All posts in Skinner West

110 per Cento effort

Hard to believe, but we’ve reached the conclusion of another residency at Skinner West. As is usually the norm, I first wrapped up some brief bits regarding everything we learned to date—including myself, since […]

Picture This

For our penultimate class, we read and discussed “A Sunset” by Ari Banias. One of the first, off-the-cuff comments from many students remarked on the poem’s single stanza, and we talked about what the […]

Object-ified

There was a lot to discuss with this week’s timely selection, “End of April” by Phillis Levin. Unlike our prior poem, the language in this one is easy to understand—with one simile and one […]

To the Letter

It was recently Earth Day, so this week’s poem choice was inspired by that annual event commemorating the environmental movement. Matthew Olzmann‘s “Letter to Someone Living Fifty Years from Now” isn’t very subtle; after […]

Go It Alone

For our first post-spring break session, we read and discussed “Alone” by Maya Angelou. Immediate impressions involved a few things: the poem’s longer length, its more story-like format, use of repetition, and its musicality, […]

Elemental

It was a densely foggy morning as I drove to Skinner West for this week’s residency—the perfect start to a day where we read and discussed Octavio Paz‘s “Wind, Water, Stone.” The first thing […]

On the March

Nearing the midpoint (!) of our residency, this week we discussed a poem that makes potent use of personification: Emily Dickinson‘s “Dear March—Come in—.” Before hearing it read aloud, I asked students if they […]

Rave or Raven?

Now fully in the swing of poetic-things, this week we read and discussed Stephen Kuusisto‘s “Raven, Helsinki Harbor.” Certain students immediately commented on its relative brevity, as well as its more prose-like look, demonstrated […]

Vote of Confidence

We settled in pretty smoothly to our second week of the residency with a very different poem to read and discuss: Aimee Nezhukumatathil’s “One Vote.” Unlike last week’s selection, there’s no overt reliance on […]

Ars Poetica? You Betcha!

Great to be back in-person with the 4th graders at Skinner West! After being remote by necessity last year, the energy was unmistakable among students and teachers in each classroom as we settled in […]

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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