All posts in Poems

The Winter Blues

I wasn’t expecting it to be quite so sunny and warm for today’s session with Mr. Reinholdt’s 7th graders, but decided it was still a great day for a snowball fight! Inspired by a […]

Family Celebrities

This week in Ms. Murray’s 4th grade class we read My Dad by Ashley Bryan. We talked about how the short lines of the poem helped to give it a rhythm, and while it […]

”I’m such a fool to not see life is cool”: Gwendolyn Brooks-Inspired Poems

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, repetition, and the short form. We Real Cool […]

Undefeatable Poems

First graders are strong, powerful, and fearless! (Well… most of the time!) We learned about amazing poet Maya Angelou and listened to her read from a poem she wrote “for all children who whistle […]

‘people calm as an empty hospital’: Simile Poems

Students talked about similes before reading Mike Taylor’s poem filled with the same! Here is some of the writing that resulted from that exercise! Lesson Note: “Writers don’t need tricks or gimmicks or even […]

Remember to Write

“Remember” by Joy Harjo was this week’s selection. After hearing it read aloud, we wondered who the speaker might be—the poet, or someone (or something) else? One of the first elements of poetry we […]

Line and Rhyme

Students read “Josh Bell” By Kwame Alexander and introduced themselves through their passions, focusing on line and rhyme! Voice and perspective! Mr. Charmelo, 7th grade, 1st period No Muhammad Ali by Royal G No […]

“Taking a bite is like eating heaven” Taste with South Loop Poetry Club!

Last week at South Loop Poetry Club, we continued our study of the senses and read “Fried Chicken” by Kwame Alexander to inspire us to write about how tasty our favorite foods are. Please […]

Sound Poems

This week Ms. Murray’s 4th graders got to work on sound poems. We discussed all the different things that we hear in the various environments we live in. We talked about what we hear […]

I am King but not a Lion

The 8th graders at Sayre Language Academy kicked off their residency with some powerful introductions, see for yourself! We watched I Am Limitless by Lina Abojaradeh and took inspiration from how she defines herself. […]

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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