Grade: 3-6
Objective: To make learning fun and easy to remember.
Directions: Have the students act out the poem.
Comments: Provide props and dress-up costumes that the children can choose from to make their poems come to life. [Editor’s Note: Using Shel Silverstein’s poetry, I have taught hundreds of children to act out poetry to bring it alive.]

Lisa Peter
Christian Life Academy
Henderson, Tennessee


 
What! I Hear Poetry Everyday?

Grade: 7
Objective: To help introduce students to poetry and help them overcome their negative feelings and fears about poetry.
Directions: When students walk into the room, I have a poem on the overhead. We begin discussing the poem, its poetic elements, meaning, etc. I then walk over to the CD player and press play. A song begins to play, and the students realize that the words are the same as the poem on the overhead. This leads to a discussion about the poetic elements of music. We listen to more songs that I have chosen and discuss them for the entire period. This discussion is usually held on a Friday. The students have an assignment over the weekend. They must find a song of any style (as long as it is appropriate for school) and then write a paragraph or two explaining what makes this song a poem. They must address the various poetry terms that they have recently learned. The next week the students are allowed to bring in their songs and we play them while working throughout the week.
Comments: The students love this activity, especially the ones that are turned off by the mere mention of the word poetry. As everyone knows, students need to feel a connection to the material that they are learning. This activity provides that connection and relevance. It is also a great way to force the kids to listen to music that you like!

Tony Sturgeon
Hamilton Southeastern Jr High School
Fishers, Indiana

Grade: 8
Objective: Students are challenged to “think poetically” and use the skills they have with regard to writing creatively.
Directions: Students are given a stack of National Geographic magazines and asked to select and cut out three interesting pictures: a person, a place, and a thing. Days later, the teacher selects 23 “favorites” that represent a variety of subject matter. These 23 pictures are then taped, one each, to the front and side of a computer screen. The students are seated, one at each computer and asked to “think poetically,” remembering the simile, the metaphor, repetition, couplets... all they know about reading and writing poetry. Holding a stopwatch, the teacher says “GO.“ The student looks at the picture, types his or her thoughts, and after 60 seconds, types a line of ##### or ****** depending on which class is at the computers to indicate where their writing ends. The students then move on to the next computer with another picture and the same command. The class completes “poetry” for 23 pictures at 23 computers in a little over a half hour.
Comments: An attractive bulletin board was generated by hanging the writing beside the accompanying picture. The display drew a big crowd. Students were very interested to see what other classmates had written about the pictures. The reading was as much fun as the writing!

Grade: 8
Objective: Students will identify literary devices in student poetry while determining the best style, creativity, and form.
Directions: This type of activity can be used with whatever form of poetry is being taught. I have my students write a poem with at least three literary devices in it, such as, alliteration, simile, personification, assonance, imagery, foreshadowing, and allusion. They usually work on this for several days, one of those days being in class. After the poems are completely finished we have “The People’s Choice Awards!” I have my students read a poem out loud, as long as it is not their own poem. I have them turn them in with their names on the backs to ensure that their classmates do not vote by popularity. So, the students do not know whose poem is being read. After each poem is read, I ask them to identify the literary devices, and they always can! I make sure that I say something positive about each poem that is read. This is very important to a student’s pride and feeling of accomplishment. I try to make learning poetry and poetic devices fun.
 
After all poems have been read, we vote on the best one. Each poem is given a number at the time it is read. All students must write down identifying characteristics about each poem so they can remember which one to vote for at the end of class. The winner gets to hang his or her poem on our “WALL OF FAME.” This is a cork board that hangs on our wall. It is a great honor to have work displayed for the entire grade to see. In addition, the students also receive a prize for winning. They may either choose a piece of candy or five bonus points. They usually choose the points.
 
I was delighted that this idea went over so well this year. The kids get excited about hearing each other’s poems, and they love a chance to win a prize. It is also a change from ordinary teaching.

Terri Riley
Eighth Hamburg Jr High School
Hamburg, Arkansas

Grade: 10-12
Objective: To evoke students’ feelings and to inspire them to put those feelings into poetry.
Directions: The teacher chooses a theme that students will follow. Copies of poems which portray the theme are distributed, read, and discussed for content, rhyme scheme, free verse, style, etc. Music is played to create the desired mood. Students write poetry.
Example: I chose the theme “Childhood Memories.” I gave copies of poems on this theme which included: “A Song About Myself” by John Keats, “There Was a Child Went Forth” by Walt Whitman, and “The Reason I like Chocolate” by Nikki Giovanni. The music selection was “Rachel’s Song,” a piano selection written by a father for his young daughter. Students need to visualize the place and people in their childhood memories. No one is allowed to speak or ask for help for a specific time period (20-30 minutes, depending on students). Their goal is to write down only thoughts and feelings. Students may have something that resembles a paragraph or a grocery list, but that is sufficient. Later, they can polish the poem or ask for help from the teacher.
 
Here is an example of a poem written in this exercise:

It’s a long and lonely way of life to carry on
without a father.
It’s a long and lonely feeling to have no one
to hold you and say,
“Daddy loves you.”
It’s a long and lonely cry without the loving
hands of a father to tell you everything is
going to be fine.
It’s a long and lonely wait to wonder if he
will come back home.
 
Comments: Different music and themes, of course, evoke different feelings. Additional themes might include “happiness,” with “Ode to Joy” by Beethoven; “family,” with “Thank God for Kids” by the Oak Ridge Boys; “friendship,” with “You are the Wind Beneath My Wings” by Bette Midler; or “Heritage,” with a variety of music from 500 Nations.

Georgia Lenderman
Washington High School
Terre Haute, Indiana

Grade: 9-12
Objective: Students will read and appreciate poetry. Students will study the poetry of various authors. Students will write an essay and create an original poem.
Directions: 1. Select a theme (offer many general themes; for example, nature, love, death, poems about America, etc.). 2. Find ten poems on your theme, each by a different poet. Copy them. 3. Write a 300-word essay on your theme to use as a preface for your anthology. 4. Write an original poem on your theme to include in your anthology.
Comments: An assignment sheet is attached. This project is extremely adaptable and always successful. It requires research, reading, and writing.

Requirements:
· select a theme and choose a minimum
of ten poems on that theme, each by
a different poet
· recopy poems neatly in ink
· write one original poem on your theme
· include an essay about the theme
· include a table of contents
· bind the anthology
· decorate if you wish

Brenda S. McPhail
Collins High School
Collins, Mississippi

Grade: 5
Objective: Create positive self-awareness. To promote total language skills: writing, reading, speaking, and listening. To familiarize myself with each student at the start of a new school year.
Directions: At the beginning of each new school year, I have the students write a cryptogram of themselves. Good poetry does not have to rhyme. It can tell a story, and this poem is entirely about themselves. I ask the question, “What would you want another person to know about you?” I elicit only positive statements. We discuss temperament, personality, hobbies, family, etc. Students use the letters of their name to begin each new line of their poem.


Example:

Christmas is my favorite holiday.
Only three people are in my family.
Rude to others, I am not!
Yearn to read every chance I get.
 
Stamp collecting is my hobby,
Master at playing chess!
Ice cream sundaes – favorite dessert
Totally awesome in hockey
Helping hand I give to all.
 
Comments: I feel this is a wonderful opportunity to get to know my students. They also must concentrate on their positive attributes which will help them to have a better self-image. We discuss narrative poetry; in this case the poem telling a story about themselves. After the students have worked through the writing process from prewriting and drafting ideas to rough copy to final copy, we share our poems orally with the class. Later, we will have an art lesson in drawing self-portraits. We laminate both poem and portraits and display them on a large bulletin board for everyone to enjoy.
Finally, after the bulletin display is taken down,
I combine the poems and portraits into our own class book. At the end of the school year I place the book in a time capsule and open it when these students are seniors in high school for them to enjoy once again.

Judy M. Haltunen
Lake Linden - Hubbell School
Lake Linden, Michigan

 

Roundabout Poems

Grade: 7
Objective: To collectively create a finished poem and present it to the class.
Directions: Divide students into groups of three or four. Teacher assigns a topic to all or a different one to each group. Person one creates one line, therefore possibly setting the style (haiku, limerick, cinquain), the next person adds line two, and so on until the group is satisfied with the finished poem. This activity may take one round or many rounds to complete. Choose someone to record. Poems can be shared and identified for style and imagery.

Virginia M. Wong
Tomlin Middle School
Plant City, Florida




Dictionary Poetry

Grade: 9-12
Objective: For the students to learn the fun of using new words in writing. It also allows them to realize the power of words.
Directions: Choose ten students at random and ask them to choose one word each out of the dictionary. Put the ten words on the board and ask all the students to then write a twenty line poem in which all ten words are used. Any format or rhyme pattern can be chosen. It also works great when the students have to choose all verbs out of the dictionary.
Comments: This activity is fun for the students because they love the sound of their writing with the new and interesting words. They have to learn the word to use it. It is neat to watch them figure it all out. The teacher can help them with motivation to do well. Do not allow them to write cheap stuff. When pushed, the writing comes out well. Writers will learn to use literary elements when they learn to let their mind go and allow the creative process to take place.

Grade: 7-8
Objective: To encourage students to use metaphor so readers can more clearly understand the importance of a topic.
Directions: Follow the format below to create a formula poem that is easy to do and can reveal emotional complexity.
 
Line
1 (Metaphor) Jealousy is a knife
2 begins with “when,” “who,” or “what.”
3 begins with “how,” “when,” or “why.”
4 same as line 3.
5 same as line 3.
 
Sample
1. Jealousy is a knife
2. Who slices at the soul.
3. When it cuts, it cuts deep.
4. How deep will it go in you?
5. When it strikes?
(Tom Rajkowski - Grade 7)

Grade: 6-12
Objective: To use high-quality prose and translate it into poetry.
Directions: 1) Select any text you have been working with in your course. (a) An assigned reading – this could be any type of prose, fiction or nonfiction. (b) A writing assignment that the student has completed – fiction, nonfiction, critical essay, etc. 2) Ask the student to read through the text and underline or highlight words and/or phrases which contain the strongest and most powerful emotions, opinions, description, sensory detail, or the crux of the argument. (If this is in the student’s textbook, obviously a photo copy would work best, otherwise the student can simply list the words.) (3) List the words on a separate paper or on index cards. (This also works great on the computer if your students have access to one.) (4) Arrange or add words as needed to create your “poem.” Hint: This poem does not have rhyme. In fact, it is much better if it does not.

Dr. Nancy Lubarsky
Bound Brook Schools
Bound Brook, New Jersey

Grade: 4
Objective: To create an environment that promotes poetry by providing a variety of “ingredients.”
 
The First Ingredient – GREAT POETRY
The first ingredient in this recipe for a poem is great poetry written by well-known poets. When we study immigration, we learn “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus. The next poem was “I Hear America Singing” by Walt Whitman. Each child in my class has individually recited these and many other great poems, and then the entire class has recited them together. In order to inspire children to write good poetry, they must first be exposed to what good poetry is and then learn to love and respect it.
 
The Second Ingredient – RHYMING DICTIONARY
A rhyming dictionary is a very underused tool available to teachers and students’ which has especially appealed to my more reluctant learners. It is very easy to use, and there is even a “web” site available that has a rhyming dictionary (http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dougb/rhyme.html or www.WriteExpress.com/cgi-bin/rhymer2.cgi). The rhyming dictionary lists words by sound groups. For example, if a child is trying to find a rhyming word to match with the word “glad,” he or she would look up the word group “ad.” There the child would find a list of words such as bad, sad, clad, fad, plaid, comrade, doodad, grandad, and many more. Now they are writing beautiful rhyming poetry all because of a simple tool called the “Rhyming Dictionary.”
 
The Third Ingredient – ATMOSPHERE
Setting the “atmosphere” for writing can often inspire children to write. I have a collection of “environmental sounds” CDs. I pass out blank paper to my students and turn off the classroom lights. I then ask for silence and begin one of the CDs. It is amazing how much writing goes on during this time. I have noticed that the tapes cause a sense of peace and well being within the students. The atmosphere helps initiate writing.
 
The Fourth Ingredient – POETIC CONFIDENCE
Children often need to be assured that they are capable of doing something before they have confidence enough to try it themselves. That is why sharing poetry written by other children their age is so important! I do this several ways. First of all my students are continually encouraged to share what they have written every day at the end of writer’s workshop. A second way that children’s poetry is shared is I ask my last year’s students who were published to come into my class and share their published poems for my present class to enjoy. Then I ask students to come up and read some of the other poetry in those books that were written by other students from other schools. I then encourage my students to become published just like these other students. Giving children confidence that they too are capable of writing poetry is a vitally important ingredient for a “Recipe for a Poem.”
 
The Fifth Ingredient – VARIETY OF STYLES
Equally important is teaching students a variety of poetic formats and styles. One of those projects is a poetry website called “Poetrypals” (www.geocities.com/EnchantedForest/5165/). Poetrypals has a web site that explains a variety of poetic formats. Each of my students has a copy of each format from autobiographical to free form. Each month I share a new format, such as “diamonte,” on the overhead projector, and we create a poem together. Then I encourage my students to write a “diamonte” on any topic that they choose. They then can type their poem to Poetrypals, and it will be placed under our class on the website. Parents have been given the address for the website so they can share in their child’s excitement as well. Whenever I can, I find quality, published poems written in the particular format that we are studying, and I share them with the class. Sometimes, I’ll read a poem and ask the class if they can tell me what type of poem it is. Teaching students a variety of poetic formats is an important ingredient for a “Recipe for a Poem.”
 
The Sixth Ingredient – OUTLET TO SHARE POEMS
I firmly believe that children should first and foremost learn and write poetry for the sheer “love” of it. Once they have that love, their writing can be cultivated and then shared with others. The sixth ingredient for a poem is providing outlets for children to share their poetry. This is done in several ways in my class. I share with the class the call for poetic submissions to respected poetry contests such as Creative Communication’s, “A Celebration of Young Poets.” I tell them that anyone in the class is capable and talented enough to submit poetry to any of these contests, but it is up to them to choose whether to submit something or not. I also have a poetry reading in the courtyard outside of my classroom for parents and friends. Another outlet for my students is the school-wide assembly. We are in the process of becoming a Higher Order Thinking School (HOTS), and we provide outlets for art, writing, poetry, dance, and music performance every two weeks in front of the entire student body. The entire school celebrates with students who submit their writings.
 
The Seventh Ingredient – ENTHUSIASM
The love of poetry and the desire to encourage children and celebrate with children when they write and share their work are all a part of the seventh ingredient, an enthusiastic teacher. Believing in children and treating them in a professional manner encourages children to write. When I look at my class I see them as future writers, poets, scientists, mathematicians, politicians, historians, entrepreneurs, artists, musicians, and parents. I believe in them. Each child is like a slab of clay yielding to the work of the potter’s hands. I expect the highest of standards in my students. The world is open to them. I encourage them to aim high. I also write poetry myself. I know the feeling of expressing myself well, and I try to convey that enthusiasm for poetry writing to my students. I love what I do, and I try to give that love of learning to them. Hopefully it’s contagious.

Lee Ann Olsen
S. B. Butler Elementary School
Mystic, Connecticut

Grade: 9-12
Objective: To identify structure and rhyme scheme.
Directions: Copy a poem, triple spaced, for each small group of students. Select poems with obvious rhyme schemes and forms (14 line Shakespearian sonnet, for example.) Cut the poem up, line by line, and put the pieces in an envelope. Ask students to reassemble the poem and identify the structure and rhyme scheme.