All posts in chicago poetry center

‘Clapping our hands when their perforation ended’: School Memory Poems

Students crafted their own school memory poems after reading Connie Wanek’s beautiful poem, Rain Changing to Snow Lesson Note: According to findings by the leading researcher on the power of writing and journaling for […]

‘To fight the night become the light. ‘: Odes

Students read ‘Ode To My Shoes’ by Francisco X. Alacron before penning their own odes. Below are some of their wonderful poems. Lesson Note: “Go into the arts. I’m not kidding. The arts are […]

‘Everybody looks…’: Odes

Students wrote Odes about something or someone they wanted to exalt after reading ‘Ode To My Shoes’ by Francisco X. Alacron. Lesson Note: “Rhyme and rhythm have been shown to intensify emotions at a […]

‘…Casper the Ghost playing with me’: Poems on Age and Reflection

Students shared childhood stories before writing their own poems reflecting back on their younger selves, as the speaker did in Billy Collin’s poem, On Turning Ten. Lesson Note. “I think one of the strengths […]

‘and dad/ and mom/and people/ and pool/’: Food and Memory Poems

Nikki Giovanni is a well-known African-American poet who spent summers with her grandparents in Knoxville, Tennessee, when she was a little girl, doing many of the same things kids like to do during the […]

‘The Whee-who/ The waves/ The quiet/ The stir/ Wow.’: Poems on Age and Reflection

Students read and discussed Billy Collin’s poem, ‘On Turning Ten,’ before writing their own poems on the subject of age and nostalgia. Lesson Note: “When you put something out there onto a piece of […]

‘When I go to the water …’: Exquisite Corpse-Style Group Poems

Working on poetic lines, 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 […]

‘I remember how I always somewhow’: Food & Memory Poems

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

Hip Hop as Self-Empowerment

When we can, we love to collaborate with the other after school programs. The dance program was asked to prepare an assembly for today, so some of the boys in our Poets with Class […]

Poetry is never home “work!”

The MLK after school program is primarily for the 6th-8th graders but a few 5th graders that are wise beyond their years often join us after school. Sade, is one of those 5th graders. […]

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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