Poetry is a vital tool for helping students understand and articulate human experience.
But teachers who want to teach poetry successfully have told us that there are not enough resources available. By establishing the Summer Institutes, we bring poets and teachers together to create the very resources teachers need to restore poetry to its rightful place in American schools. The OPC website will serve as a virtual teaching community, giving teachers access to free poetry resources and new and effective approaches to incorporating poetry in the classroom. Teachers and students will be able to view an interactive U.S. map and poetry timeline, audio and video recordings from the Favorite Poem Project, and poetry exhibits, essays, biographies and bibliographies. The OPC website will be operational by late summer.