Inspiration In the vignette “Hairs” from House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros reveals many interesting details about the narrator’s family, especially her mother, through a discussion of one physical trait: hair. Her first paragraph describes the hair of the narrator’s father and the hair of …
Inspiration Etheree Taylor Armstong, an Arkansas poet, created a simple poetic form called appropriately Etheree. An etheree consists of ten lines with each line’s syllabication increasing by one. Line 1 begins with one syllable, line two has two syllables, line three has three syllables, etc. …
Inspiration Today I invite you to compose a Blitz poem. Created by Robert Kiem, the Blitz poem speeds along in a succession of short phrases reinforced by repetition. Although 50 lines long, the short phrases and repetition make the Blitz a snappy poem easy to …
Thank you for joining us for #verselove, a 30-day celebration of poetry for April, National Poetry Month. This celebration is open to all– preservice teachers, new and veteran teachers, teacher educators, retired teachers, people who work with youth, and parents (because you are a child’s …
A very special thank you to Jennifer Goyer-Jowett for hosting the March 5-Day Writing Challenge on Ethical ELA. We deeply appreciate your creativity in crafting the inspirations and taking care of our hearts and minds with your words of encouragement. Looking ahead to next month, …
Inspiration Several writers have given us a glimpse of their origins, their words evoking the sounds, smells, touch of the world as they came into being. Use one of these writers as inspiration (Brian Komei Dempsters Origin, Jacqueline Woodson’s opening lines of Brown Girl Dreaming, …
Inspiration Today, we’re raising up voice while considering how people are recognized. To really explore this pairing, we must push toward brutal honesty, explore that which might be dismissed. We must become the voice. Process Using Naomi Shihab Nye’s poem “A Palestinian Might Say” as …
Inspiration Once again, we turn to Michelle Burke for inspiration. Today, we will rethink the way we interact with our world. Synesthesia is the result of sensory pathways in the brain stimulating other pathways. Imagine what it’s like to taste sound or smell color, for …
Inspiration This idea comes to us from Michelle Burke through the Poetry Foundation. She writes, “We all have words we love simply because of how they sound.” Today, we will move beyond both the connotation and denotation of words to explore aural textures by creating …
A wave of universities across the country has made the decision to move its classes online to address the new coronavirus pandemic. Arizona State University needed a little nudge from its students who created an online petition to cancel in-person classes. Harvard University Tuesday morning …