All posts in Grissom

Heroes

Students read Gwendolyn Brooks, “Young Heroes II | For Don at Saalam”, and we talked and wrote about what a hero is an where we find ours. There is no one mold for a hero […]

Almost There

Students read Nayyiryh Waheed’s poem “fresh” and wrote about what it means to be on the way or almost to something —maybe a goal, maybe an event— and what we might think about to […]

I Was Scared, Not Anymore

Students read “Life Doesn’t Frighten Me” by Maya Angelou, and wrote poems about their fears, overcoming them and ways they will help help protect others and help them overcome fear. In the words of […]

Grissom Elementary School | Acrostic Poems: Allow Us to Introduce Ourselves

We introduced ourselves to each other by reading acrostic poems we wrote about ourselves. How would you introduce yourself in an acrostic poem? Can you find our names written within our poems? _______________________ The […]

Reeemix!

Last week, Grissom students got to learn about the lovely art of revision. While many students had previous experience with revising papers, we talked about what it feels like to work on poems until […]

Blackout Poems

My time at Grissom is coming to a close and I thought it would be a fun change of pace to work on some visiual poetry. Students got to learn what a blackout poem […]

My People, My People

Last week, Grissom’s middle schoolers got to show love to the people most important to them. We began our time together with a brief lesson on the Harlem Renaissance before reading Langston Hughes’ poem […]

Read It and See It

Grissom’s poets never cease to impress me with their cleverness, and this week was no exception. After reading my poem wide-toothed and discussing what we noticed in the poem, students got to brainstorm about […]

Ugh, Gross!

Sometimes, the ick is real. Last week, Grissom’s 6-8th graders had lots to say about their pet peeves. We spent some time sharing some of our icks like chewing loudly and flies buzzing in […]

Maybe We’re Metaphors

Hello again, dear reader! Last week, Grissom’s 6-8th grade students turned into cosmic metaphor explorers. This lesson was inspired by Joy Young and began with a quick question: what’s something you wish you could […]

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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