All posts in Poems

Future Goals

O-School students thought about the future for their 19th week of poetry. I asked students “What do you wish to do in the future?” We discussed how the future can sometimes be scary, we […]

Of Haikus & Murder

This week at Howe, we were murderous and full of sensation. On Monday, we talked about beats, stomping and clapping our way through the 5-7-5 form of the haiku. After reading haikus about racial […]

Summertime! (3rd grade)

As the weather changes and things start to warm up, it felt like the perfect time to read “Knoxville, TN” by Nikki Giovanni. We watched a video of her reading the poem from Knoxville […]

Extended Metaphors! BOOM! WHOOSH! (And Onomatopoeias)

At Smyser Elementary, we learned about extended metaphors and onomatopoeias through Maya Marie Washington’s poem “Alien.” Students were tasked with writing their own extended metaphor poem where they turned into one non-human thing. Check […]

Myths from long ago . . .

Things became mythical for Twain 6th graders for our 7th week of poetry. A myth is an ancient story or legend explaining the early history of a group of people or about a natural […]

Erasure Poems!

This week at Henry Elementary, we learned about erasure poems and blackout poetry as an extension of this! We looked at examples from Austin Kleon and Tracy K. Smith’s “Declaration.” Poets were tasked with […]

Juxtaposition in Poetry

This last week at Social Justice, we read and watched a portion of Ross Gay’s “Catalogue of Unabashed Gratitude.” We learned about juxtaposition and how to implement this into our writing. Check out this […]

The Perfect Day

The 7th week of poetry for 5th graders involved imagining an ideal day for themselves. I asked students, “What does the perfect day look like to you?” Some students responded with ideas such as […]

Cutting Up! Collage Poems

Students used magazines and created cut-up poems! They used ‘found language’ and images to create new meaning.  Lesson Note: Creative Artist guru Julia Cameron says the part of us who create art is about […]

Fade to Black: Blackout Poems

Blackout Poetry: A blackout poem is created when a poet takes a marker (usually a black marker) to already established text, like that from a newspaper, and starts redacting words until a poem or […]

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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