All posts in Waters

‘I’ve been thinking about the way/you helped’: Kindness Poems

Students wrote and talked about kindness before reading the poem, ‘Small Kindnesses’ by Denusha Lameris. In crafting their own poems students focused on one idea, one stanza and small ways they have been kind […]

Who are our people and how do we find them?

Hello hello! For our second week at Waters Elementary, we discussed stanzas and we discussed what it means to belong. Our poem for the day was José Olivarez’s “I Walk Into Every Room and […]

‘…filled with big bloom flowers’: Exquisite Corpse Group Poems!

Students crafted visual and then poetic Exquisite Corpses! Afterward, they were challenged to create a clay figure of one of their collective group drawings! Below are some images and some of the group poems […]

Exploring Our Writing Impulses at Waters

Greetings, supporters and poetry lovers! This past Wednesday I was thrilled to kick off a yearlong residency with the 6th grade classes at Waters Elementary. After learning more about students’ likes and loves, their […]

Cut Up Poems: Parting action shots!

For a final project, students used magazines and created cut-up poems! They used ‘found language’ and images to create new meanings. Here are some ‘in action’ shots of student hands working away! Teacher: Cavey, […]

Ars Poetica

For my last day with Homeroom 302 at Waters Elementary, the students described what they learned about writing and themselves through the process of writing poetry. They first completed a brainstorm activity where they […]

“I won’t get up/ I can’t/ I won’t get dressed/ I can’t”: Repetition & Routine Poems

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: “Repetition can make magic happen-repeat a word or […]

Riddle Our Fears

This time in poetry class at Waters, homeroom 305 created riddle poems inspired by Sylvia Plath’s poem “Metaphor” which begins, “I’m a riddle in nine syllables.” Students guessed at Plath’s riddle, then had a […]

“and I don’t know when I’ll be”: Meditation Poems and Free Writes

Students participated in a short meditation and breathing exercise. I read them I Close My Eyes by David Ignatow. After the meditation, they were asked to write whatever came to mind. Classwork was conducted […]

Gwendolyn Brooks – Into Music

These past weeks students from Waters focused on including rhythm and rhyme in their poetry, gaining inspiration from Gwendolyn Brooks’ iconic poem “We Real Cool.” Our prompt was to write a poem about others’ […]

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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