All posts in poem

‘sometimes stare’: Self-Portrait Poems

After reading student poet Noor S.’s poem ‘Self Portrait with my Loose Hijab, ‘ students wrote self-portrait poems focusing on one aspect of themselves! Self-Portrait with my loose hijab  By Noora S.  Trying to […]

‘Quinceañera’: Poems of Play

Students made the old-school paper game called a ‘Cootie Catcher,’, which is a form of origami used in children’s games. Parts of the catcher are labeled with words that serve as options for a […]

‘now find the/sign’: Table Poems

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

‘Attitude knows her worth and/ she don’t play’: Emotion Poems

Students talked about and then wrote poems about emotions using personification. Lesson Note: “Developing creativity in students is not a luxury.” How Social-Emotional Imagination Facilitates Deep Learning and Creativity in the Classroom  Gotlieb, Jahner, […]

‘I’m kayaking up to Sleeping Bear Dunes’: 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 to […]

‘In the lilac field it started’: Experimental Forms of Poetry

Students made the old-school paper in-class pass time called a ‘Cootie Catcher,’ which is a form of origami used in children’s games. Parts of the catcher are labeled with words that serve as options […]

‘Coming Home’: A Lesson in Metaphor & Values

Students read Sylvia Plath’s poem ‘Metaphors’ and then wrote their own metaphor-based poems. They also did some free writing around the topic of Values that you will see here. Lesson Note: Mrs. McClain, 7th […]

‘A big scissor staircase and big scissor nails. ‘: Experimental Forms of Poetry

Students created Jorge Enrique Adoum imitations via his poem, ‘Development, ‘ that ‘sets the stage,’ much like the initial phases of a story or play. The poem uses descriptive language and imagination to create […]

‘lilac color skies cover my glass roof’: Experimental Poems

Students made the old school paper game, called a ‘Cootie Catcher’ which is a form of origami used in children’s games. As you may recall, parts of the ‘catcher’ are labeled with words that […]

‘but we unsure whether we’re cool or not’: Gwendolyn Brooks Imitations

Students read Gwendolyn Brooks’ classic poem, ‘We Real Cool’ before crafting their own ‘cool’ poems using their own words and ideas for what is cool, rhyme repetition, and the short form. We Real Cool […]

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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