Color of Poetry with Ms. Davis Aceves

(In-Schools Program)

May 7,2012, 12:35 PM - 1:30 PM @ Everett Middle School
The color of poetry is a project we work on with Ms. Davis-Aceves's eighth graders (newcomer students who have been in the country less than two years) and Ms. Giudici's dual immersion sixth graders, helping them as they write poems around the theme "The color of my skin is..." and reflect on the countries they've come from.

The students will be writing their poems in Spanish first, then translating them into English with your help. If you are thinking about volunteering on Monday or Tuesday, it would be good to have some familiarity with Spanish.

This is many tutors' favorite project, and the poems they write are always beautiful. Here's one of my favorites from two years ago:

"Like the Leaves that Fall in Autumn"
By Rodrigo Hernandez

The color of my skin
is like the leaves that fall
during Autumn.
My skin is a peach, soft,
and with few hairs that
cover all my body.
My skin is the coffee with milk
that I drink every day in
the morning.

When I was a baby,
my mom told me that
I was a cotton boy
because my skin was soft,
delicate and white.

My lips are the petals
of a cherry tree in Spring,
soft and pink.
My hair is like the dark
night that arrives at the
end of each day.
The color of my eyes are like
roast coffee from Veracruz.

My skin reminds me
of family, friends, my culture,
traditions from where I come from.
I'm very proud of my country
and of myself.

Grade: 6 and 8

Address:
450 Church Street San Francisco, CA 94114