All posts in Waters

In the Classroom and Beyond: Transforming Objects with Similes

This past week at Waters Elementary, Mr. Raman’s 8th graders used similes to imaginatively transform everyday classroom objects into things outside the classroom: hair clips became plants, water bottles—mountains, paper—the wind, and desks became […]

“You sizzle and burn out but you never fold from the pressure.” Star Search

Students read a student poem that used personification to talk to a star before trying their hands at their own poems addressing something… bigger than themselves while using words from legendary poet/teacher Kim Addonizio’s […]

“devastating or joyful”: Table Talk

A common household object became the focus for this lesson, while studying Joy Harjo’s poem, Perhaps The World Ends Here. The poet James Merrill once commented that ‘we understand history from the family around […]

Don’t go into the Waters part 2

As promised here are the scary poems/stories from the 7th and 8th grade poets from Waters Elementary!   James R. And Zoe R. It was a cold and stormy night as the high school […]

Haikus in Motion

The poets from Waters Elementary learned and wrote an ancient form of Japanese poetry called Haikus which follow a specific structure of three lines, with the first and last lines consisting of 5 syllables […]

Group Poems

After watching several group poems from the different Poetry Slam competitions, the poets from Waters Elementary wrote their own group pieces. This lesson focused on working together as a team and respecting each other’s […]

Fade To Black: Blackout Poetry

Blackout Poetry: A blackout poem is created when a poet takes a marker (usually a black marker) to already established text–like that from a newspaper–and starts redacting words until a poem is formed or […]

‘go in search of crocodiles’: Travel Poems

We took a look at Richard Blanco’s prose/mix/hybrid poem about missed destinations, We Are Not Going to Malta. Students were then given travel brochures exhibiting lush locales (decidedly not always depicting reality), and asked […]

‘a secret/ Recipe passed down…’: Portrait Poems

Students read Instructions to the Artist by Billy Collins before crafting their own portrait-inspired poems. Lesson Note: According to findings by the leading researcher on the power of writing and journaling for healing purposes, […]

‘I’ll start’: Star Poems

Students read Choose Something Like A Star by Robert Frost and listened to a choral arrangement of the same poem, before trying their hands at their own poems addressing something… bigger than themselves. Lesson […]

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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