All posts in Sayre

Personification and Nature

Lesson Note: This week, we learned what personification was and experimented with writing about it! We then wrote about nature, some with personification, and some with imagery, which we also read about.   Mrs. […]

“you overthink /and you overdrink the thoughts”: School Woes & Blues Poems

Students wrote ‘School Subject Woes’ with end-rhymes after watching a teen recite their original poem, ‘Mathematical Blues’. Lesson Note: “I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking, what I’m looking at, what I […]

What Is Freedom?

This past week at Sayre Language Academy we recalled learning Gwendolyn Brook’s poem “We Real Cool” and answered why it is so easy to remember–the music. We focused on rhyming and writing poems about […]

We Real Cool: Misconceptions about this Generation

This week we focused on including rhythm and rhyme in poetry, gaining inspiration from Gwendolyn Brooks’ iconic poem “We Real Cool.” Our poetry prompt was to write a poem about others’ misconceptions about the […]

Place Poems

Lesson Note: This week, we drew places that were special or significant, and then we wrote poems about those places. We learned that writing poems about a piece of art is an ekphrastic poem. […]

“My voice is stronger than Mike Tyson./ My voice will knock you out with kindness.”: Voice-activated.

Students wrote ‘My Voice” poems after watching a slam poetry team perform on the same theme! Lesson Note: “To be nobody-but-yourself — in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to […]

“We lit/ we finna dip”: Gwendolyn Brooks and The Art of Cool

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 […]

Mystical Myths

Lesson Note: This week, we focused on symbols and myths, and all things magical and ususual! Students wrote their own myth stories and shared them with each other.   Mrs. Childs, 5th Grade   […]

Feeling Like an Animal

This past week at Sayre the 7th grade students identified how they feel throughout their day, especially how these feelings change at different times during the day and on different days during the week. […]

“I look at the sky. Then back at it”: Time of Day Poems

Students read Peggy Trojan’s deceptively simple poem, Noon Hour, We talked about the two-word title, the two-stanza poem, short lines, putting big ideas into small containers, empathy, marginalized characters, and the one period at […]

Donate

Support our student poets today!

CONNECT WITH US!

Twitter Facebook-f Instagram

STUDENT POETRY

Click on a school name below to browse student poems from current school partners.

POETRY ARCHIVE

Click on a school name below to browse student poems from our archive.

RECENT FACEBOOK POSTS

TESTIMONIALS

“Writing poetry makes me feel like I can see myself, like I can see my reflection, but not in a mirror, in the world. I write and I know I can be reflected.”
-Oscar S.

“Writing poetry makes me feel free.”
-Buenda D.

“Writing poetry is like your best friend.”
-Jessica M.

Search

CONTACT US

General Inquiries
info@poetrycenter.org

Programs (School & Organizational)
programs@poetrycenter.org

Reading Series and Events:
curator@poetrycenter.org

The Chicago Poetry Center is a registered 501(c)3 non-profit organization.
FEIN: 23-7400515

SEND US A POSTCARD

Chicago Poetry Center
1448 E. 52nd St, #256
Chicago, IL 60615

I’M FROM THE CITY LIGHTS / STREAMING OUT IN THE NIGHT / AND HUGE SKYSCRAPERS / TOWERING OVER THE LAKE – MELISSA E., 7TH GRADE POET