All posts in poem

”I’m such a fool to not see life is cool”: Gwendolyn Brooks-Inspired Poems

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 […]

‘Everyone makes mistakes’: Potion Poems

Students read Truth Serum by Naomi Shihab Nye before penning their own special recipes and serums via poetry! Lesson Note: “When you put something out there onto a piece of paper, what you’ve actually […]

‘remember that’: Small Kindnesses 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 […]

‘You have to put water in it:’ Name Poems

‘I celebrate and sing myself…’-Walt Whitman. Students explored names through a series of prompts, which began with reading the poem, ‘a girl named jack’ by Jaqueline Woodson. What occurs in the naming of someone […]

‘A war in my heart’: Name Poems

Students explored names through a series of prompts, which began with a reading of ‘a girl named Jack’ by Jaqueline Woodson. What occurs in the naming of someone or something? How does it sound […]

‘it feels like a hug from the past”: Odes

Students read Ode To My Shoes by Francisco X. Alacron before penning their own wonderful odes! Lesson Note: “If it were up to me, everything I love would have a poem in praise of […]

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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