All posts in Poems

Cooking Poems & Illustrations

Today, Brennemann 2nd Graders in Ms. Richter‘s class worked collaboratively to create a recipe for how to cook a poem: “How to Cook a Wonderful Poem”by the Class First: get pencils, papers, and erasersfrom […]

“Pencils are wild, magical, and so cool”

On the last day of our 2nd grade poetry residency at Swift – we looked at Carl Sandburg‘s poem “Pencils,” in which I omitted a number of words and lines. Students came up with […]

“…misty water-colored memories”

For our last session, Brennemann 5th graders talked about the different ways that “freedom” is experienced as they move from being younger to older. They talked about not having homework, chores, or responsibilities, and […]

“Poetry is many things that inspire people…”

To bring our terrific 6-week poetry residency with 2nd graders to a close, we talked about (1) things that poetry is: “many things that inspire people;” “imaginative;” “an art;” “its own world;” “art & […]

Zines!

At our final week at Social Justice, we explored how to make zines and the deep and rich community that zine culture creates. We shared both digital and in-person communities around zine making from […]

I am…

Metaphors allow us to transform ourselves, if just for a moment. The 7th graders of Nettelhorst asked themselves what they could become after we read “The Delight Song of Tsoai-talee” by N. Scott Momaday. […]

America’s Nation

During our most recent workshop, Hyde Park began our session by attempting to fill in a map of the United States. This sparked a discussion about what it means to be part of a […]

Persona Poems

This week as we prepare to wind down and finish up our residency, I decided to bring in a wonderful lesson plan by another Poet In Residence, Noel Quiñones. We started off by listening […]

Sounds We Hate, Sounds We Love

We all have sounds we adore and sounds that make us cringe. The 7th graders of Nettelhorst asked themselves what these sounds were for them before we read “Sweet Like a Crow” by Michael […]

Black Out Poems!

At Smyser Elementary, students explored blackout poems and created their visual poetry through art. Check out what they created! Mrs. Showalter’s ClassHazel P. Valerie S., “Where have all the children gone?” Noah C. Sienna […]

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“Writing poetry makes me feel like I can see myself, like I can see my reflection, but not in a mirror, in the world. I write and I know I can be reflected.”
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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