All posts in chicago poetry center

‘Griffins, changelings, alicorns, unicorns, pegasus’ and ‘It/ made us feel like/ movie stars’: Children’s Television Poems

What TV shows did we cherish when we were young? What did we learn from them? What makes a hero (both real or imagined), and how can we learn from them (even the villains) […]

‘…when I sit in my own sea…’: Kindness Poems

Students wrote and talked about kindness before reading the poem, ‘Small Kindnesses’ by Denusha Lameris. In crafting their own poems students focused on one idea, one stanza and small ways they have been kind […]

‘blue sky’: Ars Poetica

Students crafted visual and then poetic Exquisite Corpses! Afterward, they were challenged to create a clay figure of one of their collective group drawings! Below is one such sample. Students created topics around which […]

‘This world placed into a small wooden board called/ a table’: Joy Harjo-inspired Poems

A common household object became the focus of this lesson  while studying Joy Harjo’s poem, Perhaps The World Ends Here.  The poet James Merrill once commented, ‘we understand history from the family around the table.’ […]

‘wrapped in a dress of seaweed..’ Simply Exquisite!

Students crafted visual and then poetic Exquisite Corpses! It’s a great way to work with one line at a time, which was the goal! Afterward, they were challenged to create a clay figure of […]

‘Unity’: A Series of Blackout Poems

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

Cutting Up: Collage Poems

Students used magazines to create cut-up or collage poems, using ‘found language’ and images to create new meaning. Contributors are: 7th and 8th Grade Students from Mrs. McClain’s Classroom: Piper M., Sloan L., Noah […]

Summering Party

Sayre 7th graders recalled the key terms: imagery and line. Looking to Parneshia Jones’ “For The Basement Parties at the YMCA” they sought out rich images, striking sounds, and astute line breaks. Then, they […]

‘Meowtastic’ & ‘She was a woman changed by his blood ‘: Hero & Villian Acrostic Poems

Students wrote Acrostic Poems, in which certain letters in each line form a word or words. The theme was ‘Heroes,’ both real and imagined, or Supervillains. Lesson Note: “You don’t need permission to make […]

‘What is 7th Grade?’: Blackout Poetry

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

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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