Online poetry classroom. (Powerful and Playful Poetry).

www.onlinepoetryclassroom.org

Give yourself plenty of time to browse here, because this site is loaded. Run by The Academy of American Poets, it's one of the most extensive teacher-centered sites out there. Not only does it include more than 12,000 poems, biographies, and other information on more than 450 poets--from Angelou to Yeats--but it gives you a chance to search categories such as What to Teach. There are curriculum units and lesson plans, essays, and a database of teaching standards. This site, more academic than most, provides a strong sense of community for those teachers who are looking for ways to teach poetry to young adults.

Paul Janeczko. Adapted from his book Opening a Door: Reading Poetry in the Middle School Classroom (Scholastic, 2003).