![]() Tomorrow we're jumping into poetry! I designed this module around a field trip to Western State on Tuesday for their annual Slam Poetry day and am using the week as an excuse to introduce students to some non-traditional poetry. Each day, we'll focus on a different type of poetry. I'll give students the option to try out some structure poetry like sonnets and limericks, but most of the week will explore more modern, free-form poetry: randomized poems, "abcedery" poems, and found poems. I dabbled with these forms a few years ago through a Coursera class called Modern and Contemporary Poetry. It's a fun class - check it out. It's free. :) The class was a great way to get some exposure to modern poets and play with these non-traditional forms, and I've been looking for an opportunity to design a module around them at CCHS. And voila! the time has come. We're starting out with found poetry on Monday. This poetry can take an unlimited number of forms, but for our purposes, we'll be working with lines pulled from books or news articles. I love found poems because they can take you in all sorts of directions, and that because you aren't under the pressure of writing from scratch, this form of poetry can feel much more accessible to students. One of my favorite end-of-year assignments is to have students re-read their notes and freewrites from throughout the year and choose some of their favorite lines to re-construct into a found poem. It's a great way to re-visit earlier writing and to pull fun, random, new meaning out of context. The example I will share with the students is one I wrote during my ModPo class, where I wrote down and then re-arranged the first lines from some favorite picture books. Here is the finished product: What’s all this? There’s a bear near the top he hasn’t eaten Harold decided to this is Henrietta Peter woke up an armored armadillo Miss Cora Lee this is Olivia the time of swords and periwigs first trip alone filled with love there is no Windy Edge Farmhouse for a walk cat called Mog great green room a small world sunny days in the Wump World the best bakeshop every Who down what’s all this
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AuthorChristine Bailey: teacher of English, user of fountain pens, fan of Calvin and Hobbes, and advocate of parallel structure. Archives
November 2016
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