All posts in Waters

‘I sift my hands through the sail sand I see’: Poems of Observation

Students read ‘Along the East River and in the Bronx Young Men Were Singing‘ by Ariel Francisco, in a nod to the opening lines of Fredrico Lorca’s ode to Walt Whitman, ‘ By the […]

Concrete Week!

This week in Ms. Smallwood’s 6th grade class and Ms. Hernandez’s 7th grade class we took a crack at concrete poems. We read “Spew Machine” by John Grandits and discussed the logistics of a […]

Being 6 is gone in a blink of an eye

Oh, nostalgia. It’s a powerful feeling, and one that 7th graders at Waters explored with the Aimee Nezhukumatathil poem “When I Was 6”. Before we read the poem, I asked students to think back […]

The clock was always there

Oh, nostalgia. It’s a powerful feeling, and one that 6th graders at Waters explored with the Aimee Nezhukumatathil poem “When I Was 6”. Before we read the poem, I asked students to think back […]

‘where the dove still sings’ : Poems of Place

Students wrote ‘Where I’m From’ poems investigating the real and fantastical in poetry. Lesson Note: “What I like about this exercise is that it asks poets to look at what we think and think […]

Repeat, Repeat, Repeat

This week in class we read the poem “The Gift” by Ocean Vuong and talked about the way this poem uses repetition and how to incorporate it into our own poems. Students wrote about […]

‘First of all, I am thankful for Beyonce’: Thanks Poems

Students read ‘Thanks’ by W.S. Merwin before crafting their poems and musings on thanks! Lesson Note: “Being grateful is linked to higher levels of life satisfaction, optimism, vitality, helpfulness, empathy, forgiveness, and positive affect. […]

Dear _______,

​For our 6th session with Waters 7th Graders, we explored the epistolary poem (ie, a poem in letter form). Our mentor text was “Dear P” by Victoria Chang. We talked about who P might […]

I am from life

We are all composed of the many places, people, things, and experiences that make us who we are. Which is why I love the George Ella Lyons poem “Where I’m From” and subsequent variations […]

If the world was pink

For our last session before the winter break and new year, 7th graders thought about ideal worlds. We discussed the fact that poetry can be a powerful tool for envisioning the world you want […]

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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