All posts in Rachel Castro

Poemas de Collage/Collage Poems

For our final writing day together, the 4th grade poets at Volta created collage poems with a word bank to choose from or add (just a few words) to. Each table of students received […]

Si Yo Fuera/If I Was

After a recent field trip, Ms. Sontag, one of the teachers I work alongside, came up with an exciting follow-up poetry prompt. A few days before we met, both classes went on a field […]

Poemas de Objetos Preciados/Treasured Object Poems

In previous classes, I noticed that the student poets at Volta enjoyed writing and talking about some of their favorite items at home: Nintendo switches, soccer balls, or even pens with invisible ink. This […]

Poemas de Deseo/Wish Poems

The start of spring in Chicago felt like the perfect opportunity to write about our dreams. Using a lesson template from CPC poet Leslie Reese as a guide, the students at Volta read a […]

Poemas Borrados/Erasure Poems

This week, the students at Volta looked at various examples of erasure poems, poems that are created by crossing out or drawing over parts of an existing text to reveal a poem. They then […]

Poemas de Écfrasis/ Ekphrastic Poems

This week, our class talked about ekphrastic poetry. We read a poem by the youth winner of the 2021 San Antonio Museum of Art Ekphrastic Art Contest and looked at five paintings, including a […]

Poemas de Colores/Color Poems

During our third class together, the 4th grade poets at Volta Elementary read a translation of a poem about the color blue. We talked about symbolism and how an image, symbol, or color can […]

Poemas Sonoros/Sound Poems

For week two, the 4th grade poets at Volta read two poems that included descriptions of sounds and examples of onomatopoeia. They listened to poems with a rooster announcing itself every morning and a […]

Poemas de Invierno/Winter Poems

For our first bilingual poetry class, Volta 4th graders read a translation of Nikki Giovanni’s “Winter Poem” and spent time thinking about their five senses and images in poems. To prepare for their own […]

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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