the poet x essay topics

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Summary and Study Guide

Elizabeth Acevedo’s award-winning 2018 young adult novel, The Poet X , brings to life the inner world of protagonist Xiomara Batista . Xiomara is 15 years old, and from her bedroom in Harlem, she writes poetry in order to put on the page all the feelings and ideas she cannot seem to be able to say out loud. Xiomara resigns herself to writing in her notebook and sharing her thoughts with only a few trusted individuals until her English teacher, Ms. Galiano , invites Xiomara to speak her words in a spoken word poetry club, and, later, at a citywide poetry slam competition.

Though this novel-in-verse takes place over only a few months during Xiomara’s sophomore year in high school, Xiomara goes through many significant experiences, all of which are documented in her poetry. Xiomara begins to doubt the religious teachings of her childhood as she matures into a curious and bright young woman. She struggles with her developing body and its effect on other people, experiencing at the same time what it feels like to fall in love. As Xiomara experiments with independence, she observes that her need to separate from her parents is particularly challenging for her mother. Mami lives and breathes by her Catholic faith, and she has high expectations for Xiomara, expectations that are vastly different from the ones that Xiomara has for herself.

Against the urban backdrop of present-day Harlem, Xiomara, her twin brother, Xavier, and their friend, Caridad , grow up among drug-dealers and teenagers having babies well before they are ready to be parents. Their church is both a sanctuary and a jail for Xiomara, and she questions the teachings of the church with her characteristic incisive thoughtfulness. At school and on the street, Xiomara is both a quiet presence and a highly conspicuous one; her womanly figure means she is noticed, but Xiomara wants to be known for her creative abilities—for her dreams and her intellect, not for her curves. Xiomara’s relationship with her older parents is difficult, as they don’t seem to understand her, nor do they trust her judgment. Her mother’s devotion to the Catholic church means that Xiomara has to live up to Mami’s religious ideals, and just as Mami is setting impossible limits on Xiomara’s social freedoms, Xiomara falls deeply in love. She feels she must keep her romance with her biology lab partner, Aman , a secret, until everything becomes evident during the novel’s intensely dramatic and emotional moment of climax.

Written in a musical and compelling combination of slang, colloquialisms, and formal poetic language, The Poet X is an unusual and sensitive book that honors the rhythms of hip-hop while taking the reader along on the rollercoaster ride that is adolescence. Through Xiomara’s eyes, being a teenager has never been more challenging, but thanks to her insistence that she be true to herself, readers of all ages will learn that there is potential for beauty in every conflict. Love can take any number of forms, Xiomara learns, and the readers of her deeply-personal poetry are reminded of this inevitable fact of life with every stanza.

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Realistic Fiction (High School)

by Elizabeth Acevedo

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Last Updated September 5, 2023.

The Poet X, by Elizabeth Acevedo, is a profound, delightful, and moving novel about a girl's coming-of-age experience. The protagonist, Xiomara Batista, navigates growing up as a thoughtful and creative young poet in Harlem while the living under the roof of her strict, fundamentalist Christian mother. Xiomara faces a conflicting life, as she must deal with her mother's intense religious rules, expectations, and strictness while trying to understand and express herself through her poetry. Xiomara fills a book with her poems but does not utter them to anyone else, as she fears she will not be understood or will be punished for her feelings, thoughts, and reflections on her life and how she moves through the world.

When Xiomara develops romantic feelings for a classmate, Aman, she also feels she must keep this a secret from her mother. Similarly, when Xiomara begins participating in slam poetry, she must deal with feeling that she must hide this from her strict, cold-seeming mother. The novel certainly highlights the tensions between a youth who is eager to express her creativeness and thoughts and a mother who is determined to keep her daughter under her tight control in order to keep her safe. The Poet X also boldly discusses sexism and patriarchy within the Church, and Xiomara's character bravely pushes back against rape culture and blatant sexism.

This novel absolutely pulls on your heartstrings as you read Xiomara's beautifully written poems, and it is impossible to not want her to be able to break free from her mother's grasp and be able to have experiences and express herself on her own terms.

Cite this page as follows:

Stiltner, Nona. "The Poet X - Analysis." eNotes Publishing, edited by eNotes Editorial, eNotes.com, Inc., 25 Aug. 2024 <https://www.enotes.com/topics/poet-x/analysis#analysis-analysis-846555>

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The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo

Banned book writing prompts.

Matthew Burgess

In Banned Book Writing Prompts, a new series in  Teachers & Writers Magazine , we aim to push back against the growing movement to censor what students can read and to show what happens when we enthusiastically embrace banned works rather than fear them. You can read  an introduction to this series by Susan Karwoska here , and you can find more  Banned Book Writing Prompts here . Also in the magazine: “ The Braver We Become: A Conversation with Elizabeth Acevedo .”

I had been teaching “Literature for Young People” at Brooklyn College for several years, and I needed to shake up the syllabus. I asked one of my graduate students to recommend a contemporary YA novel, and he immediately suggested The Poet X . “I think you’ll really love it,” he said, and with this encouragement, I dove in.

It didn’t take long for me to become immersed in Elizabeth Acevedo’s gorgeous, pitch-perfect novel-in-verse. Her protagonist, Xiomara Batista, is a high school sophomore in Harlem navigating conflicting feelings about religion, love, family, and self-expression. The typical plot points of a coming-of-age story appear, and in Acevedo’s masterful hands, every twist and turn feels genuine. I devoured it in two days and immediately swapped it into my syllabus for the following semester at Brooklyn College. 

Could you imagine if, at 13, you read a book about a young Hispanic girl navigating through almost exactly the same issues as you did? All that anger, frustration, confusion, and insecurity would have been maybe a bit easier to work through.

I was especially moved by the vivid descriptions of the poetry classroom as a sanctuary and creative laboratory. Acevedo describes this space—a space I cherish—with great authenticity. Over the years I’ve seen what poetry can do, the way it can alchemize young people and help bring out their voices. I was excited to see this represented in The Poet X .

Acevedo’s dedication, which precedes the opening poem, is “To Katherine Bolaños and my former students at Buck Lodge Middle School 2010–2012, and all the little sisters yearning to see themselves: this is for you.” With this, Acevedo makes one of her intentions explicit: to offer a “mirror” to young women of color who have been underrepresented in literature for young people for so long. I’ve been teaching The Poet X consistently for several years now, and my students’ responses provide the most moving and eloquent testimony about the importance of this reflection. I’ve asked and received permission from two students to share excerpts from their writing.

In her reading response titled “Sisters with Voices,” Jessica Sheppard writes:

Ahhh, another home run for the brown girls who preferred sneakers over sandals and open mouths with closed fists. Xiomara feels like a home girl I knew growing up, one who my mom wouldn’t have wanted me hanging out with because, “we cause trouble when we’re together.” But I sneak around with her anyway, because I need her. I need to know that there are other girls out there who take a lot of hits and talk a lot of shit. I need to feel her fear, so that I may give myself permission to acknowledge my own. I need to see her tears, because I need proof that it’s okay for strong girls to cry. More importantly, I need to know that if you do the tears won’t melt the tough shell that took so long to build in the first place. Xiomara is my friend, my sister. We talk on the phone and muse about all of things we see and want and hope to have for ourselves. We push past one another’s protective exteriors to open ourselves up to what we know will be a tender, sometimes painful exchange of stories, experiences, laughs, and questions about who we are, where we have been, and the fact that neither of us is really sure where we’ll go. [. . .] Xiomara’s is a story that speaks to so many people’s experiences, but I’d like to think that this coming-of-age tale is especially triumphant to women of color who are bold and bright enough to speak, even before they’re spoken to. 

Another student, Briana Pascascio, a graduate student working on her degree in education, created a final project about The Poet X in the form of an extended multimedia letter to her younger self. In an introductory passage, she writes:

But could you imagine if, at 13, you read a book about a young Hispanic girl navigating through almost exactly the same issues as you did? All that anger, frustration, confusion, and insecurity would have been maybe a bit easier to work through. Maybe, you would have gained your confidence years earlier or a better way to express yourself beyond just listening to music and coded journaling. Well, I’d like to share something with you. You discover (and are also assigned) a verse named The Poet X written by Elizabeth Acevedo and, in two days, you complete the book and all your 28-year-old brain could think was, “Wow! This was me.” And your mind reeled with how different you might have felt if this novel was written 10 years earlier and mom borrowed the book from the library for you to read. Through reading this book, you discover the 13-year-old you who, in a way, still needed this book. Then you realize that you will make sure you have all kinds of literature in your future English classroom that causes all the different walks of life in your class to feel seen. But, to circle back to you, who realized how much you still needed this novel, I will share with you the moments in the novel you needed the most.

These beautiful testimonies demonstrate the power of Acevedo’s story to inspire, to encourage, to comfort, and to summon inner reserves of strength and creativity. You also can see how Acevedo’s writing provides a platform for student writing. Like all great art, it quickens our own creative impulse to act and create in response.

The idea of banning a book as beautiful as this one, as necessary as this one, feels outrageous to me. As in: rage-inducing, appalling. Since I first included The Poet X on my syllabus, students have received this book as a balm, a blessing, and a lifeline. Again and again they say, this is a book that would have made the younger me feel less alone, more empowered. May those of us in the position of sharing books like these offer them to the readers who need them most.

Writing Prompt 1

The gaps between drafts: encouraging creativity & authenticity.

Given that Elizabeth Acevedo was once a middle-school teacher, and to this day leads writing workshops with young people, I think the writing prompts included in The Poet X are all worth sharing. In five instances throughout the book, we encounter a writing prompt given by Xiamora’s English teacher, Ms. Galiano. First we read the “rough draft” of Xiamora’s response to the assignment, and then we see her final draft, what she “actually turns in.” Acevedo offers this glimpse into the ways in which students alter, erase, or flatten their voices into a form that feels more acceptable, more “teacher friendly.” By offering the unfiltered “rough draft” beside the more formal and decidedly less lively “final draft,” we see this code-shifting process play out.

Take a look at one or more of Xiomara’s rough drafts and compare them with the accompanying final draft: Have you noticed a similar dynamic playing out in your own writing? How might your writing look, and feel, and sound, if you were given the permission to be more yourself or more creatively free? What is the line between code-shifting and self-censorship?

Following Xiomara’s example, respond to one of the writing prompts below, from The Poet X, with a “rough” version free of any constraints whatsoever, and a “final” version that conforms to your perceived preferences of a teacher or professor. Then compare the differences between the two as a means of exploring how code-shifting can limit creativity.

Assignment 1: Write about the most impactful day of your life. Assignment 2: Last Paragraphs of My Biography Assignment 3: Describe someone you consider misunderstood by society. Assignment 4: When was the last time you felt free? Assignment 5: Explain Your Favorite Quote

Writing Prompt 2

Making “place” pop on the page.

Read the very first poem in the book, “Stoop Sitting,” and notice how Acevedo evokes the setting through vivid description, or what I call with my younger students, “delicious details.” What lines create images in your mind?

Now think of a place you’ve lived or a place you know well, whether it’s your own block or stoop, or some outdoor spot of your choice. A meditation can be helpful here: try closing your eyes and envisioning what you see, hear, smell, and feel, followed by a free-write to gather these impressions, in note form, on the page. Set a timer for 7–15 minutes and write a draft of a poem using “Stoop-Sitting” as a model. If you prefer more structure, you can begin each stanza with some or all of Acevedo’s verbs:

I scope out . . . Peep . . . Listen to . . . Laugh at . . . Shake my head as . . .

Writing Prompt 3

“let’s talk about line breaks”.

After teaching The Poet X at Brooklyn College for the first time, I reached out to Elizabeth Acevedo for an interview with Teachers & Writers Magazine . Here is a short excerpt from one exchange:

Matthew: When reading  The Poet X , I was struck by your line breaks and the way you negotiate the page. Do you have any strategies for teaching that level of craft with students?  Elizabeth : This is my favorite question. I’m like, “Let’s talk about line breaks!”

What follows this exchange is a helpful consideration about the various elements that influence a poet’s placement of line and stanza on the page, including pacing, breath, and emphasis. When I was first writing free verse poems, I wondered about these elements of craft and hungered for opportunities to explore them, and to this day, I enjoy examining the effects of spacing and enjambment with my students.

To start, take some time to explore a few of the poems in The Poet X where the line breaks create noticeable effects. For example, you might begin with a quieter example in “Warmth,” a poem about Xiomara holding hands with her crush, Aman. Read the poem aloud to demonstrate the subtle effects of the spacing in these lines:

We are silent the whole walk. Without words we are in agreement that we’ll walk as far as we can this way: my hand     held     in his     held in his coat pocket. Each of us keeping the other warm against the quiet chill.

When I recently discussed this poem with my class at Brooklyn College, one student noted the way the alliterative “w” brings emphasis to the intimacy of these two young individuals who are beginning to become a “we.” Then I asked: what do we make of the additional spaces in the line beginning “my hand”? Someone pointed out that it slows the pace and makes the reader focus in on the held hands. Another observed that these spaces evoke the heartbeat, and in this way, we feel the “racing heart” of the poem’s speaker in this moment of intimacy and touch.

A more dramatic example arrives later in the two consecutive poems “Ants” and “I Am No Ant,” which depict of an intense moment of confrontation between Xiomara and her mother. In the first, the poem steps down the page with one word per line:

In this example, the shape of the lines mimics the downward motion as Xiomara’s mother forces her daughter to kneel and pray for forgiveness. In response, Xiomara tries “to make an ant of [her]self.” When I asked my students to reflect on the ways in which the form of this poem is connected to the content , they identified the connection between the descending lines and the pulling, as well as the way the isolation of each word on its own line gives the visual impression of ants.

For this writing prompt, I invite you to make your own exploration of the relationship between form and content. Here are two possibilities:

1. Write a poem about an early encounter with a crush or a first love, using present tense and vivid imagery. Following Acevedo’s example, look for places in the poem where the line breaks and/or spacing can heighten reader’s identification with the poem’s speaker.

2. Write a poem about a conflict with a parent, sibling, or friend. Experiment with the placement of the words on the page so that the shape of the poem captures and transmits some of the intensity of the conflict.

Further Reading: “ The Braver We Become: A Conversation with Elizabeth Acevedo ” by Matthew Burgess.

Matthew Burgess is an Associate Professor at Brooklyn College. He is the author of eight children's books, most recently The Red Tin Box (Chronicle) and Sylvester’s Letter (ELB). Matthew has edited an anthology of visual art and writing titled  Dream Closet: Meditations on Childhood Space (Secretary Press), as well as a collection of essays titled  Spellbound: The Art of Teaching Poetry (T&W). More books are forthcoming, including: As Edward Imagined: A Story of Edward Gorey (Knopf, 2024), Words With Wings & Magic Things (Tundra, 2025), and  Fireworks (Harper Collins, 2024). A poet-in-residence in New York City public schools since 2001, Matthew serves as a contributing editor of Teachers & Writers Magazine .

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The Poet X Literature Guide

The poet x discussion questions, what is the effect of verse on storytelling in the poet x .

The Poet X is written almost entirely in verse, apart from the assignment drafts for Ms. Galiano ’s class, which are prose. Yet the novel is not a book of stand-alone poems but a story about the coming-of-age of a young girl as she wrestles with the demands of family, religion, and sexuality. It’s appropriate that Acevedo uses poetry to tell Xiomara ’s story because poetry is central to Xiomara’s development as a character. In a sense, poetry is both the subject and the substance of The Poet X .

Throughout the novel, Xiomara feels shut off and shut out, silenced by her religion and her mother’s strict rules, valuable only for her femininity. It is poetry, written in a notebook given to her by her Twin , that begins to allow her to ask questions about the world that lead her to understand her true self. Poetry is the language Xiomara shares with Aman , helping her to work through conflicting feelings. Poetry, as experienced in Ms. Galiano’s classroom, is also a gift in Xiomara’s eyes, one that inspires her to share her own voice and make connections with others in poetry club. Ultimately, poetry brings about both the dramatic climax of the novel, when Mami burns Xiomara’s notebook, and the family ’s eventual reconciliation to support Xiomara at the poetry slam.

In The Poet X , what is Xiomara’s relation to myth and religion?

Xiomara uses the myth of Medusa as a metaphor to describe herself as misunderstood. She says she is Medusa’s daughter, if the daughter were Dominican, relating the shame she feels about her figure to Medusa’s fatal beauty. But beyond her physical appearance, Xiomara feels like a myth—unseen for who she truly is and only able to express that part of herself through her poetry.

Religion is an adversary in Xiomara’s life because it shames her for being a tall, physically and mentally precocious female with questions and ideas of her own. While she loved Mass as a child, Father Sean ’s sermons on female purity and a woman’s place make her uncomfortable, and her mother’s insistence that she be confirmed leads her to resent her religion. Xiomara begins to reject religion, questioning whether the Bible might actually be one giant metaphor and challenging Father Sean in confirmation class. To her, there is no middle ground; she admits to Father Sean that she isn’t sorry for her so-called sins (like kissing Aman ) but only that she was caught. Eventually, Xiomara’s connection to poetry and Father Sean’s willingness to let her explore her faith on her own terms allow her to understand that faith can be less about dogmatic rules and more about discovering her own beliefs.

What is Xiomara’s relation to language in The Poet X ?

Xiomara discovers in language the ability to express herself in ways she’s never been able to otherwise. At the outset of the novel, she describes feeling both too large and too small—her body is too big, taking up space she doesn’t want it to. At the same time, the world seems to be interested only in her physical appearance and not her thoughts, making her feel tiny and ignored. Because her appearance causes her to be harassed by boys, Xiomara quickly learns to harness the power of language to put them in their place.

When Twin gives Xiomara a notebook, she writes like she can’t stop. For the first time, she has a way to express her thoughts, feelings, and questions. This is the beginning of language as a vehicle for confidence and independence. Xiomara discovers that poetry gives life to her thoughts and eventually learns that she wants to share it with the world. However, language also causes Xiomara challenges through its effect on her relationships with others. It is language, first that of music and then her own poetry, that connects her to Aman . It is language, too—and Xiomara’s use of it to capture her complicated thoughts and feelings—that causes her mother to burn her notebook. At the end of the novel, however, it is Xiomara’s words that allow her to discover her place in the world and ultimately connect with her family and community.

In what ways does The Poet X show how a relationship can become an addiction, and what are the effects?

Xiomara falls hard for Aman , who never pressures her but does push her out of her comfort zone by inviting her places like the smoke park and the ice-skating rink. While Xiomara tells herself all the reasons she shouldn’t be with Aman and can’t date due to Mami ’s rules, she ultimately can’t resist being with him, even dreaming of him. Xiomara becomes addicted, at least temporarily, to the comfort he brings her. Ultimately, it takes a real rift in their relationship—Aman’s failure to intervene when other boys harass Xiomara—to break this feeling of dependency. Xiomara faces a major challenge and undergoes some major personal growth in sorting out her feelings for Aman and learning to appreciate him without over-relying on him. She comes to realize that he can be counted on to show emotional support for her art but not physical courage in standing up to harassers.

All in all, The Poet X presents Xiomara’s relationship with Aman as part of a broader trajectory of growth. It’s understandable that she would fall for Aman in the first place. Apart from finding him physically attractive, Xiomara is surprised by how different Aman is from the rude, aggressive boys that she encounters in the hallways at school. He is the first person to encourage her poetry, to listen to her words, to make her really feel heard. It’s also understandable that, under the sway of these new feelings, Xiomara would make decisions she might not have otherwise, like kissing him in public. In the long run, even the reckless actions that Xiomara takes because of Aman end up furthering her growth. She ends up pushing herself out of the identity bubble created by her family and religion, which in turn helps her to grow as a person, a poet, and a woman.

How do Xiomara and Twin each respond to issues of gender and identity in The Poet X ?

Xiomara sees herself as too much, largely because this is what she has been told by Mami. She is too tall, too curvy, and too tough. Instead of being invisible, like she tries to be, her body betrays her by attracting men and boys, leading her to learn to fight. She also struggles with questions and ideas that she is told are not appropriate for a woman. Xiomara’s identity is marred by shame because her gender is supposed to be small in both body and thought. She also struggles with shame for her sexuality, which comes alive when she meets Aman . Xiomara is taught that good girls don’t lust over boys, but she wonders what is wrong with her that something supposedly so bad feels so good. Eventually, Aman helps her discover that she is not too much—he helps her bring her ideas and questions to life through her poetry.

Twin is all that Xiomara’s parents wish she would be. He almost takes on the feminine characteristics they desire her to have—he is quiet and demure and never fights. In fact, it is Xiomara who must defend him. Eventually Xiomara discovers what she seems to have suspected; Twin is gay. While Twin seems content and confident with this knowledge and Xiomara is accepting of her brother, both know that their parents will never accept this fact. Twin’s sexuality remains a secret from Mami and Papi during the novel, and his identity is unresolved at the end of the story.

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Discussion questions for ‘The Poet X’

Our November 2020 pick for Now Read This , the PBS NewsHour’s book club with The New York Times, is Elizabeth Acevedo’s “The Poet X.” Become a member of the Now Read This book club by joining our Facebook group , or by signing up to our newsletter . Learn more about the book club here .

Below are questions to help guide your discussions as you read the book over the next month. You can also submit your own questions for Acevedo on our Google form . Acevedo will answer reader questions about “The Poet X” on the PBS NewsHour at the end of the month.

WARNING: Spoiler alert on questions further down

• What did you think of Acevedo’s decision to write the novel in verse? What effect did this have on the telling of the story?
• “If Medusa was Dominican/ and had a daughter, I think I’d be her./ I look and feel like a myth./ A story distorted, waiting for others to stop/ and stare.” What does this passage say about Xiomara’s relationship with her changing body?
• At one point Xiomara’s mother calls her an offensive word to describe a promiscuous woman. How does Xiomara repurpose the word rather than taking offense to it?
• “As I got older/ I began to really see/ the way that church/ treats a girl like me differently,” Xiomara writes. When you were a teenager, what did you start to question about the things you had been taught?
• The Bible stories in Genesis, particularly that of Eve, are particularly questionable to Xiomara. Why do you think that is?
• At one point, Xiomara writes that her boyfriend Aman has “made a junkie” out of her: “He’s turned me into a fiend:/ waiting for his next word/ hanging on his last breath/ always waiting for the next, next time.” What did you think of her metaphor of addiction in this passage?
• “She knows me in ways I don’t have to explain,” Xiomara writes of her friend, Caridad. How does their friendship evolve throughout the novel?
• How do Xiomara and her twin support one another as they face pressure to fulfill certain expectations of gender and identity from their family?
• How did Acevedo’s setting and language paint a picture of Xiomara’s home and culture? What was most effective about her descriptions?
• Ms. Galiano encourages Xiomara to join her school’s slam poetry club. Have you had a teacher who saw promise in you and inspired you to explore it?
• How does Xiomara change after performing slam poetry? Why does it open her up?
• How does Father Sean help Xiomara reconcile with her mother? Did you sympathize with her Mami despite the pain she caused?
• Was there one school assignment or essay written by Xiomara that stood out to you? If so, why?
• Would you share this book with younger readers in your life? Why or why not?

Courtney Vinopal is a general assignment reporter at the PBS NewsHour.

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This poet wants brown girls to know they’re worthy of being the hero and the author

Poetry Mar 08

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Poet X Lesson Plans for Teachers

Teaching Poet X

The Poet X lesson plan contains a variety of teaching materials that cater to all learning styles. Inside you'll find 30 Daily Lessons, 20 Fun Activities, 180 Multiple Choice Questions, 60 Short Essay Questions, 20 Essay Questions, Quizzes/Homework Assignments, Tests, and more. The lessons and activities will help students gain an intimate understanding of the text, while the tests and quizzes will help you evaluate how well the students have grasped the material. View a free sample

Target Grade: 7th-12th (Middle School and High School)

Length of Lesson Plan: Approximately 156 pages. Page count is estimated at 300 words per page. Length will vary depending on format viewed.

Browse The Poet X Lesson Plan:

Full Lesson Plan Overview

Completely customizable.

The Poet X lesson plan is downloadable in PDF and Word. The Word file is viewable with any PC or Mac and can be further adjusted if you want to mix questions around and/or add your own headers for things like "Name," "Period," and "Date." The Word file offers unlimited customizing options so that you can teach in the most efficient manner possible. Once you download the file, it is yours to keep and print for your classroom. View a FREE sample

Lesson Plan Calendars

The Lesson Plan Calendars provide daily suggestions about what to teach. They include detailed descriptions of when to assign reading, homework, in-class work, fun activities, quizzes, tests and more. Use the entire Poet X calendar, or supplement it with your own curriculum ideas. Calendars cover one, two, four, and eight week units. Determine how long your Poet X unit will be, then use one of the calendars provided to plan out your entire lesson.

Chapter Abstracts

Chapter abstracts are short descriptions of events that occur in each chapter of Poet X . They highlight major plot events and detail the important relationships and characteristics of important characters. The Chapter Abstracts can be used to review what the students have read, or to prepare the students for what they will read. Hand the abstracts out in class as a study guide, or use them as a "key" for a class discussion. They are relatively brief, but can serve to be an excellent refresher of Poet X for either a student or teacher.

Character and Object Descriptions

Character and Object Descriptions provide descriptions of the significant characters as well as objects and places in Poet X . These can be printed out and used as an individual study guide for students, a "key" for leading a class discussion, a summary review prior to exams, or a refresher for an educator. The character and object descriptions are also used in some of the quizzes and tests in this lesson plan. The longest descriptions run about 200 words. They become shorter as the importance of the character or object declines.

Daily Lessons

This section of the lesson plan contains 30 Daily Lessons. Daily Lessons each have a specific objective and offer at least three (often more) ways to teach that objective. Lessons include classroom discussions, group and partner activities, in-class handouts, individual writing assignments, at least one homework assignment, class participation exercises and other ways to teach students about Poet X in a classroom setting. You can combine daily lessons or use the ideas within them to create your own unique curriculum. They vary greatly from day to day and offer an array of creative ideas that provide many options for an educator.

Fun Classroom Activities

Fun Classroom Activities differ from Daily Lessons because they make "fun" a priority. The 20 enjoyable, interactive classroom activities that are included will help students understand Poet X in fun and entertaining ways. Fun Classroom Activities include group projects, games, critical thinking activities, brainstorming sessions, writing poems, drawing or sketching, and countless other creative exercises. Many of the activities encourage students to interact with each other, be creative and think "outside of the box," and ultimately grasp key concepts from the text by "doing" rather than simply studying. Fun activities are a great way to keep students interested and engaged while still providing a deeper understanding of Poet X and its themes.

Essay Questions/Writing Assignments

These 20 Essay Questions/Writing Assignments can be used as essay questions on a test, or as stand-alone essay topics for a take-home or in-class writing assignment on Poet X . Students should have a full understanding of the unit material in order to answer these questions. They often include multiple parts of the work and ask for a thorough analysis of the overall text. They nearly always require a substantial response. Essay responses are typically expected to be one (or more) page(s) and consist of multiple paragraphs, although it is possible to write answers more briefly. These essays are designed to challenge a student's understanding of the broad points in a work, interactions among the characters, and main points and themes of the text. But, they also cover many of the other issues specific to the work and to the world today.

Short Essay Questions

The 60 Short Essay Questions listed in this section require a one to two sentence answer. They ask students to demonstrate a deeper understanding of Poet X by describing what they've read, rather than just recalling it. The short essay questions evaluate not only whether students have read the material, but also how well they understand and can apply it. They require more thought than multiple choice questions, but are shorter than the essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

The 180 Multiple Choice Questions in this lesson plan will test a student's recall and understanding of Poet X . Use these questions for quizzes, homework assignments or tests. The questions are broken out into sections, so they focus on specific chapters within Poet X . This allows you to test and review the book as you proceed through the unit. Typically, there are 5-15 questions per chapter, act or section.

Evaluation Forms

Use the Oral Reading Evaluation Form when students are reading aloud in class. Pass the forms out before you assign reading, so students will know what to expect. You can use the forms to provide general feedback on audibility, pronunciation, articulation, expression and rate of speech. You can use this form to grade students, or simply comment on their progress.

Use the Writing Evaluation Form when you're grading student essays. This will help you establish uniform criteria for grading essays even though students may be writing about different aspects of the material. By following this form you will be able to evaluate the thesis, organization, supporting arguments, paragraph transitions, grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc. of each student's essay.

Quizzes/Homework Assignments

The Quizzes/Homework Assignments are worksheets that can be used in a variety of ways. They pull questions from the multiple choice and short essay sections, the character and object descriptions, and the chapter abstracts to create worksheets that can be used for pop quizzes, in-class assignments and homework. Periodic homework assignments and quizzes are a great way to encourage students to stay on top of their assigned reading. They can also help you determine which concepts and ideas your class grasps and which they need more guidance on. By pulling from the different sections of the lesson plan, quizzes and homework assignments offer a comprehensive review of Poet X in manageable increments that are less substantial than a full blown test.

Use the Test Summary page to determine which pre-made test is most relevant to your students' learning styles. This lesson plan provides both full unit tests and mid-unit tests. You can choose from several tests that include differing combinations of multiple choice questions, short answer questions, short essay questions, full essay questions, character and object matching, etc. Some of the tests are designed to be more difficult than others. Some have essay questions, while others are limited to short-response questions, like multiple choice, matching and short answer questions. If you don't find the combination of questions that best suits your class, you can also create your own test on Poet X .

Create Your Own Quiz or Test

You have the option to Create Your Own Quiz or Test. If you want to integrate questions you've developed for your curriculum with the questions in this lesson plan, or you simply want to create a unique test or quiz from the questions this lesson plan offers, it's easy to do. Cut and paste the information from the Create Your Own Quiz or Test page into a Word document to get started. Scroll through the sections of the lesson plan that most interest you and cut and paste the exact questions you want to use into your new, personalized Poet X lesson plan.

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The Poet X Elizabeth Acevedo

The Poet X essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of The Poet X by Acevado.

The Poet X Material

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The Poet X Essays

Elizabeth acevedo’s ode to adolescent power: culture, conflict, and reassurance in the poet x isabel acedo college.

Adolescence alone, as a transitional period from child to adult, marks a challenging time in an individual’s life. Often times, factors outside the mind and body seem to exist solely to aggravate this tremulous, question-filled period. Poet X ’s...

Discovering Self Worth through Spoken Word in "The Poet X" Olivia F. Vega 11th Grade

In Elizabeth Acevedo’s young adult novel, The Poet X, fifteen-year old Dominican-American Xiomara Batista describes her aspirations and personal life experiences in the form of poetic verse. Through her narration the reader learns that Xiomara’s...

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Elizabeth Acevedo

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15-year-old Xiomara sits on the stoop of her building in Harlem in the last week before school starts. Even the drug dealers seem more pleasant as they catcall her. Xiomara sneaks back upstairs before Mami gets home from work. Xiomara explains that she’s tall, curvy, and gets a lot of attention on the street—but Mami tells her that it’s her responsibility to not let men catcall her. She explains that her name means “one who is ready for war,” and she’s lived up to it spectacularly. Her twin brother, whom she calls Twin , was born first with no complications, but Xiomara’s birth was difficult and she hasn’t lived up to her parents’ expectations since then.

This year, Xiomara is taking confirmation class with her best friend Caridad . Xiomara doesn’t want to be confirmed: she’s not sure she wants to worship God, since God doesn’t seem to care about her. Mami refuses to consider allowing Xiomara to put off confirmation and threatens to send her to the Dominican Republic, where the nuns beat Mami. Because Mami and Papi were old when Xiomara and Twin were born, Xiomara and Twin are considered miracles. Papi stopped drinking, listening to music, and flirting after the twins were born, but Xiomara nonetheless feels like a burden. Mami wanted to be a nun as a young person, but her parents forced her to marry Papi so she could move to the United States. Confirmation class is horrible from the start, especially when Father Sean says that the students need to devote themselves of their own volition—something that Xiomara has never been able to do. During class, Xiomara whispers to her friend Caridad about kissing boys.

The next day, Xiomara starts tenth grade. Twin attends a fancy “genius school,” but Xiomara attends her local school. This year, Xiomara has Ms. Galiano for English, who has a reputation for being tough. Ms. Galiano pronounces Xiomara’s name right on the first try, and then seems genuinely interested to see her class’s answers to what the most impactful day of their life was. As a rough draft, Xiomara writes about starting her period. Mami slapped her when she tried to use tampons, even though Xiomara had no idea what her period even was. Mami spat that tampons were for cueros (whores). Xiomara’s final draft is about receiving a poetry notebook from Twin for her birthday.

Every day, Xiomara does chores after school. Twin doesn’t help because Mami doesn’t make him, but Mami still likes him better—he’s devout and very smart. Xiomara writes about how lonely she feels and how guys at school catcall her, making her want to disappear. One weekend, Xiomara has to stand up to a guy at the basketball park when he aggressively taunts her and Twin for staring, and Twin in particular for not being manly. Xiomara writes poems about what she wishes she’d said and thinks about how she’s taunted no matter what she does or wears. She’s upset that Twin never stands up for her.

That Sunday, Xiomara doesn’t take communion. She thinks it’s not worth thanking God for giving her life when she can’t live. Mami tries to force Xiomara, but Xiomara refuses. For the next week, Xiomara attends Mass with Mami, but she spits her communion wafer out. At school, Xiomara finds a poster for a spoken word poetry club that Ms. Galiano runs. She wants to go, but she has confirmation class on Tuesday too. Xiomara’s biology class begins doing labs and her lab partner is a handsome boy named Aman . She develops a crush on him immediately. Xiomara also asks Ms. Galiano about the poetry club and learns what spoken word is when Ms. Galiano shows a clip of a black female poet. It’s moving, but Xiomara declares she could never perform. Aman and Xiomara agree to listen to a Kendrick Lamar album one Friday afternoon. Even though Xiomara isn’t allowed to date, she goes and sits close to him. Xiomara explains that she’s decided she’ll only ever love Twin, even though he’s terrible—he has no twin intuition and isn’t cool, and he seldom acknowledges Xiomara. When he does, though, it’s usually profound. After her date, Twin comments that Xiomara looks different. Xiomara writes secret poems about Aman and whispers to Caridad about him in confirmation class.

Ms. Galiano returns Xiomara’s assignment with a note suggesting that Xiomara is poetic and should join the club. Xiomara wants to, but thinks she can’t. She continues to spend time with Aman and, when he asks, reads him a poem. As the weeks pass, Xiomara continues to hide her communion wafers and spend time with Aman. One day in confirmation class, Father Sean talks about how Eve should’ve resisted the apple . Xiomara thinks this is nonsense. She asks if the Bible is a metaphor and why people have curiosity if they can’t use it. She knows she’s in trouble and after class, Father Sean doesn’t answer Xiomara’s questions—but he encourages her to speak to Mami.

As Xiomara spends more time with Aman, she masturbates at night. It feels good, but it makes her feel ashamed. Xiomara notices that Twin is texting someone too and seems unusually giggly. One afternoon at school, the fire alarm goes off. Xiomara and Aman go to the park and they kiss. She doesn’t answer when he invites her to a Halloween party and feels as though everyone at confirmation class later can see that she’s been kissing. Father Sean tries to check in with Xiomara and mentions that his mother died. Later, Xiomara mentions this to Twin and asks who he’s texting. Twin points out that they’re both messing around and they’ll get in trouble if Mami and Papi find out. Xiomara thinks that Mami and Papi would be fine if Twin brought home a girl, but she’s not sure what they’d do if he brought home a boy. Twin comes home with a black eye the next day and won’t explain where he got it.

Rather than go to the movies with Caridad and Twin the Saturday before Halloween, Xiomara sneaks out to the Halloween party with Aman. They dance, but Xiomara asks him to stop before it gets too intense. On Monday after school, Xiomara goes to Twin’s school to beat up whoever punched him. Instead, Xiomara sees Twin with a redheaded boy. Twin tells Xiomara to leave it alone. Xiomara understands that she can’t protect Twin forever, but she didn’t expect this. He explains that the boy’s name is Cody , and Xiomara wonders if she made things worse by never voicing support for gay people. Ms. Galiano’s next assignment asks students to talk about someone who’s misunderstood. Xiomara writes in her rough draft how Mami used to be her hero but now, Mami treats her differently. She turns in a piece about Nicki Minaj. Later, Chris , a boy from the poetry club, performs a poem for Xiomara’s class and Ms. Galiano invites everyone to attend a poetry slam in February. Xiomara wants to be there.

Aman invites Xiomara to go ice-skating, something she used to do but hasn’t done in a while. Aman is a great skater. He loves winter sports, but his dad refused to put him in lessons. On the train home, Xiomara and Aman kiss. When Xiomara gets home, she hears Mami shouting—Mami was on the train and saw her. Twin tries to help Xiomara leave, but Mami drags Xiomara to her alter of the Virgin Mary and forces her to kneel on rice. Mami calls Xiomara a cuero , and Xiomara explains that any girl can be a cuero . The next day, she goes to school and guys grab her in front of Aman. Aman doesn’t stand up for her, so Xiomara threatens both her attacker and Aman.

As required by Mami, Xiomara asks to meet Father Sean for confession. He pulls her into the rectory, where Xiomara explains that she lusted and disobeyed—but she’s not sorry. Father Sean encourages her to ask for God’s forgiveness, but tells Mami later that Xiomara shouldn’t be confirmed yet, as she should have time to answer her questions. Mami hisses at Xiomara that she must be confirmed. Xiomara writes poems about breaking free from Mami and ignores Aman. She writes in her notebook and scoffs at Twin’s suggestion that she write a nice poem for herself, and she refuses to give a real answer to Ms. Galiano’s next assignment. When Ms. Galiano asks to speak to Xiomara, she suggests that Xiomara attend poetry club. Because Xiomara is no longer expected at confirmation, she agrees.

Xiomara meets Isabelle , Chris, and Stephan and recites a poem. She feels heard and respected by them and by Ms. Galiano. Later, she runs to church to pretend that she was in class. When Caridad hears where Xiomara was, she talks Mami into letting Xiomara and Twin come with her to an open mic at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. Xiomara feels hopeful, especially when Isabelle catches her eating lunch in the bathroom and invites her to eat lunch in the art room. After school, Xiomara finds Twin crying—Cody broke up with him. Despite this, Twin agrees to go to the open mic and Xiomara discovers that Caridad signed her up to perform. Xiomara is terrified, but she loves performing and both she and Twin feel validated. Xiomara realizes that by performing, she can make others feel the same way.

Xiomara feels like poetry club is her version of a prayer circle. She writes, helps her friends with their poetry, and recites poems for Ms. Galiano. She spends all of winter break writing and receives an odd gift from Mami on Christmas Eve. It’s Xiomara’s baby bracelet , which reads Mi Hija on one side and Xiomara’s name on the other. School starts and a week later, Twin and Xiomara exchange gifts for their birthday: a new notebook for Xiomara and a comic about a gay superhero for Twin. Xiomara feels amazing until she realizes in poetry club that she left her old notebook at home—and then receives a voicemail from Mami. Xiomara gets home to find Mami holding her journal. Mami feels betrayed and is incensed by what’s in it, so she lights it on fire and starts to pray. Xiomara begins to shout her poems as Papi takes the notebook from Mami. Twin holds Mami back while Xiomara escapes.

Xiomara calls Caridad and then Aman. Xiomara goes to Aman’s house. She tells him what happened and he comforts her. They kiss and begin to remove clothing, but Xiomara stops him before they have sex. She’s ready for Aman to turn her out, but instead, he dries her tears. The next day, Ms. Galiano takes Xiomara into the hall and explains that she knows something is wrong and called home last night—Papi had no idea where Xiomara was. Xiomara tells Ms. Galiano everything and agrees to talk to Mami. After school, Aman, Caridad, and Twin help Xiomara ask Father Sean for help before heading home. Mami sobs and hugs Xiomara. Xiomara and Mami begin counseling with Father Sean and after a few weeks, Father Sean asks if they can all come to the poetry slam. Ms. Galiano coaches Xiomara and Xiomara even practices at home. All of Xiomara’s family and friends come to the slam and then to Xiomara’s house afterwards, where Papi teaches her to dance and he and Mami assure her that they won’t go back to being the way they were before. As her final assignment, she writes about her favorite Bible verse and suggests that poetry is like church, since words bring people together.

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