Writing Poetry in Class

Today, my students and I were exploring the use of imagery. To make the concept more understandable, I created a graphic organizer with all the senses on the left, and they had to choose an outdoor place to make come alive with imagery. Once the chart was filled we had to choose phrases from the chart to create a free verse poem. What luck!!

It was something I love to do...write. Of course as a teacher, I had to model it. To think, I was being paid to do something I so love. So there I was thinking about a beautiful outdoor place, so for my first chart, I wrote phrases describing El Yunque, and used those phrases to write my poem. They got to see me write it, cross out, replace words, add adjectives, delete others, and they loved the result! They were inspired, so I hope to put up some of their poems, too!

So here is my poem:

El Yunque

Chugging cars up rounded hills honking
full of silver lined Yagrumo leaves
birds shrieking like long whistles
flying over lush green Yuquiyu
flowing with gushing streams that
splash against my skin
with chilling water
and coquis sing
as it rains while
I am sitting on a boulder
feet in the flowing water
with gold at my feet
I am wealthy
I am rich
as I breathe
the fragrance of white delicate ginger
which drapes me in as a
Taino roams in the bushes,
searching for his sacred past.