Common Core Standards & California Poets

I hear over and over again that it's hard for teachers to incorporate poetry into their lesson plans because they are hampered by what's in the standards. To help with this problem, Poetry Foundation editors have recently created a (lovely) list of (real) poems from the standards that can be integrated without fear into classrooms everywhere. Okay, teachers, the gauntlet has been thrown down. "Teaching to the test" never sounded sweeter.

My only complaint, is that most of the poems chosen are by dead poets, most of them white. Historically accurate sampling is not always the best teaching tool for the creative arts. There are women and poets of color in the list, but no living poets are represented in the standards until the poems intended for middle and high school grades.

For teachers looking for California poets, I suggest you search the Academy of American Poets site, where they list poets by state. Here are California's representative poets. Many still alive, all colors and sizes. California Teachers of English (CATE) also has a web page devoted to California Authors. A nice list. Not only poets. Dr. Seuss, for example, is happily present.

And because a blog post is boring without a photo, here's a happy one of my favorite California poet, Brenda Hillman. I'm currently reading her newest book, Seasonal Works With Letters on Fire. You can listen to her discuss her last book, Practical Water, in this KCRW interview.

 

None of Hillman's poems are included in the Common Core Standards, but you could make a fine lesson with her poem "Girl Sleuth." A sweet poem about a girl learning to read among cactus and birds. And you don't even have to know who Nancy Drew was to laugh.