Today second period, third period, fourth period, and fifth period read A 
Wreath for Emmett Till in class. Two classes even got to read it outside under the pine trees–until Mrs. Culver’s allergies got the better of her…We discussed the combination of history, English, art, and current events that the book wove together. Not quite an uplifting story, but a reminder from the past that we should never allow something like that to happen again.
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”–George Santayana
More information on Emmett Till:
Your hand hurt yet? Parents, today I let the students work on their original poems for their portfolio project OR they could work on writing their five paragraph essays (TP CASTT poetry analysis OR commentary on one of their prose examples). Please ask them about their portfolio and have them show you what they have so far. The due date for the final project is May 5 and it is worth 400 points. All month we have been working on it a little bit at a time.
One way to analyze a poem is to TP-CASTT it. In class today and yesterday, we analyzed Rita Dove’s “Grape Sherbet” as an entire class. 
You are to find two songs that fit the theme of your portfolio project. Write down the titles/artists and the lyrics (or print off) on the sheet that I gave you today (Friday). Have your parents approve the lyrics please.
Half of my classes went to the
So today we started reading some of the poems from Blue Lipstick. Hopefully you got a good idea of what concrete poems are all about. Your classwork (and continued homework) is to write your own concrete poem about the topic you chose for your project.