All posts in Joy Young

Did Someone Say Poetry Out Loud 2023?

The Chicago Poetry Center is now in its 6th year as Chicagoland Regional Host Organization for the national youth poetry competition, Poetry Out Loud. Poetry Out Loud is a collaborative project of the Illinois […]

5th & 6th graders find new ways of looking at things

For our second week of poetry, 5th & 6th graders were challenged to look at living things and ordinary objects in unique ways. I had brought in objects that I owned to show students: […]

5th & 6th graders use their thought machines

I’m excited to be back at Shoesmith Elementary to teach poetry to 5th & 6th graders. It was great to see familiar faces but also meet some students who were new to writing poetry. […]

Open Mic Celebration with 5th & 6th graders

This week not only marks our 20th session of poetry but the end of the school the year and residency as well. To celebrate their hard work and creativity Shoesmith 5th and 6th graders […]

Words that 5th and 6th graders love

For their 19th week of poetry Shoesmith 5th and 6th graders explored different types of words. Words are powerful, they help us express our thoughts, feelings, and tell stories. But words can also be […]

5th and 6th graders race towards the finish line

We are getting closer to the end of our poetry residency. For their eighteenth week 5th and 6th graders had another rewrite session. To aid us in editing we looked at the poem “The […]

5th and 6th graders speak out for social justice

For their seventeenth week of poetry 5th and 6th graders explored social justice poetry. Social justice poetry reflects on the issues of discrimination and inequality in society. Students discussed major issues in today’s world, […]

Spoken word poetry with 5th and 6th graders

For their sixteenth week of poetry Shoesmith 5th and 6th graders explored Spoken Word poetry. Spoken Word poems are made for the stage, its storytelling told through elements of rhythm, rhyme, repetition, improvisation, jazz, […]

Asking questions with 5th & 6th graders

For their fifteenth week of poetry. Shoesmith 5th and 6th graders experimented with question poetry. Why do people ask questions? Does every question have to have an answer? Most students thought that people ask […]

5th & 6th graders get into shape with poetry

For their fourteenth week of poetry 5th and 6th graders learned how to be creative with Concrete Poetry. A concrete poem sometimes called “shape” poetry, is when words are arranged on the page to […]

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I’M FROM THE CITY LIGHTS / STREAMING OUT IN THE NIGHT / AND HUGE SKYSCRAPERS / TOWERING OVER THE LAKE – MELISSA E., 7TH GRADE POET