All posts in chicago public schools

‘Lilac/ Dreams’: Making Poems from a Game!

Students made the old-school paper game called a ‘Cootie Catcher,’, which is a form of origami used in children’s games. Parts of the catcher are labeled with words that serve as options for a […]

A Cut Above: Cut-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 creates art is about […]

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 […]

‘When I was 5 /my parents gave me the choice…: Choose Your Own Adventure Poems

Students were instructed to grab a book and find words and passages that stood out to them, or to use random words as the starting point for a poem. They were then instructed to […]

Heroes

Students read Gwendolyn Brooks, “Young Heroes II | For Don at Saalam”, and we talked and wrote about what a hero is an where we find ours. There is no one mold for a hero […]

Almost There

Students read Nayyiryh Waheed’s poem “fresh” and wrote about what it means to be on the way or almost to something —maybe a goal, maybe an event— and what we might think about to […]

I Was Scared, Not Anymore

Students read “Life Doesn’t Frighten Me” by Maya Angelou, and wrote poems about their fears, overcoming them and ways they will help help protect others and help them overcome fear. In the words of […]

‘Endless mirror’: Star Poems

Students read a student poem that used personification to talk to a star before trying their hands at their own poems addressing something… bigger than themselves, while using words from legendary poet/teacher Kim Addonizio’s […]

‘I can’t. Take it. ANYMORE!!!’: Repetition Poems

We explored the powerful device of Repetition in Phil Kaye’s poem of the same name. Some poems in our workshop are ‘after’ Kaye’s work. Lesson Note: “Repetition can make magic happen- repeat a word 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