All posts in Waters

‘You have to put water in it:’ Name Poems

‘I celebrate and sing myself…’-Walt Whitman. Students explored names through a series of prompts, which began with reading the poem, ‘a girl named jack’ by Jaqueline Woodson. What occurs in the naming of someone […]

Home Is What We Eat

Hello, poetry lovers 🙂 I believe it’s important to bring what’s happening in the greater world into the classroom. In a lesson largely inspired by Stuti Sharma, this week we talked about what students […]

The People, Places & Things We Come From

Greetings! Last week was our sixth session with Waters 6th graders. We explored the nouns and experiences that make us who we are by writing classic “I Am From” poems. This format is inspired […]

‘it feels like a hug from the past”: Odes

Students read Ode To My Shoes by Francisco X. Alacron before penning their own wonderful odes! Lesson Note: “If it were up to me, everything I love would have a poem in praise of […]

Large & Small Joys

Hello, poetry lovers! After a bit of a holiday break/poetry hiatus, Waters 6th graders were ready to jump back in. For this session, we read Ross Gay’s “Sorrow Is Not My Name” and explored […]

‘The Whee-who/ The waves/ The quiet/ The stir/ Wow.’: Poems on Age and Reflection

Students read and discussed Billy Collin’s poem, ‘On Turning Ten,’ before writing their own poems on the subject of age and nostalgia. Lesson Note: “When you put something out there onto a piece of […]

‘I remember how I always somewhow’: Food & Memory Poems

A discussion of food and memory began our class in preparation for studying Gary Soto’s narrative-style poem, Oranges. Nostalgia and feelings came up a lot in our talks. What emotions are attached to memory […]

How to Triumph, Like a Student

Greetings, friends and poetry lovers! This fourth session for Waters 6th grade was our last one before the holiday break. Since we explored metaphors last week, it only made sense to explore similes this […]

Metaphors, two ways

During our 3rd poetry session at Waters Elementary, we tackled one of the most omnipresent forces in poetry – the metaphor! First, we listened to “Firework” by Katy Perry to find the metaphor there. […]

‘When the Ocean Talks-after Frank O’Hara’: Lyric Poems by Middle Schoolers

A lesson on Personification, giving human qualities to something non-human via the poem: A True Account of Talking to the Sun at Fire Island. We looked at Frank O’ Hara’s touching and somewhat mystifying […]

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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