Pick-a-Poet/Moving Words

The Pick-a-Poet Program invites local published poets into Arlington Public Schools to provide poetry writing exercises in the classroom and allows students the opportunity to talk with the poets. Teachers contact the Humanities Project Coordinator to make arrangements for the poets and for funding. Students are then encouraged to participate in the Moving Words Poetry Competition, which puts poetry on Arlington Transit (ART) buses.

Held each spring for Arlington Public School students, the Moving Words Student Poetry Competition is a partnership between Arlington Cultural Affairs and the Arlington Public Schools Humanities Project, with support from Arlington Transit. Moving Words supports the goals of the Humanities Program’s Pick-A-Poet program, which invites professional poets into APS classrooms to share their experience and love for the craft with students. Visiting poets help students explore their own creativity, insight, and intellectual curiosity through the creative writing process, and provide students an opportunity to meet and talk with professional writers.  The students are then encouraged to submit their work to the Moving Words student competition.

Poems will be selected by a panel of literary professionals from each of the following categories: K-2nd, 3rd–5th, 6th–8th, and 9th–12th. Winners will be invited to a poetry performance workshop and to give a public poetry reading in an awards ceremony scheduled for Fall 2021. The selected poems will be exhibited on Arlington ART Buses from October through March.

Click Here to View previous years’ winners

2023 – Meet the Poets

*** Click on a poet below to see examples of their poetry and workshops they offer ***

Click Here to request and schedule a Poet

Karren L. Alenier	Karren Alenier has worked with Pick a Poet since 2001. 2006 to 2011 she worked with the Moving Words Contest. For The Word Works, she created the Jacklyn Potter Young Poets Competition, which invites high school students to read with an established poet in the Joaquin Miller Poetry Series. “Children have a natural ear for poetry. Teaching children to read and write poetry will enhance their overall writing skills.”
Regie Cabico	Regie Cabico is one of the country’s leading innovators and pioneers of The Poetry Slam having won 3 National Top Prizes and winning The Nuyorican Poets Cafe Grand Slam. Bust Magazine ranked him in the 100 Men We Love & The Kenyon Review called him the Lady Gaga of Poetry. “I would like to introduce the elements of Spoken Word Slam Poetry to youth. The idea of being able to perform my poetry and give students fundamental basics on how to write a ‘slam’ poem and develop ‘performance’ technique. In the process I hope students celebrate difference and cheer the poet in all of us”
Michael C. Davis	“I have been working with the Pick a Poet program since 1999…I particularly like working with children in the earlier grades and getting them to think outside of themselves, see the world in a new way, and express what they find.”
Joseph Green	“It is my organization’s mission, and my life’s work, to cultivate the power of the voices of young people through the mediums of literature and performance.”
Jacqueline Jules	Jacqueline Jules is an award-winning poet and author of 40 books for young readers including the Zapato Power series, the Sofia Martinez series, Duck for Turkey Day, Feathers for Peacock, and Never Say a Mean Word Again. Her poems for young people have appeared in The Poetry Friday Anthologies, One Minute Till Bedtime, Cicada, Cricket, YARN, and Germ Magazine. Jacqueline is also the author of Tag Your Dreams: Poems of Play and Persistence, a poetry book for readers 8-12. “Words, arranged in just the right order, can provide a breathtaking moment for a reader. A good poem illuminates emotion the way a soap bubble reflects rainbow colors. Sharing the power of poetry with students offers a lifelong medium for self-expression and reading enjoyment.”
Holly Karapetkova	Holly Karapetkova is the current Poet Laureate of Arlington, Virginia. She is the author of two award-winning books of poetry, Towline and Words We Might One Day Say. She is also a translator and the author of a number of books for children, and her research interests include the use of writing to heal from trauma and the power of literature to engage with social issues. Her current creative projects grapple with the deep wounds left by our history of racism, slavery, and environmental destruction. She lives in Arlington and teaches literature and writing at Marymount University.
Susan Bucci Mockler	“I find that helping young children appreciate poetry to be a truly rewarding experience. They are so open to hearing about poetry, to hearing poems read to them, and, especially, to using their imaginations to create their own work. They are so pleased to realize that they really do have something important to say and enjoy the challenge of writing a poem.”
Heidi Mordhorst	Heidi Mordhorst writes for children and adults and is the author of two collections for young readers: Squeeze: Poems from a Juicy Universeand Pumpkin Butterfly: Poems from the Other Side of Nature. Her work appears in several of The Poetry Friday Anthologies, One Minute Till Bedtime, the professional book Poems Are Teachers, The Poetry of US, and the middle-school anthologies Imperfect I, Imperfect II and Rhyme & Rhythm: Poems for Student Athletes. She currently provides multi-arts workshops and afterschool programs through her organization WHISPERshout Writing Workshop.
Lori Rottenberg	“…I enjoy showing children how magical poetry can be and how easy it really is to start to view the world with the eyes of a poet.”

Preparation For Poet Visit

Through the Pick a Poet Program, students will have opportunities to: 

• Listen to and read a variety of poetry
• Meet and explore poetry with a professional poet
• Write (either as a group or individually) at least one poem
• Recite poetry (original and/or published works)

Ideas for preparing your students for your Poet Visit: 

• Begin each class by reading a poem.
• Have students recite poetry.
• Have poetry anthologies available for students to read.
• Read bio of visiting poet. Read samples of their work.
• Introduce different poetry techniques to students.
• Discuss with your visiting poet what they would like you to introduce prior to their visit.

The following suggestions will help ensure your Poet Visit is successful for you and your students. Please:

• Follow up/communicate with your visiting poet (e-mail and phone messages) in a timely manner
• Work with the Poet to schedule a time that is mutually beneficial
• Provide guidance to the Poet on working with your class (prior and during the workshop); i.e. students prior knowledge of poetry, classroom rules, school culture – anything that would be helpful for prepping a guest in your classroom
• Do not tolerate disruptive behavior. We ask that teachers be responsible for their students’ behavior during the workshop.
• Participate! Teachers are asked to actively participate in the workshop. Poets should not be left alone with the class at any point during their visit.
• Complete and return Poet evaluation to Humanities ProjectCoordinator within two weeks of your poet visit. Copies of poems created

After Your Poet Visit

After Workshop

• Have students continue to edit poems written during poet visit.
• Encourage students to submit their poetry to MovingWords poetry contest.

Extensions

• Design a creative writing exercise based on your poet visit.
• Have students memorize a poem (original or published)to recite in class.
• Host a poetry reading and have students read their poems to each other (in pairs or to the class). Make it big! Invite other classes, parents, administrators.
• Create and publish a Poetry Anthology with original poems by your students/school.
• Have students illustrate their poems and display.
• Have students write poems based on a specific topic/curriculum link, work of art, current news, holiday, emotion, object – almost anything can be a poetry idea generator!
• Create classroom “Magnetic Refrigerator” poetry: Decide on a topic and have students brainstorm nouns, verbs, and adjectives relating to the topic. Cut out each word individually and mix up on a bulletin board/butcher paper. Have students take turns creating original poems using the words.

For more information on Pick-a-Poet/Moving Words or the Humanities Project, please contact: christopher.monroy@aspva.us