All posts in Swift

“I give the thoughts that speak through my heart”

I was pleased to be invited to return to Swift as a poet in residence, again – this is year five! For our first session of this school year’s residency, it was all about […]

Summer Dreaming

Last week was my last session with Swift 2nd graders for the 2022-23 school year. We read I’d Know You Anywhere, My Love by Nancy Tillman, and students visited their poetry folders to review […]

Begin With a Question

Do you know the recipe for courage? What about the recipe for how to be a fast runner? Most recently at Swift, 2nd graders in Ms. Urquiza’s class worked on their Recipe Poems. Students […]

Acrostically Yours

For our 15th sessions, Swift 2nd graders sat on the rugs in their classrooms, and put on their imagination hats while I read aloud from Rob Gonsalvez’s Imagine a World. Students marveled to see […]

Whisking and Mixing Recipe Poems

For our 14 sessions, I showed up on Tuesday instead of our usual Thursday – a fact that did not go unnoticed by Swift 2nd graders! I brought with me a few kitchen items, […]

Monster Class

For our 13th sessions, Swift 2nd graders had fun with Dennis Lee’s poems, “I Eat Kids, Yum Yum.” They played with voices and imagined long lists of monsters and their characteristics, before writing their […]

“Nature Happiness”

In the days returning to school after spring break, Swift 2nd graders had a touch of spring fever! In addition to looking forward to playing in the sun and warm temperatures for recess, they […]

Ticklish Tuesday

For our 11th sessions, Swift 2nd graders met on Tuesday, rather than Thursday, when a special program is planned for the time we usually meet. We read Pat Mora’s poem, “Writing Secrets,” before exploring […]

If They Were in Charge of the World

When I first created the “My World” poetry lesson, I used Gwendolyn Brooks’s “A Little Girl’s Poem,” – which I really love. This year I decided to use a different example poem. So, during […]

Cinquain!

I had planned a lesson on 2 kinds* of the five-line poetry form known as cinquain for my 9th sessions with Swift 2nd graders. Since they have been learning about poetry with their classroom […]

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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