23, 2023.