All posts in Leslie Reese

What is inside of us?

For our most recent sessions at Kozminski, we met on Monday because parent/teacher conferences were scheduled for Wednesday. Students practiced projecting their voices and paying attention to how a poem makes them feel energetically, […]

“Blues All Around”

For our 6th sessions, Shoesmith 4th graders discussed African Americans’ creation of field hollers, work songs, Negro spirituals, and the blues. We talked about the poetry form known as the lament, and reasons why […]

If They Were in Charge of the World

When I first created the “My World” poetry lesson, I used Gwendolyn Brooks’s “A Little Girl’s Poem,” – which I really love. This year I decided to use a different example poem. So, during […]

Cinquain!

I had planned a lesson on 2 kinds* of the five-line poetry form known as cinquain for my 9th sessions with Swift 2nd graders. Since they have been learning about poetry with their classroom […]

Odes from the Heart

For our 8th sessions, 4th and 5th grade students at Kozminski discussed the difference between biography and autobiography; and learned about odes, a poetry form that celebrates and shows respect for the worth of […]

Personifying the Blues

For our sixth and seventh sessions Kozminski 4th graders read Francisco X. Alarcón’s “Ode to My Shoes” and discussed personification. They brainstormed objects and non-human things doing human activities before writing their own poems. […]

Inside, Under, and All Around

For our 8th sessions, Swift 2nd graders read the tiny poem “What’s Under the Sky” by Kathi Mitchell and “Inside My Shoe” written by yours truly. We talked about the things that are inside, […]

Weird Things

For our 5th sessions, Shoesmith 4th graders talked about out-of-the-box thinking, invention, and imagination. We moved into our “Swan of Bees” poetry lesson, which asks students to make a mash-up of outlandish ideas, such […]

Dream Big

Last week at Shoesmith, several students were dressed-up to present at the school’s Black Activist Wax Museum! I was super excited to meet Black Activists from the present and the past. Frederick Douglass, Nikki […]

Creative Ways of Seeing

For our 5th sessions at Kozminski, students talked about their visit to the Shedd Aquarium the previous week. They were excited about getting the chance to see and learn about aquatic life outside of […]

Donate

Support our student poets today!

CONNECT WITH US!

Twitter Facebook-f Instagram

STUDENT POETRY

Click on a school name below to browse student poems from current school partners.

POETRY ARCHIVE

Click on a school name below to browse student poems from our archive.

RECENT FACEBOOK POSTS

TESTIMONIALS

“Writing poetry makes me feel like I can see myself, like I can see my reflection, but not in a mirror, in the world. I write and I know I can be reflected.”
-Oscar S.

“Writing poetry makes me feel free.”
-Buenda D.

“Writing poetry is like your best friend.”
-Jessica M.

Search

CONTACT US

General Inquiries
info@poetrycenter.org

Programs (School & Organizational)
programs@poetrycenter.org

Reading Series and Events:
curator@poetrycenter.org

The Chicago Poetry Center is a registered 501(c)3 non-profit organization.
FEIN: 23-7400515

SEND US A POSTCARD

Chicago Poetry Center
1448 E. 52nd St, #256
Chicago, IL 60615

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