Today Ethical ELA welcomes guest blogger, David Schaafsma of the University of Illinois at Chicago. In the spirit of youth resistance, please consider supporting “Teens Teaching Teachers,” a student-led session at NCTE in Baltimore, by donating to their fund and sharing this link: https://www.gofundme.com/manage/ncte2019 Seeing …
Two students had just finished reciting “If” by Rudyard Kipling. They set a timer and asked their classmates to do some preliminary analysis on the poem by identifying the speaker, subject, tone, and such. 5 minutes. I stepped toward the classroom window and gazed at …
Seventh-grade students interviewed people who impact their lives beyond school and, with consent, posted the interviews on our class blog to share. They focused on what being 13 was like in different decades and different places in the world. Our stories span the globe. Everyone …
Congratulations! We have shared this virtual space for 30 days — 30 days of words, phrases, images, and lines borrowed from lives lived and imagined. Inspiration Patched poems borrow lines from our community of poems to create something new while honoring the lines that have …
Thank you for being with us this month as a reader, as a poet, as a poetry lover! Here is a slide with hyperlinks to every day’s inspiration and poems. We invite you to look back at the way our poem-ing has invited inquiry into …
Inspiration Spring is here! Time for new life, growth and renewal. Think of the cycle of life (plant or animal), from its beginnings as a seed to full bloom to death. Imagery is literally the representation of one thing by another. Look at the poem …
Today we welcome author Aida Salazar to #verselove2019, our celebration of all that poetry can do for our hearts and minds this National Poetry Month. Aida Salazar is a writer, arts advocate, and homeschooling mother whose writings explore issues of identity and social justice. She …
Inspiration Make your own lyrics. Sometimes nothing can be more inspiring than something we already love–in this case, substituting new lyrics to a popular song. Process I’ve always loved playing with song lyrics of my own (and have even written the lyrics for a couple …
Inspiration Memory poem. It’s time to get personal. Our own memories can inspire our current selves, and sometimes remembering what it was like to be the student sitting in class can bridge the gap between adult and child or teen. Process Dive into your own …
Inspiration Found words poetry. It can be particularly satisfying to create something beautiful out of something not-so-beautiful. Process Find a news article (anywhere online or in print) and select ten words to highlight. Use as many of those words as you can as you create …