Seeing the World With a Poet's Eyes

In class we have been writing short free-verse poems about the things we see and feel.  We've talked about experimenting with different voices to add interest to our poems.  We've made comparisons (both metaphors and similes) between objects and feelings to help our reader see our subjects in new ways.  We've also played with the physical layout of our poems - adding line breaks and punctuation in intentional ways to create rhythm and highlight special words and phrases.

Our poems are still in the rough draft stage, but we've already figured out how important it is that poetry be read aloud and often by others, even when it is still in progress.

Writers, please share your favorite work-in-progress poem in the comments section.  Don't forget to include your first name only!  You should also feel free to offer observations or compliments on others' poems.

Visitors to our blog should feel free to offer compliments as well - our young writers love the encouragement!

Thesis Statements

Since we came back from winter break, our class has been working on personal essays - expository pieces that teach, explain, or persuade.

We have learned that the heart of any essay is the

thesis statement,

a sentence that sums up the central argument or idea of the writer.  Everything else in the essay directly supports the thesis statement.

Because they are so important, writers in our class have worked hard crafting strong theses that say exactly what we want to say.  Writers, in the comments please tell us your thesis statement!