Mark's resources for teaching poetry, drama, and the novel

The Poetry Foundation Learning Lab http://www.poetryfoundation.org/learning/articles Literature (poetry), grades 9-12 Cost: free

I usually use Poetry Foundation when I want to get a public-domain poem online for free, but this Learning Lab looks like an excellent resource. The site includes ideas for lesson plans on poetry for teachers and short, well-written articles on different kinds of poetry for students to read. One article on the sonnet had a fun little "Mad-Libs"-type exercise for students.

The Grammar Gorillas http://www.funbrain.com/grammar/ English language arts, grades K-12 Cost: free

This is an online game where students earn points by identifying parts of speech in sentences. I would classify this under informal learning, because it is not as easy to gather data on student achievement here as it is on a website like Kahoot.it that lets you generate spreadsheets, and the graphics could stand to be updated a bit (the user interface is not that exciting.) Still, it has exercises for a wide range of grade levels, and it beats diagramming sentences for being engaging.

Luminarium: Anthology of English Literature http://www.luminarium.org/ Literature, grade 12 Cost: free

This website is probably of most use to upper-level high school students, but it has a crisp, attractive web design and has a lot of useful information. This would be an excellent resource for AP English classes. It includes biographies of major writers in English, historical resources for establishing contexts, and some English texts themselves.

The Book Cover Guide at Read Write Think http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/student-interactives/book-cover-guide-30060.html?tab=1#tabs English language arts, grades 3-8 Cost: free

Although conventional wisdom holds that you cannot judge a book by its cover, it can sometimes be a fun way for students to get an idea of what's inside. This site features a helpful Flash module that shows students each part of a traditional hardcover book jacket, so that they can learn to identify the kinds of information that appear on a book and where to find the information they need. It also includes a tool for creating your own book cover, which would be a good activity for middle school literature classes.

Drama Teacher's Network https://dramateachersnetwork.wordpress.com/ English language arts, grades 6-12 Cost: free

I was looking for a good resource for teaching drama in literature class, but I think that this resource from a high school drama teacher would be really helpful. It provides professional development resources for teachers and sample lesson plans for teaching plays to students. She has some really interesting curriculum resources, too; I found a fun worksheet on the history of the Academy Awards that I would use if I were teaching a unit on drama in general.