April 2024
In this issue:
Poster & Lesson Plan
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April is National Poetry Month, and there are plenty of ways to celebrate! You can visit the poets.org website to download a PDF of the poster or even order a free poster to be mailed to you. The website also has a link to a lesson for Lucille Clifton's poem "blessing the boats," which is featured on the poster.
You could also design a March Madness style bracket with poems or poets instead of basketball teams. Students read the poems or poets and then vote on their favorite. This activity could take place as a warm up each day in April. One approach is outlined in this recent blog post from NCTE.
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Poet Kimiko Hahn
An award-winning and prolific writer is the featured guest for this year’s spring poetry series on April 3 at Oklahoma City University.
The Thatcher Hoffman Smith Poetry series with Kimiko Hahn is free to the public and will include readings at 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. in the Kerr McGee Auditorium, along with an open-mic reading for community poets at 6 p.m. The auditorium is within the Meinders School of Business at NW 26th Street and McKinley Avenue.
Hahn is author of 10 collections of poetry, including The Ghost Forest: New & Selected Poems coming this fall. The April 3 reading will feature sneak previews of poems from the new collection.
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Poetry Out Loud Champion
Alissa Rodgers (pictured at right in the center), a high school student from Lawton, won the title of the 2024 Poetry Out Loud Oklahoma State Champion. Oklahoma A+ Schools Institute (OKA+) at the University of Central Oklahoma and the Oklahoma Arts Council hosted the state finals for the Poetry Out Loud: National Recitation Contest, March 6. Students from 18 Oklahoma schools participated in the competition.
The competition, presented in conjunction with the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the Poetry Foundation, is part of a national program that encourages high school students to learn about great poetry through memorization, performance and competition.
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 Oklahoma A+ Schools Institute @UCO wants to thank the high schools who participated in the 2023-2024 Poetry Out Loud season.
- Augustine Christian Academy
- Bethany High School
- Byng High School
- Coweta High School
- Dewey High School
- Eisenhower High School (Lawton)
- Epic Charter Schools
- Haworth High School
- Holdenville High School
- Jenks High School
- Lawton Academy of Arts and Science
- Lawton High School
- MacArthur High School (Lawton)
- Madill High School
- Oologah High School
- Putnam City North High School
- Union High School
Read the full press release.
 The Oklahoma Literacy Association (OKLA) will host its annual conference on Saturday, April 13, 2024, in Weatherford. The keynote speaker will be Dr. Kenneth Kunz, past president of the Internal Literacy Association and the founder and director of For the Love of Literacy. His recent co-authoring of the book Literacy Changemakers: Bringing the Joy of Reading and Writing into Focus for Teachers and Students speaks to the conference theme "Be the Change: Responsive and Restorative Literacy Communities and Practices." The luncheon speaker will be Jennifer Latham, Oklahoma author of Dreamland Burning. The afternoon session will be led by Gregory II from Poetry and Chill.
I will be presenting a breakout session titled "Use Your (Own) Words: The Power of Heritage & Home Languages in Writing."
Breakfast and lunch are provided as part of registration.
Visit the OKLA website to register.
 We know literacy ability–and gaps in literacy ability–have far-reaching consequences for students across the lifespan, including lasting perceptions of their identity and place in society. This webinar explores how to reduce shame and anxiety for striving adolescent readers with empathic, restorative mindsets and instructional strategies.
Date: Wednesday, May 8, 2024
Time: 5:00-6:00 p.m. Central Daylight Time
Register today!
Presenters: State-Level Secondary ELA Leaders
- Kristin Tinch, Kentucky
- Jason Stephenson, Oklahoma
- Lauren Spenceley, Arizona
- Naomi Watkins, Utah
 Novels about the Holocaust and The Diary of Anne Frank play are commonly included in English language arts curriculum. Senate Bill 1671 from 2022 instituted ongoing professional development about how to teach the Holocaust. Four free summer conferences are being offered around the state this June in Enid, Tulsa, Norman, and Lawton. State Holocaust experts will present experience-based, classroom-ready lessons. Breakfast and lunch will be provided.
Registration is open.
- June 10: Enid
- June 14: Tulsa
- June 17: Norman
- June 19: Lawton
Questions: Contact Nancy Pettus, SB 1671 Professional Development Consultant, at nancy3988@gmail.com.
Writing Prompt
Anagrams are words or phrases made by rearranging the letters of another word or phrase. For example, my full name Jason Scott Stephenson can be used to create the words stethoscopes, contestants, and toothpaste.
In his recent collection Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency, the poet Chen Chen used his name to create anagrams that he then used to write a poem.
Plug your full name into an anagram generator website such as Inge's Anagram Generator, and spend three minutes selecting words for a poem. Then write for five minutes using as many anagrams as you like. If you need to use a few non-anagram words, feel free.
Reading Quote
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