Week 10: We Real Cool

This week students explored controversial issues while learning rhyme and meter by reading Gwendolyn Brooks' We Real Cool. We discussed issues of "being cool" in middle school today and the problematic conflicts therein. We read the poem out loud and then listened to a recording of Gwendolyn Brooks reading it, to see if that changed our reading. The students reacted very strongly with this poem, and it is definitely one of the favorites so far. Each student was asked to write their own We Real Cool.


From Ms. Gonzalez's Class:

We Real Cool

We skip school. We
stuck to streets. We

smoke strings. We
sing sin. We

lurk late.
Ain’t we real cool

By Christina L.



We Real Cool

We real cool. We
dress different. We

break bars. We
skip school. We

do drugs. We
pinch parties,

and die soon.

By Karla F.


Troubleside

Hang around
Have a drink
Snitch, ditch
Police arrested
“Sing sin”
Sent to jail.

By Anai V.


From Ms. Formisano's Class:

Cool

We smoke smooth.
We drive drag.
We ditch days.
We deal drugs.
We tag tall
And rob rule.
We trouble soon
We go to jail.

By Anna M.


From Mr. Lukas' Class:

We Real Cool

We sip smoke. We
link drink. We

skip school. We fight fools. We
Still cool. We

think we’re better than you.

By Kimberly R.


We Real Cool

We real cool. School
is for fools. We

earn when we burn. We
toke smoke.

Stealing the ceiling.
We jamming July.

We hustle on the
street. We

Sleep soon.

By Eric S.


We Real Cool
8th Grade dropouts
At the hood

We toke smokes. We
think drinks. School

is for fools. We
good with the hood. We

take for our sake. We
chillin like villains.

By Bernardino V.