All posts in Waters

Collage poems

Poetry and collage aren’t so far removed! Water’s 7th graders explored the intersection of the two by looking at examples from artists like Krista Franklin and Marcus Dawson. Then students created their own collage […]

most things are beautiful firecrackers

For our most recent session with Waters 6th graders, we delved into erasure poems, also known as blackout poems. After looking at a variety of examples, each student received an excerpt from Sandra Cisneros’ […]

Poems (with footnotes)

This week Water’s 6th and 7th graders in Ms. Smallwood and Ms. Hernandez’ classes read “Thank you Letter (with footnotes)” by John Grandits. In class we discussed creating double meanings in our writing and […]

‘Ask me about what my wonderful family does and i will tell:’ Abecedarians

Students wrote “Abecedarian” poems that use the entire alphabet as the lefthand spine of the poem. Lesson Note: “My essential poetics is simply to be doing something, making something, playing, struggling, learning something – […]

Comic Poems!

This week in Ms. Smallwood and Ms. Hernandez’s classes we read an excerpt from Cartoon Dialectics by Tom Kaczynskki and discussed how something can both be a comic and a poem. We came up […]

‘For 100s of sleep unders and overs’: Letter-Poems

Students wrote letter poems called Epistolary poems after reading Kobe Bryant’s poem, ‘Dear Basketball.’ Lesson Note: “When you make art, and you don’t know what’s going to happen, you’re involved in the mystery that […]

A picture is worth infinite words

Beautiful magic can be made when words and images collide. For that reason, Waters 7th graders dove into the world of Ekphrastic Poetry. Ekphrastic poems are written in response to an image, often a […]

A picture is worth ______ words…

Beautiful magic can be made when words and images collide. For that reason, Waters 6th graders dove into the world of Ekphrastic Poetry. Ekphrastic poems are written in response to an image, often a […]

Poems after Paintings

This week students dipped their toes into art criticism. We read “Untitled #9, 1981” by Victoria Chang, after the Painting by Agnes Martin of the same name. We discussed how Chang’s poem described the […]

‘I remember now. Aha!’: James Tate Imitations.

Students read James Tate’s poem, ‘Untitled,’ where the speaker embellishes their accomplishments…just a little. Lesson Note: “I love my funny poems, but I’d rather break your heart. And if I can do both 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