poetry

In English 8, students are learning about poetry. In their studies, they learn to identify and understand poetic devices in order to analyze poetry. One of those devices is alliteration. To begin the unit, students wrote about an alternate life using alliteration. Students were given a chance to share their poems with their peers.


Other exercises include determining the meaning of figurative language and analyzing its impact on the meaning and tone of poems, analyzing how the form and word choice contribute to the poem’s meaning and style, determining and analyzing themes, and, how two or more poems address similar themes.


Students participate in a number of activities to meet their learning goals. However, the activity that many students enjoy most is poetry writing via journaling about their own experiences. 


Student examples:

  • A nature day…by Alejo Mendoza

Beauty o’er-snowed and bareness everywhere 

Then were not summer's distillation left,

A liquid prisoner pent in walls of glass,

Beauty's effect with beauty were bereft,

Nor it, nor no remembrance what it was

But flowers distilled, though they with winter meet,

Leese but their show; their substance still lives sweet.



  • My NFL Career…by Taylor Hackbarth

Waking up early to go to practice everyday

Staying dedicated to my craft

Pushing the dummy, taking a hit, whatever I do I cannot quit

I have an image of being one of the greats, so I push myself to take first place

The feeling i get when stepping on the field is like no other 

Smelling the grass and the moisture of the nightly air

Hanging out with teammates after the game

Football is my favorite sport, I simply can't imagine a world without it



  • The life of a cat…by Vanessa Schmidt 

I sit here watching the people outside the window…

Watching all the walkers out the window wishing I could be out there….

Chasing birds and catching mice sounds fun. 

Oh wait there is an ominous snake out there staring me down…

I meow at my mom trying to get her to let me go outside but she is busy. 

I go find her and walk on her trying to get her to notice me..

Meowing nonstop for three minutes should get annoying 

Eventually her face looked knitted and she got the hint. 

She brought me down the stairs and opened the door a bit. 

I finally caught that snake that was making a scary face at me…

I didn’t look to scary after it was dead

Eating it all up I came in the house all full

I was ready to take a nap