In celebration of Black History Month, how about teaching poetry using some of the Jazz greats?  From the Bechtel-winning article "A Slip Into The Breaks: Teaching Jazz Poetry", available in our Digital Resource Center, Emily Raboteau talks about a lot of great ways that Jazz can inspire poetry and creative writing in the classroom. 

In a letter to Billie Holiday, one young writer writes: "Dear Billie, wilted flower, we want to save you, but not from the needle scratching your voice."

Another young writer listens to Holiday's "My Melancholy Baby" and is inspired to write this poem:

The Deli

just juice
        alto sax says to piano
piano keeps flipping
        eggs
        bacon
        juice
this morning I unscrambled scrambled eggs
alto says