- BY: Leslie Reese
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This week Twain 3rd graders read and discussed “What is Brown?” by Mary O’Neill; then worked to combine sensory details, similes, and metaphors to describe color. Ms. Lee3rd Grade Liam E. Bright lime is […]
- BY: Joy Young
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For their 7th week of poetry, Twain 4th graders thought about different ways they communicate with others. A few students mentioned learning sign language and even signed words for me with their hands. Other […]
- BY: Russell Price
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I’m so excited for this batch of young Viking writers. This week the poets read Brigit Pegeen Kelly’s “The Leaving” and were tasked with writing a poem in an epic manner about something they […]
- BY: Cai Sherley
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Week two at Lawndale was all about rhyme. After a classic game of Concentration 64, students used their rhyming skills to write poems about their city, the good and the bad, the happy and […]
- BY: Joy Young
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This past Monday I was excited to be back for another residency at the O School. I taught poetry during the summer session and I’m looking forward to having twenty weeks to share and […]
- BY: Joy Young
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This past Monday I was excited to be back for another residency at the O School. I taught students during the summer session and I’m looking forward to having twenty weeks to share and […]
- BY: Timothy David Rey
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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 is one such sample. Students created topics around which […]
- BY: Ola Faleti
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How exciting to be back at Waters for another year of poetry! Last year’s sixth graders are now seventh graders, and I look forward to building on our poetry knowledge from last year. As […]
- BY: Ola Faleti
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How exciting to be back at Waters for another year of poetry! To lay a good foundation with the two 6th grade classes I’m working with, we started with some community agreements and discussed […]
- BY: Mayda del Valle
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Welcome back! This week students finished up the pieces they started during our last session about “Where I’m From”. They all did a great job of using imagery and the five senses in their […]
- BY: Fabian Nunez
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In September, the Poetry Foundation hosted a closing event for CPC’s 50th anniversary exhibition. The afternoon included a screening of A Bigger Table: 50 Years of the Chicago Poetry Center, a short documentary about […]
- BY: Timothy David Rey
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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.’ […]
- BY: Josie Levin
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In our first class meeting, Waters 6th and 7th graders read “Self-Portrait with my hijab” by Noora S. a 7th grader at Peterson Elementary. In class students discussed the use emotion and the idea […]
- BY: Leslie Reese
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After not meeting last week because of Parent-Teacher Conferences and Election Day, it was good to return to Twain 3rd grade classrooms this week! The key term this week was imagery, which many students […]
- BY: Joy Young
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For their sixth week of poetry Twain 4th graders learned about making a “To Do” list. This type of list helps someone keep track of all the tasks they have to complete. I asked […]
- BY: Cai Sherley
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This past Monday kicked off Lawndale Community Academy’s Poetry Residency with Ms. Barker’s 6th and 8th grade ELA classes. Our first session was an opportunity to get to know each other; thus, the day’s […]
- BY: Mayda del Valle
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Week 1 Blog I’m so excited to be back at Perez Elementary again. This year our residency will be with Ms. Murray’s and Ms. Caplan’s 6th graders. We started off our first session by […]
- BY: Timothy David Rey
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Students crafted visual and then poetic Exquisite Corpses! It’s a great way to work with one line at a time, which was the goal! Afterward, they were challenged to create a clay figure of […]
- BY: Joy Young
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Things got louder and noisier for Twain 4th graders during their fifth week of poetry. Students discovered Onomatopoeia, when poets use words that imitate sounds from everyday life. I had shown examples of onomatopoeia […]
- BY: Leslie Reese
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Week 4 of our 3rd grade residency was during the final week of October, and many students were looking forward to overflows of Halloween treats! We warmed up by verbally creating similes that were […]
- BY: Poetry Center
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PACBI and BDS at CPC In 2024 Chicago Poetry Center conducted a community process and vote to formally adopt the guidelines of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) […]
- BY: Joy Young
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This week is Halloween! To celebrate, on Tuesday, Twain 4th graders learned how rhymes can be magical. I asked students, “If you could create a magic spell, what would you use it for? Students […]
- BY: Leslie Reese
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For our 3rd session, I brought in containers of things for Twain 3rd graders to smell: (1) fresh lemon zest with lemon juice; (2) almond extract; (3) dried and fresh orange peel; (4) vanilla […]
- BY: Joy Young
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For our 3rd week of poetry, Twain 4th graders thought about memorable places they have visited, whether it’s in their neighborhood or as far away as Mexico. Travel is about adventure and a discovery […]
- BY: Fabian Nunez
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CPC is facilitating three poetry workshops for middle and high school students at the Boys & Girls Club in Bridgeport! Musu Bangura, Timothy David Rey, and Madison Mae Parker are the Poets in Residence […]
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