Annotated Bibliographies
Bibliography for Teachers
Harper, M. S., & Walton, A. eds. (1994). Every Shut Eye Ain't Asleep: An Anthology of
Poetry by African Americans Since 1945. Boston, MA: Little, Brown and
Company. This is an excellent source for poems written by African Americans who lived during the Jim Crow Era. This source can be used in the Hearing the Voice Section.
Hughes, L. (1959). A Classic Collection of Poems by a Master of American Verse:
Selected Poems of Langston Hughes. New York, NY: Random House, Inc.
This collection highlights poems from Langston Hughes, a master of American poetry.
Johnson, J. W., ed. (1959). The Book of American Negro Poetry. New York, NY:
Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc. This collection is a nice complement to Every Shut Eye Ain't Asleep. It includes poems written by African Americans.
Koch, K. (1998) Making Your Own Days: The Pleasures of Reading and Writing Poetry.
New York, NY: Touchstone. Koch considers poetry to be a separate language. He gives insight on how to teach poetry and how to write poetry.
Koch, K. (1990). Rose, Where Did You Get That Red?: Teaching Great Poetry to
Children. New York, NY: Vintage Books, Random House Inc. This is an excellent instructional tool. Koch gives fun and realistic ways to teach students how to write poems.
Schiff, Hilda. ed. (1995) Holocaust Poetry. New York, NY: St. Martin's Griffin. This is
an outstanding collection of poetry from survivors and other notable poets. It is
broken into several sections, which helps the reader find poems that will relate to
certain themes.
Wiggins, G. & McTighe, J. (1998) Understanding By Design. Alexandria, VA: ASCD
This book explains the understanding by design theory and also gives valuable
strategies to help the reader design lessons using the backward design model.
Bibliography for Students
Fletcher, R. (2002). Poetry Matter: Writing a Poem from the Inside Out. New York, NY:
Harper Trophy. This book can help students find ways to start their own poems. There are many fun-filled activities to get students started.
Packard, W. (1989) The Poet's Dictionary: A Handbook of Prosody and Poetic Devices.
New York, NY: Harper & Row. This is a dictionary of poetic terms with examples and explanations.
Van Jordan, A. (2004) MACNOLIA. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company. This
collection is a great example of persona poetry and can be used with the
Becoming the Voice section of the unit. It tells the story of MacNolia Cox and her struggle with discrimination in America as a young black girl.
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