Here are two pictures taken as 4th and 5th grade students at Shields took their seats for the recent all-school reading. By the time everyone had arrived, the gymnasium was filled.

Approximately ten students volunteered to read from each of the seven 5th grade classrooms that participated during the 2008-2009 school year. What a great event—the perfect way to wrap-up another terrific year at Shields!

Some of the most interesting poems are nothing more than lists of things. In a list poem, the writer is telling you something—pointing something out—saying, "Look at this," or, "Think about that." This week, for our last classes, we read Things That Go Away & Come Back Again by Anne Waldman. I asked if every item on Waldman's list fit the title, and if students disagreed, why?

For the last few weeks we have been reading villanelles. The villanelle is a nineteen-line poem with two repeating rhymes and two refrains. It is thought to have originated in the Italian Renaissance period as a folk song, and been refined by French pastoral poets, but the form today enjoys most regular use by English-speaking poets.

Daylight Savings Time begins March 8th. The sun sets later, spring break is right around the corner, and the school year is drawing to a close. Before you know it, summer will be here! But just as quickly, summer gives way to autumn and the cycle begins anew.

Movies play a big part in most people's lives, whether they watch them on TV, DVD, computer screens, or the silver screen. What's interesting is the impression they make, culturally as well as aesthetically, on younger viewers. For something a bit different this week, and because the Oscars are approaching, we read Noir by A.E. Stallings.

In honor of Valentine's Day, for last week's class we read love is more thicker than forget by e. e. cummings. Students immediately took notice of the poet's non-use of capital letters and punctuation, and we talked about how leaving those normally important aspects of proper grammar out of the poem helps to focus the reader's attention on the words themselves.

This week, we read Alfred Tennyson's short poem, The Eagle, as illustrated by Dave Morice in his book, Poetry Comics.

The last two sessions at Shields we focused on persona poems (also called dramatic monologues), which are poems written in the voice of a character other than the author.

Last week we read Loren Goodman's Recital, where a young boy recounts his experience participating in a solo piano performance.

For our last class before the winter break and new year, we read Fons, by Pura López-Colomé, briefly discussing the poem's language, images, and use of mythology, especially the myth of Pandora's Box. Students then drew folded pieces of paper out of a box I had brought to class, writing down the single sentence on each piece of paper at

Last week, in honor of the upcoming inauguration of President-elect Obama, we looked at The Gift Outright by Robert Frost, who was invited to read at the 1961 swearing-in of read more »