All posts in Poems

‘And, of course, Adidas’: Odes

Students wrote Odes, using personification, after reading Francisco X. Alarcon’s poem, ‘Ode to My Shoes.’ Lesson Note: “If it were up to me, everything I love would have a poem in praise of it. […]

No Silly Questions

Do all questions have an answer? This question was our jumping-off point for this week’s lesson as we read excerpts from Pablo Neruda’s Book Of Questions. After a lively discussion about the nature of […]

Nice To Meet You

This past week Hyde Park Academy High School’s poetry club spoke their names. They discussed their origins, the power of each nickname, and what their names mean to them. These are two of those […]

Poetry As a Canvas

This past Tuesday, I started my afterschool residency at the Gary Comer Center and met a great group of 8th graders. The theme for our first poetry session on was self-portraits. Artists create self-portrait […]

Weekend List Poems 

What does a perfect weekend look like to you? This week we read Pat Mora’s “To Do List” and came up with our own poems using the structure of a list poem. In her […]

“En Otra Vida”

This week Lawndale’s 6th graders explored dreams, with everything from mystery men to goats. Enjoy! Ms. Barker 6th Grade Señor by Anonymous En mi sueño había un señor escalofrianteque me seguía y me había […]

If I were something else, I would be …

For our sixth session of poetry, the O School Group A and B students were asked to transform into different objects, animals, or people using metaphors. Metaphors are direct comparisons, saying that one thing […]

A Glossary of Glossary Poems

This week in class we read “Glossary of Terms” by Franny Choi and discussed how form affects poetry with a new and unique form. Students filled in their own categories for Choi’s terms as […]

You Say You Want a Resolution

This week we read “Burning the Old Year” by Naomi Shihab Nye. As the titles suggests, the poem is about the New Year celebration, though it focuses on its subject obliquely, through a central […]

Writing & Rewriting, pt 2

Ah, the joys of revision! As every great poet knows, much of the “work” of poetry takes place through the revision process. With Waters 6th graders, we talked about some different ways to make […]

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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