All posts in Robbie Telfer

Animale Carnivale (pt. 1)

As part of a partnership with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, I too get to teach the Carnival of the Animals to all of my students. I was able to play the music for “The […]

Michiko Alive Twice (pt. 2)

And here are the rest of the poems. There was a pretty even balance between happy and sad poems, and I hope that they see that there are ways to talk about important things […]

Michiko Alive Twice (pt. 1)

This week we were looking at Jack Gilbert’s “Michiko Dead” to dicsuss imagery and similes. The whole poem is the image half of a simile Gilbert has created about his wife, Michiko, dying. Li […]

Hanging Worries (pt. 2)

I was struck by how I would ask the students to list the things they were worried about and it would usually vacillate between mundane things like grades and horrifying things like clowns murdering […]

Hanging Worries (pt. 1)

For this workshop, the 7th graders of Taft wrote based off of Audre Lorde’s “Hanging Fire.” The poem perfectly represents the mentality I had in 7th grade, where worrying about death has equal value […]

A True Account of Talking to our Stuff (pt. 2)

Since I teach five classes at Taft, I’ll split my posts up like this. Hooray! Mrs. Asvos 7th Grade, 6th Period “Downtown” Morgan Z. The streets roar with anger, Their fury washing oer me, […]

A True Account of Talking to our Stuff (pt. 1)

I’m teaching at Taft High School for 20 weeks this year, 10 weeks with 5 classes of 7th graders and 10 weeks with 8th graders. The first day with Mrs. Asvos’s 7th graders found […]

What Do You Believe?

Moos – Week 12 This week we were looking at out-going poet laureate Natasha Trethewey’s “Southern Fires.” This poem is about keeping silent when you know something wrong is happening, so I asked the […]

Bam-Woosh-Meow

Moos – Week 11 I wanted the young poets to write about sounds this week, and so what better model poem than Li-Young Lee’s “Falling: The Code”? There is no better poem. Well maybe. […]

Insect Petting Zoo, Too…

Moos – Week 10 My second workshop with the University of Illinois Extension’s Master Gardener Insect Petting Zoo went just as good as the first one. The younger kids reacted similarly, though actually less […]

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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