Lauryl and Lizzy are preservice teachers. lives in Edmond, Oklahoma and is currently a junior studying Secondary Education: English at Oklahoma State University. She plans to become an English teacher at the high school level upon graduation. When she is not in class (or on …
Gayle Sands started teaching middle school English as a second career at 42. She taught ELA for 25 years, and is now enjoying a a stint as reading specialist. She had a very “interesting” (aka challenging) household with a messy husband, three (now grown) children, …
Kari Anne Holt is the award-winning author of many middle grade novels in verse including Redwood & Ponytail, Knockout, House Arrest, and Rhyme Schemer. She is also the other of several middle grade fantasy and sci-fi novels, as well as the picture book, I Wonder, …
Inspiration Music is the source of beauty, memories, and emotions. When I was experiencing a dark and depressing period of my life, I turned to poetry and music for healing. Find something in music or lyrics that bring you peace and healing to write a …
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, …