Comparison Poems

For this class, I brought in Ezra Pound's "In the Station of the Metro," to introduce the concept of comparison. It was really challenging for the students, but a teacher suggested that I bring in this or a similar poem toward the end of the year to gauge their progress, which I thought was a fantastic idea! Nevertheless, the kids did some really nice work!

Mrs. Rodriguez, 5th Grade

"In a Jungle of South America"
Samuel V.

In the jungle of South
America I saw a
jaguar and I touched the
fur and it felt soft. And
a clothing that is made
out of fur feels the
same.

"Things are alike"
Ryan V.

Birds and planes can both fly,
Like a monster my brother acts like one
Thunder is as loud as the lunchroom
And volcanoes erupt like my head does when I'm angry.

"In the Golden Gate Bridge"
Damian A.

The apparition of the mountains
against the bridge in San Francisco.
Tall in the sky, long like a railroad
track.

...

Ms. McCormick
3rd Grade

"A snake at night"
Nelly Q.

A string is like a snake slithering thru
the night in a tree in a big
jungle they are the same because
a string is like squiggly and a snake is
squiggly too.

"Mountains in a pizza"
Isabel C.

Mountains are just like pizza.
They are both triangles.
The sun is just like an orange
They both are circles and are
orange.

Untitled
Omar N.

An apple is like a
red flower because
the apple is red like a
red flower and they are
both round.

...

Mr. K.
3rd Grade

Untitled
Aaron G.

Jaguars go fast like
a rollercoaster. People
will be dizzy, if a person
rides a Jaguar they will
be dizzy like
rollercoasters.

"Nature, Man-made"
Angel M.

A mountain and city. The mountains are big
the city is big. The bird flies and airplanes
fly. Both are shy. City is dome and mountain
is dome.

"Apparition"
April M.

A turtle is like stairs that move
because they are slow.

...

Ms. Breen
3rd Grade

"The Birds and Playground"
Veronica A.

Birds are like us see come you
can fly like birds. Birds can
fly home and we can see
like birds up home like
birds. Birds have nests and
people have houses and we sleep
and birds sleep too.

"The Grass"
Aries

The grass is like spiky
hair but the hair is not
green like the grass the
grass is not black like
the hair.

"Untitled"
Alejandro C.

Squirrels are like cars
They are both shiny
They both go fast.

...

Ms. Marfise
3rd Grade

"Monkeys are like kids"
Ginel G.

Monkeys are like kids
because they play so much
and watch TV every, every,
everyday, can you believe
it? Oh my God it's too much
and then they tell parents
do everything OK, thank you
and the parents get mad
and scream.

"Nature"
Elizabeth C.

The nature apples.
A banana is like a
moon.

"Lightning is like video games"
David F.

Video games are electricity
And so is lightning so it is
When you are playing video games it creates
electricity
So that electricity goes to lightning.
And when it rains and you are
playing you create it again.

...

Ms. Sandoval-Johnson
3rd Grade

"Waterfalls"
Alejandra I.

Waterfalls are like slides
because waterfalls go down. Maybe
I will slide down a quiet
waterfall some day.

"The Cliffs"
Luis H.

Furniture are like cliffs because
if we were small furniture would
be cliffs for us and dogs would be
monsters like Godzilla.

"My house looks like a rocket"
Salvador I.

My house looks like a
rocket because my
house has a point on top
of it and I wish
that we could blast off but
when we were in space
I had to go to the bathroom.

Week 2: Name Colors

As we were reading "aeIou" by Victoria Heath, I wasn't sure if this poem was going to come across as well as I'd hoped. I realized as I was teaching that it was an ambitious assignment: I asked students to imagine that each of the letters of their name has a color--NOT necessarily associated with an object that begins with that letter--and to explore what the significance of that color might be, what came to mind visually with this letter. It was harder than I thought, and required a leap into some abstract thinking (and to fight against the tendency to write acrostic poems, which is not what I was going for). These are a few examples of students who I thought came up with some really interesting stuff. Notice how Giselle came up with a kind of form for her poem, Jacqueline associated her letters very freely, and Joel got caught up exploring just the color black.

I did this assignment with Mrs. Hamdan's class in B15.

###

My Name… (excerpt)
Giselle H.

G for spring. G for green.
I for Illinois. I for pink.
S for summer days. S for yellow sun.
E for enormous. E for red.
L for love. L for red.
L for letter. L for white.
E for stars. E for gold...


Name
Jacqueline V.

Pink is J, is a pen.
J is like a butterfly in the sky.
A is clouds in the sky.
C is a paper to fold.
Q is a paint to paint.
U is a nice name.
E is for a plow.
L is for sunny days.
I for star.
N for apple.
E for birthday.


Black
Joel G.

Black is for a cat
that is in the night
black time. The pencils
are black that the cat
made. The chalkboard is
black that the cat draws.

Week 1: Magic Boat Poems

Kudos to Cassie Sparkman for providing me with this great introductory lesson, using Dante Alighieri's "Sonnet," (translated by poet Kenneth Koch) in which the speaker expresses his wish to be "carried off by magic/And put in a boat, which every time there was wine,/Would sail on the ocean exactly where we wanted." I think this is a fabulous metaphor for poetry in general - the students loved having the freedom to go crazy with their own magic boat poems and the results were exciting!

Mr. Kaszynski, 3rd Grade

"My Best Friends"
Elizabeth C.

Virgen, I wish that you and Alexis and I were carried off by magic and put in a boat.
I want to go with them to Wisconsin Dells so we can get wet in the swimming pool
because the pool in Wisconsin Dells is big for a lot of people to swim in
and some part is not deep and some is deep so we got to be
real careful cause if we go to the deep part we will drown and die.

Untitled
Celina S.

Araceli, I wish that you and Lupe
and I were carried off by magic
and put in a boat.
And go to candy land and eat
lots of candies and then we
would go to Hawaii.

And then we would go to
swim and go surfing and then
we would go eat fruit.
And then we would all get
one wish and we would get
lots of hats and cats.

Untitled
Araceli G.

Angelica, I wish that you and Kala and
I were carried off by magic. And put
in a boat. We will go to candy land,
pizza land and baby land. We will
talk about funny stuff for my baby
cousin. Then, when she's asleep we will go
asleep too. Then, for tomorrow we will
give a surprise for my baby cousin.
Because tomorrow we will be in
baby land. Then, we will go to candy
land. Then, we will go to pizza land.

***

Mrs. Rodriguez, 5th Grade

Untitled
Jesus H.

Titanic, I wish I could take
you and Mom and Dad and I. We'd be
taken off by a magic boat
and we'd go to Antarctica and
while we're sailing we would
talk about how it would be
and what kind of animals
would be there. We would
see if Titanic wants
to stay or not. If she does
I'll stay with her, if
she doesn't want to stay
we can go back home and
good night.

Untitled
Veronica T.

Yo iria de viaje al Planeta Venus
porque me interesa saber como
esta y como es. Llevaria a
mis papas y a mis hermanas y mi
hermano. viajariamos en una
nave espacial. Yo quisiera ir
porque desde mas chiquita decia
que ese era mi planeta favorito.

"Dreamworld Boat"
Jacqueline M.

Mom, I wish that you and Milo
and I would be carried off
by magic and put onto a boat
and the boat would disappear,
all the cartoons I saw and
dreamt about are in your faces!
In this way the cartoons are
you! You get to talk to
cartoons.

"Magic Boat to Puerto Rico"
Jeremy T.

Ryan, I wish that you and my dad
and Manny and Dennis and my mom,
and your mom and dad and I were
carried off by magic and put in a boat off to
Puerto Rico. We would talk about how beautiful
Puerto Rico is, while playing a game of card
war. Then when we get there we would all
go down to the beach and lay down and relax.

"Planets"
Sigitas A.

Ralph Lauren, I wish that you and
I could fly off in a space ship to
Another planet just like Earth
And ride that $4,000,000 car that
You owned.

How I wish that I could drive
That car at its full speed, 250 MPH.
The way that the doors go
vertically instead of horizontally
amazes me.

***

Mrs. Marfise, 3rd Grade

Untitled
Maria B.

Princess, I wish that you and
my family and I were
carried off by magic
and put in a boat. And my
family and I will go
to the sea to
see the fishes.

Untitled
Denise B.

Amores, I wish that you and Isabell
and I
Were carried off by magic
And put in a boat
We'd go to the desert
We'd look in a lost room
We'd talk about how it looks and
smells.

Untitled
Ciro Q.

I wish I had a car that was
magical and I could take Bart,
Stewie, Chris, Maggie, Moe,
Marge and Peter Griffin and I
woud go to Six Flags America
or the Sears Tower. And take
my girlfriend Kristal Herredia, I
will take my girlfriend to
see a funny movie. Then I
would get home and wish
for my favorite show or movie.

***

Mrs. Sandoval-Johnson, 3rd Grade

Untitled
Alejandra I.

Hannah Montana, I wish that you and Fernanda
and I were carried off by magic and put
in a boat and go to the park and talk
about singing. Also we will go to Navy Pier to
go on the rides. Like the spinning swings and
eat hot dogs together. We will go to the beach and
make sandcastles. Then make it look pretty with
shells and buy ice cream.

Untitled
Yadira A.

Sister, I wish that you and Mom, Dad, Elvis and I
were carried off by magic and put in a boat. Then we will
talk about funny stories and then we will go to
Wisconsin and we will live there together.

Untitled
Jacqueline D.

Vampire, I wish that you and scary thing and I
were carried off by magic and put in a
big, hug, weird boat...And the full moon was
there and we were talking about scary stuff as the
boat floats with the water and off to scary land
where I can become scary too...

***

Ms. McCormick, 3rd Grade

Untitled
Karina C.

I live in the sea, bubbles float
when I talk. I can swim and breathe
underwater. Fish swim over
me and we play sea tag. I can
go to everywhere. I can go to
Hollywood to meet everyone there
in the sea.

Untitled
Nelly Q.

Mom, I wish that you and the whole family and I
Were carried off by magic
And put in a boat
We would go to Los Angeles and Florida
All that we are going to talk about is Halloween.
The boat would be a sail boat and it would be big
with a blue and red sail boat.

Untitled
Laura D.

A spirit, Munyeco, I wish that you and
Mommy and I were carried off by
magic and put in a boat...We will
go off in an avenger to the
tropical rain forest then we will go everywhere
and explore the animals that live across the
land once it's night spirit, Munyeco, Mommy
and I will talk about spirits and see if
we can help people that need spirits
to out of their house, also explore
the spirits that still haunt the land.

***

Ms. Breen, 3rd Grade

I Wish to Go to Spain
Luz M.

Mom, I wish you and Karena will go on a magic
boat with me and the boat will have flowers,
and butterflies flying everywhere. We
will talk about family. We will go to
Spain and we will go to a
famous restaurant. We will eat
soup and have bread. We will
go back to Chicago and tell
everyone about Spain. We will
tell them about the famous
restaurant in Spain and go
back once more.

Untitled
Alejandro C.

Alejandra, I wish that Mom and I
were carried off by a magic coin
and put in a small pocket.

It was raining and we ran.
We ran because we were wet. We were
playing soccer.

The coin was stolen and we were too!
My friend Aries took it and dropped
it in the water. He wished for books.

"Welcome to Las Vegas"
Diana A.

I wish I had a magic boat I would
take my family and friends and my cousin's
dog. We would go to California to
visit my aunts and uncles and cousins.
And we will all go to Las Vegas
and rent a hotel and go to the casino
but...I can't, you have to be 21 and over
so we will go to a pool but...it
it is winter! But...it
is always summer and one day
it was 100 degrees and was hot and
we never went again.

Week 1: Nobody knows...

Drawing on our reading of Pablo Neruda's "III" from The Book of Secrets, we invented the secrets of inanimate objects (plants, machines...) and revealed them, using "Nobody Knows..."

###

Vilchis-202


My Secrets
Zamira M.

Nobody knows that…the TV is
a person that doesn’t talk.

Nobody knows that socks talk to
me because they are my friends.

Nobody knows that Halloween is a big
ghost that is a friend of winter.


Nobody Knows
José A.

My rug takes me to
places ’cause it’s magic.

My car can transform
into a bumblebee.

My kitchen makes me
food whenever I am hungry.

My refrigerator gives me
water when I am thirsty.


Nobody Knows
Janet G.

Nobody knows that a house can hug a giraffe.

Nobody knows that a snake can touch a sky.

Nobody knows that a bus can fly in the air.

Nobody knows that a car can drive by itself.

###

Hamdan-B15


Nobody Knows
Jennifer R.

Nobody knows that the Brazil
flag is a picnic.

Nobody knows that the rat
is in a ball.


Nobody Knows
Moises A.

Nobody knows that my house has
a brain in the attic. Nobody knows that my
house has four legs and a
nose as a window. It can fly
and we would think that we would
still be on the ground and when we try
to go outside the house the house fastly come
down.

###

Vazzana-104


Nobody Knows
Kimberly P.

Nobody knows that trees are baby blue.

Nobody knows that babies are turtles.

Nobody knows that fish are dinosaurs.


Nobody Knows
Kevin C.

Nobody knows that a garbage can eats
the garbage you throw inside.

Nobody knows that clouds are
seeing us.


Nobody Knows…
Esmeralda P.

Nobody knows that the tree
is stuck.

Nobody knows that the
stars move.

Nobody knows that the
tomato is green.

Nobody knows that the
clouds dance.