Writing workshop is one of the things I miss most about teaching third grade, and April’s National Poetry month was always one of my favorite writing units. As a class we learned about 17 different poetry styles, one each day. Then at the end of the unit each student published an individual poetry anthology, as well as their best piece in our larger class book. At the beginning of the unit, students often considered poetry boring and were convinced that all poems had to rhyme or be about love. By the end of the unit, students looked forward to learning new styles of poetry each day while writing their own unique creations. Here’s a look at the simple steps I took to make our unit such a success year after year.