All posts in Deneen

“I saw happiness /not emptiness I felt loved/ not only.”: Meditation and Blackout Poems

Younger students made Blackout Poems, and older students participated in a short meditation and breathing exercise. I read them I Close My Eyes by David Ignatow. After the meditation, they were asked to write […]

“I can hear the seafood bubbling” & “My voice is rain to the sky”: Food & Voice Themed Performance Poems!

Younger students wrote food-inspired poems after reading a Nikki Giovanni poem about food! Nikki Giovanni is a well-known African-American poet who used to spend summers with her grandparents in Knoxville, Tennessee, when she was […]

“3. I want my shirt to be yellow. 6.Have my dog in there 7. Put my dog in a yellow shirt:” Instructions to the Artist Poems

Young students wrote dream-themed poems and the older students read Instructions to the Artist by Billy Collins before crafting their own portrait-inspired poems. Lesson Note: According to findings by the leading researcher on the […]

“The amount of tears it/ holds. The memories of food it held.” : Turning Tables

Younger students read a poem by Langston Hughes called ‘April Rain Song‘ before making their own Springtime poems. For older students, a common household object became the focus of this lesson while studying Joy […]

“it’s cool like we get in the pool” & ” An F- feels like two winters”: Gwendolyn Brooks & Comparison Poems

Younger students wrote comparison poems and the older students read Gwendolyn Brooks’ classic poem, ‘We Real Cool’ before crafting their own ‘cool’ poems using their own words and ideas for what is cool, rhyme […]

“my mom said it means Love from the sea.”: The Sound & Name Game

‘I celebrate and sing myself…’-Walt Whitman Students explored sounds and names through a series of prompts. What is in a sound… and in a name? We talked about both! 3rd graders came up with […]

“Wondering about about about EVeRyThIng”: Poems about wishes, wants…and night

Students doodled, dreamed, and read poems about wishes, things that go bump in the night, and a ‘Quiet Night Thought’ by poet Li Bai before crafting their own wonderful works. Quiet Night Thought by […]

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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