Poetry Pauses

Unleash the power of poetry to boost all academic writing


Student writing outcomes will transform if we invest more time in the genre we too often ignore: poetry! With Poetry Pauses, Brett Vogelsinger asserts that all good writing takes us to deeper places, whether it’s narrative, argument, informational, or verse. So why not use the palm-size examples of poems to develop students’ skills?


This book helps you to




Teach techniques such as using sound, pattern, imagery, grammatical structures, and dialogue
Select poems from the online companion website for read alouds and writing warm-ups
Reshape students’ attitudes about verse with contemporary spoken word and poems by today’s favorite poets
Know how to tuck specific poems into any part of the writing process to build your students’ understanding of brainstorming, elaboration, paragraphing, argumentation, and more



No matter what students go on to do in life, being able to reach a broad audience with language that engages the whole mind is a gift. The resources here and online will stoke students’ logic and creativity immeasurably.