MRA Café-Coffee and Conversations

Written By Patricia Crain de Galarce

Welcome to the April updates of the Massachusetts Reading Association. MRA Café is a monthly publication that connects our members, inspires joyful collegiality, shares insights into literacy education, and celebrates success stories.

National Poetry Month

Below are 10 suggested classroom activities from Poets.org:

  1. Invite your students to watch living poets read poems and have them write responses through Dear Poet project.

  2. Begin each day or class period with a new poem.

  3. Send your students on a scavenger hunt for favorite poems in the Poems for Kids section of Poets.org.

  4. Organize a reading of your students reading original or favorite poems out loud.

  5. Ask each student to create an anthology of their favorite poems. 

  6. Explore the glossary and introduce your students to a different poetic term every day.

  7. Sign up for Teach This Poem to receive a weekly poem, classroom activities, and multimedia resources.

  8. Have your class choose poems and write them in chalk on the sidewalk or driveway.

  9. Make a playlist of audio recordings of poets reading their work and ask students to share it with friends.

  10. Talk about immigration and heritage in the classroom with these selections of poems and lesson plans.
     

“This / is the world I want to live in. The shared world.”
— Young People’s Poet Laureate Naomi Shihab Nyeuote

A lesson plan featuring Nye’s poem is available through the Academy’s Teach This Poem series. Sign up for Teach This Poem to receive this additional educational resource and bring the poster to life for National Poetry Month. Request The 2025 National Poetry Month poster, artwork by New York Times-bestselling author and illustrator Christy Mandin. 

Call for Submissions

The MRA Beacon: Journal of Literacy and Learning is seeking research or articles that highlight ways to extend literacy learning beyond the walls of the classroom and into the community at-large. The deadline to submit for the 2024 edition is August 1, 2025. See this link for more details and manuscript guidelines.

2025 MRA Conference Reflections

Words That Empower, Inspire, and Transform

Fifty-four years, a legacy’s bright,
A conference forged in learning’s light.
In Massachusetts, hearts align,
Where words ignite and voices shine.

Words can heal, connect, and grow,
Planting seeds in minds that glow.
We read, we write, we speak, we share,
Transforming lives with thought and care.

Empowered minds embrace the call,
To lift up others, one and all.
Stories shape the paths we take,
Inspire hope and bridges make.

So let us carry what we’ve found,
Beyond these walls to every town.
Empower, inspire, transform with grace—
For words can shape the world we face.

Save the date for the 55th Annual Massachusetts Reading Conference, Literacy and Learning: Connection Classrooms and Communities, to be held April 9-10, 2026, at the Boston Marriott Newton Hotel in Newton, MA.  

MRA Community Spotlight

Celebrating educators that are making a difference in the world of literacy.

Pattie Kelley, Poet, Leader, Educator

Thank You, Pattie

With wisdom and words, you’ve led the way,
Guiding bright minds day by day.
A poet, a teacher, a leader so true,
MRA shines because of you!

There once was a poet named Pattie,
Whose passion for words was quite natty.
For decades, she taught,
Inspiring deep thought,
And made MRA shine—how uncanny!

On March 28th the MRA board voted in new officers during the end of conference business meeting.

Nomination Chair Mary Fischer presented the MRA 2025-2026 slate of new officers:

President, Adam Brieske-Ulenski

President-Elect, Mary Wall

Vice President, Shantel Schonour

Vice President-Elect, Sue Flis

Immediate Past-President, Patricia Crain de Galarce

  Upcoming Events and Programming

Literacy Inspirations

Celebrate Earth Day with this lesson plan, which asks students to build a birdhouse out of reusable materials.

Celebrate Earth Day

with this lesson plan, which asks students to build a birdhouse out of reusable materials.

Find more Earth Day resources here: https://www.earthday.org/earth-day-2025/

Here are poems about spring. 

https://www.bustle.com/articles/148794-7-poems-to-read-in-honor-of-earth-day

7 more poems to honor earth day!

Thank you for your dedication to literacy. Together, we can ensure every student becomes a confident and capable reader, writer, and learner.

MRA information

The Massachusetts Reading Association is a professional non-profit organization of individuals whose primary purpose is to improve the quality and level of literacy in the state of Massachusetts. The MRA is affiliated with the International Literacy Association (ILA), a worldwide literacy organization.  Our Mission The mission of the Massachusetts Reading Association is to promote literacy for all learners through professional development, research, publications, and advocacy.

Patricia Crain de Galarce
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MRA Café-Coffee and Conversations