Eighth grade poets finished free verse journey poems on Friday, their first writing assignment of the year. The poems adapted the story of one of the three main characters from the summer reading text Refugee by Alan Gratz. The book depicts fictionalized journeys of refugees from Germany in 1938, Cuba in 1994, and Syria in 2015. Students learned about using sensory detail to create a vivid scene rich with smells, sounds, feelings, visual images and colors. Students also developed their skills at simile, metaphor, and symbolism to show how the characters change in their journeys. Next up, 8th graders will tackle narrative writing in the form of original mystery stories due in October.
