The power of repetition in Terrance Hayes’ “Sonnet” If you’ve ever worked with students and sonnets, you know how difficult writing a sonnet can be. In a word, it’s complicated. In fact, these little box-shaped poems offer all kinds of challenges for young writers (and their teachers–ha!). For example, when my British Literature students studyContinue reading “The Sonnet for High School (part 1)”
Tag Archives: Writing
My Top 10 Posts of 2021
I’ve compiled this post to put into one place my most-read posts of 2021. I hope you find these helpful, and I really hope you’ll skim through these titles and make sure you haven’t missed any that will help you be a more effective and confident teacher in 2022.
Three Poems for Veterans Day
Try these three poem ideas for Veterans Day with your middle and high school students.
Taylor Mali’s Metaphor Dice
Metaphor Dice are excellent tools for inspiring evocative, poem-worthy ideas. The words set the stage for deeper, extended critical thinking. My poetry students loved them!
Back to School: Four Icebreaker Poems
Get to know your students with these poetry mentor texts School is starting soon in most locales of the United States and teachers are busy gearing up to find interesting. low-stakes ways to get students writing. Poetry is always a no-fail way to encourage students of all ages to get back in the swing ofContinue reading “Back to School: Four Icebreaker Poems”
The Slice of Life Poem
Recently, it occurred to me that slice of life writing would work equally well in poetic form.
How to Make Student Writing More Specific
Being specific in writing means naming things
Ekphrastic Poetry Video Resources for Students
Experiment with ekphrastic poetry and infuse your English class with beautiful art. These videos will help.
My Top 12 Posts of 2020
I packed this post with links to the 12 most-read articles of 2020 from my blog. Click away!
An Idea’s Best Friend: “In other words,”
These three little words — In other words, — help students develop their ideas