Schoolwide Poetry Display
~ Mary Tigner-Rasanen (with help from the NCTE listserv)

My last year teaching 8th grade I had my students post poems around the school during National Poetry Month. First I sent them out with notepads looking for good locations for poems - in the office, over the drinking fountains, in the detention room, in the bathrooms, hallways, etc. We posted their results on newsprint and stuck them up on the wall. Then I dumped my large college of poetry books on the table, gave them each a package of stickies, and said, "Find some poems." When they found one they liked, they put in a sticky and wrote the location they thought the poem should grace (one about water over the water fountain, one about understanding in the counseling office). When all were selected, I photocopied them. Students glue-sticked them to bright paper, and we put them in plastic sleeves - there were about fifty in all. Then we stuck them on the walls. We got many, many positive comments. These were my 'at-risk' readers, and they had a good time doing it.