All posts in Washington

‘You left as fast as a pitch good-bye’: Simile

We explored Simile in Michael Ondaaje’s poem, Sweet Like A Crow. We also talked about using epigraphs and dedications in verse. Lesson Note: Students played the Pictionary-style game, ‘Draw That Simile’ to get their […]

‘Because art is for everyone to see’

This week we looked at Yannis Ritsos’ poem, Because. We talked about the short form of poetry and the Volta: the place in a poem where it takes a ‘turn of thought or augment.’ […]

‘I remember every word you say’: The Power of Repetition

We explored the powerful device of Repetition in Phil Kaye’s poem of the same name. Some poems in our workshop are ‘after’ Kaye’s work. Lesson Note: Writer/Performer Anna Deavere Smith who interviews people and […]

‘Esto libro es mi vida’: The ‘A’ List

This lesson circulated around the concept of lists. Through Albert Goldbarth’s List Poem, Library (truncated for our purposes here), we began class by making lists of nouns that described memories. The nouns were written […]

‘…show us the bitter meaning of/ love’: Sun Talks To Poet (s)

A lesson on Personification, giving human qualities to something non-human, was our third lesson. We took a look at Frank O’Hara’s touching and somewhat mystifying poem, A True Account of Talking To The Sun […]

What’s Eating You?

A discussion of food and memory began our class in preparation to study Gary Soto’s Narrative Style poem, Oranges. Nostalgia and feelings came up a lot in our talks. What emotions are attached to […]

Art!

My first day of my 20 week residency at Washington really wowed me! The students were eagerly brilliant and so we dug right in to examine William Carlos William’s minimalist Imagist style poem, The […]

Billy Collins’ Most Excellent Adventure!

For our final poem at Washington, I chose, On Turning Ten by Billy Collins. The poem has one looking back while at the same time, looking forward…apropos for a great group of 8th Graders […]

Mixed Media: 1 & 2: Race, Power, Bias, Without Question

The past two sessions we focused on how one might discover poetry in one’s everyday lives– through the poem, Q&A from Erratic Fire, Erratic Passion: The Poetry of Sports Talk by Pasha Mala and […]

No Fear Shakespeare!

A brave group of 8th Graders tackled our old friend Bill Shakespeare with gusto over the past two weeks. Class discussions involved: The Is it Shakespeare of is it Rap? Game, Elizabethan culture, Lin […]

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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