The hill we climb In an interview about how Ms. Gorman came write this poem, she explains that some of
the lines were inspired by the events of Jan. 6. Which do you think those were? Why?

Lesson Overview

Featured Articles: Several Times pieces about Amanda Gorman

Note: This is a special edition of our Lesson of the Day. We have invited Carol Jago — longtime English teacher, associate director of the California Reading and Literature Project at U.C.L.A., and past president of the National Council of Teachers of English — to suggest ideas for teaching about occasional poetry and “The Hill We Climb.” Ms. Jago is the author of many books, the most recent of which is “The Book in Question: Why and How Reading Is in Crisis.”

In this lesson, students will learn about Amanda Gorman, the youngest inaugural poet in U.S. history; how she came to write “The Hill We Climb”; and how it fits into the tradition of occasional poetry. They will also learn about Ms. Gorman’s belief that poetry is political, and that reading and writing are instruments of social change. Finally, they will be invited to create their own occasional poems.

An Introduction to the Poet

Do you know who Amanda Gorman is? After Jan. 20, many more people will know her name since, at 22, she is now the youngest inaugural poet in U.S. history. Committed to connecting literacy to the project of democracy, she considers reading and writing to be instruments of social change.

Encouraged by her mother, an English teacher, Ms. Gorman began writing poems as a child, finding her voice as she assembled words on the page. Where other young poets turn inward, she draws inspiration from events in the news.

In an interview with Adeel Hassan, she talks about what she felt as a child:

“I grew up at this incredibly odd intersection in Los Angeles, where it felt like the Black ’hood met Black elegance met white gentrification met Latin culture met wetlands. Traversing between these worlds, either to go to a private school in Malibu, or then come back home to my family’s two-bedroom apartment, gave me an appreciation for different cultures and realities, but also made me feel like an outsider. I’m sure my single mother, Joan Wicks, might describe me as a precocious child, but looking back in elementary school I often self-described myself as a plain ‘weird’ child. I spent most of elementary school convinced that I was an alien. Literally.”

It has been a remarkable journey for Ms. Gorman to have traveled from feeling like an alien to becoming first the Youth Poet of Los Angeles, then, three years later, the first National Youth Poet Laureate and now the youngest inaugural poet in U.S. history.

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