As soon as I heard Amanda Gorman’s poem, “The Hill We Climb,” I knew right away that I wanted to purchase a copy of her book. I pre-ordered the book in January 2021, and I have been waiting a long time for it to arrive. I was pleasantly surprised when her book, Call Us What We Carry, arrived today.

I think that as an ELA teacher, we need to introduce our students to more than just the poetry that they will find in their textbooks. Gorman has poems that are relevant to right now. I’m sure that not all will be a fit for my 6th and 7th graders, but those about COVID are relevant to them at this moment. The poem from the Inauguration is a relevant right now poem.

It’s difficult to try and explain poems that were written in a time period in which the students were not born. They know what they study in history class, but usually students don’t “study” to retain. They “study” to pass their test and then forget. Analysis of literature is lost to many of them because of this fact. It’s why I collect literary texts to use.

We need to expose our students to different writers and poets. We need to show them that there is an expanse to the written language that even they have the ability to master. They won’t learn that by studying old, dead, white men. They need the Maya Angelous, the Anna Quindlens, the Pablo Nerudas, the Nikki Giovannis, and the Amanda Gormans to expand their thinking. To introduce them to a different point of view.

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