All posts in Joy Young

Letters floating in the clouds

For their 15th week of poetry O-School students explored epistolary poems, poems that can be written in the style of letters. Letter writing is no longer as popular as it was in the past, […]

5th grade sound machines

For our third week, Twain 5th graders explored sound effects in poetry. Poets often use Onomatopoeia, words that imitate sounds from everyday life to emphasis the images and actions occurring in a poem. We […]

“I am so sunny, you need sunglasses to see me”

For our third week of poetry, Twain 6th graders explored ideas about weather. They were asked the question “What type of weather describes your own personalities? We discussed how the weather and seasons can […]

“a poem like no other poet as written or rewritten before.”

I can’t believe O-School students are halfway through their 20-week poetry residency. For week 14, we revisit poems we have written together throughout our residency. We read and discussed the poem “Dear Poet,” by […]

Transformation Time

For their second session of poetry, 5th graders explored metaphors. Metaphors are direct comparisons, saying that one thing is another thing. Together we read and watched a video clip of Michael Salinger performing his […]

Welcome to the neighborhood!

For our second session of poetry this week, Twain 6th grades traveled to other places, through vivid imagery. Imagery is when a poet paints a picture inside their readers minds. What make a place […]

Unique and underrated names

O’ School students had their 13th session of poetry on Monday. This week’s theme was about names. I asked students: Why are names important? If you could choose another name for yourself, what would […]

The name that’s true to me

Last Friday was my first poetry session with Twain 6th gradera. Since it was our first time meeting each other, we discussed the importance of names. Names are part of our identities; names are […]

Many Ways to Write a Poem

This past Thursday, I was excited to meet Twain 5th graders for the start of our 10-week residency. Some students I had worked with last year as 4th graders, so it’s great to see […]

Mythical Poets

For their 12th week of poetry O-School students explored myths. A myth is an ancient story or legend explaining the early history of a group of people or about a natural phenomenon.  Students were […]

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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