All posts in Waters

‘For fortitude fills each word that I speak.’: How We Talk Poems

Students read Langston Hughes’ poem, ‘Motto,’ and then wrote their short poems using modern slang.  “Motto” by Langston Hughes I play it cool And dig all jive That’s the reason I stay alive. My […]

“power already in my bones” Corrupting the Sonnet

This week in class we read “My earliest memory is telling myself stories without” by Diane Seuss and expanded on some of the history of poetic forms we started with odes. We discussed how […]

“How can you tell a name is yours? / You hold it tight”

This week in class we read “Everyone who happens to live where” by Kimberly Alidio. We talked about our names, what they meant in the past and what they might mean in the future. […]

Once I was funny like really funny: self-portrait poems

For this 13th week with Waters 7th graders, we explored the self-portrait poem. How do we paint ourselves? Mary Jo Bang’s self portrait poem paints a pretty odd, confusing version of herself. We talked […]

Instructions: Grow up to be troublemaker with hair as gold as wheat

For our lucky 13th poetry session with Waters 6th graders, we talked about instructions – why does one give them? What makes for good ones? We opened with an activity where a few students […]

“Lemon/Lime by itself” Odes to the Unusual

This week we read “Ode to my socks” by Pablo Neruda. Students thought about the things they love and were challenged to write an ode to the most unusual. The below poems are a […]

the opposite of me – Persona poems

For our 12th week with Waters 7th graders, we explored Persona poems. These are poems written in the voice of someone else. For this lesson we discussed examples of celeb personas (like Beyonce/Sasha Fierce, […]

I should be me – Persona poems

For our 12th week with Waters 6th graders, we explored Persona Poems. These are poems written in the voice of someone else. For this lesson we read one of my poems (!!) titled “Lavender” […]

‘To be hapcited’: Emotion Poems

Students talked about and then wrote poems about emotions using personification and other poetic devices. Some students created new emotions to write about by combining two existing emotions. Lesson Note: “Developing creativity in students […]

‘I take a big, deep breath’: Meditation Poems

Students participated in a short meditation and breathing exercise. I read I Close My Eyes by David Ignatow.  After the meditation, they were asked to write whatever came to mind. Classwork was conducted in […]

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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