All posts in Mayda del Valle

7th Grade- Personification Poems Pt.1

This week we got started on writing poems using personification as a tool to explore big ideas and emotions. After reading The Lament by Percy Bysse Shelley I asked students if they could ask […]

7th Grade- New Words Pt. 2

Were you as excited as I was to read this week’s New Word poems by our Foster Park Elementary students? Here is Part 2 of of poems inspired by Jose Olivarez’s poem Hecky Naw. […]

7th Grade- New Word Poems Part 1

This week we read “Hecky Naw” by Jose Olivarez and talked about words we love to use that are part of our identity and day to day lives. We also looked at some recent […]

Food Poems: “It makes me feel like I’m in heaven…”

Food! Glorious food! This week we talked about all of the delicious foods we love to eat, and used our five senses to describe what it is about them that makes our mouths water […]

Monster Poems: “It smells like gummy tacos…”

Do you believe in monsters? This week we drew an exquisite corpse monster and then talked about things that lurk around the corner and go bump in the night. The monsters in these poems […]

Recipe Poems

What’s the recipe for joy, and what are the ingredients that make up who we are? This week we wrote recipe poems inspired by Recipe For Happiness, written by a former CPC student. You […]

Family Celebrity Poems: “You are the best…”

What if our family members were celebrities? This week we wrote poems about a member of our family and celebrated all of the things we love and admire about them. Maybe it’s their cooking, […]

Rhythm: “I need to shine like a star…

This week we read Gwendolyn Brook’s signature poem We Real Cool and talked about how rhythm is an essential element of writing poetry. Students then picked a favorite song and used it’s rhythm as […]

Personification: “I just want true answers…”

This week we read a poem written to a star by a former CPC student. Then talked about personification as a way to approach larger than life ideas, emotions or concepts. We learned that […]

Around the Table: “You give me comfort…”

This week we read Perhaps the World Ends Here by Joy Harjo and discussed all of the different things that can happen around a kitchen or lunch table. Food, drama, games, gossip, a table […]

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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