In the News

On-Site Renovations

Two hundred middle school students used poem RENOVATION in English class on an ongoing basis during the past school year with fantastic results! Teachers saw a jump in students' appreciation for poetry, creative writing and the power of language. Self-confidence was bolstered, too. Students' creations became an opportunity for self reflection and classroom community-building. poem RENOVATION also proved to be a fun way to boost vocabulary and teach a variety of literary conventions. 

A second grade class spent four months testing out a learn-to-read version of the site that generated renewed excitement for sentence building.

After collecting feedback from teachers and students alike, we're excited to begin the process of expanding poem RENOVATION. The upgraded site will have a subscription-based model for schools with enhanced features including:

• Themed units, complete with mini-lessons on figurative language, social-emotional learning, history and other topics
• The ability for teachers to input and schedule their own excerpts
  
• A digital blackboard where classes can share their creations

Soon to come: a crowdfunding campaign to help pay a coder to complete the work.

poem RENOVATION of the Month 

by Ariel Hansen of Seattle, WA

I've been using poem RENOVATION as a way to reinvigorate my poetic mind. I wrote a lot of poetry in high school and college, and was encouraged by my professors to keep going. But through a decade of journalism, and then a decade of copyediting and raising a spirited kid, I forgot my words. I'm so pleased to be finding them again through this highly constrained medium. With limited words to work with, I have to push my creativity both conceptually and linguistically. ~Ariel Hansen                                               Follow Ariel on Instagram: @sentencediagrammarian