Teaching Guide for Uncommon Core Fiction
by Jeff Kass

Written by veteran Ann Arbor teacher Jeff Kass, this teacher's guide featured 25 innovative writing exercises teachers can use based on poems in Uncommon Core: Contemporary Poems for Learning and Living. In addition, the guidebook explains and demonstrates how the poems and poetry lessons can be used to accomplish numerous Common Core State Standards for English and Language Arts and offers instructions in how to design poetry units and poetry portfolios. Includes lessons in formal verse for pantoums, ghazals, villanelles and sestinas, as well as appendices that link poems in the Uncommon Core collection to many books taught in high school & middle school classrooms. 

Uncommon Core
A revolutionary one-of-a-kind poetry anthology, Uncommon Core: Contemporary Poems for Learning and Living,  features over 250 poems from 92 poets. In 2013, students from Red Beard Press’ editorial board at the Neutral Zone decided they weren't seeing enough contemporary poetry in their high school classrooms & they decided to do something about it. They embarked on a journey to create what they wanted to see – the ultimate collection of contemporary poems for classroom use.  

Red Beard Press created an open call for submissions which  was sent around the country. The response was overwhelming. The editors spent six months combing through submissions ranging from emerging poets who had never previously been published to major award-winners and National Book Award Finalists and ferreting out which poems they thought would make the collection strongest. Now the book is finally here and it's beautiful and it's got eye-popping, ear-electrifying poetry from people like Patricia Smith, Kim Addonizio, Gabrielle Calvocoressi, Naomi Shihab-Nye, Tim Seibles, Adam Falkner, Angel Nafis, Patrick Rosak, Ross Gay, Molly Raynor, Jeff McDaniel and so many more incredible poets. This unique collection aims to be in classrooms and on bookshelves across the country. 

There is now two editions of this textbook, both contemporary poetry and fiction, as well as a teaching guide which has been used and discussed around the country

Jeff Kass
Jeff Kass teaches Tenth Grade English and Creative Writing at Pioneer High School in Ann Arbor, MI and founded and directs the Literary Arts Programs at Ann Arbor’s teen center The Neutral Zone. His debut short story collection Knuckleheads was selected as Independent Publishing’s Gold-Medal Winning Best Short Fiction Collection of 2011. His poems, essays and stories have been published in The Ann Arbor News, The Ann Arbor Observer, The Ann Arbor Chronicle, Current, Anderbo, The Georgetown Review, Hobart, Midewestern Gothic, The Mueseum of Americana and elsewhere. His debut full-length poetry collection My Beautiful Hook-nosed Beauty Queen Strut Wave was published by Dzanc Books in fall of 2014. See more: http://www.annarbor.com/entertainment/books/teacher-and-poet-jeff-kass-new-book-reaches-out-to-knuckleheads/