Nikki Giovanni in the Classroom: "The same ol' danger but a brand new pleasure" (THE NCTE High School Literature Series)

A must-read for any English, social studies, humanities, or art teacher. Thank you, Carol Jago!

This book pulsates with the life and exuberance of Giovanni's work, draws us into the heart of her poetry, and shows us ways to use her work in our classrooms. Jago's students will never forget Giovanni's style nor the poetic devices she uses to create powerful impacts because they are invited by their teacher to walk around inside of Giovanni's poetry. By looking closely at the interworkings of the poetry, they know from the inside out what gives her poems such power as they seek to bring that power to their own poetry. Students in Jago's class experience the poems by reading them, talking about them, using her work as writing models, and performing the poems they created from her models. Giovanni's work informs their own as they grapple with meter, rhythm, metaphor, and language: her work provides the center to which they refer back. To achieve this high level of engagement Jago builds on what her students bring to class-both in experience and in interest- and respects her students as learners. This book, with fifteen Giovanni poems and several excerpts of her essays, has everything a teacher needs to teach this poetry and involve students in writing their own poems. With the added bonus of many students' poems written in response to Giovanni's work to use as models, you are ready to teach Giovanni as soon as you've read this book!