I was so mad at my Pre-AP students for not reading their assigned chapters by the due dates that I assigned them holiday break reading. That is totally uncharacteristic of me, but they were messing up my teaching mojo. They have now completed two journal-entry blog assignments as the main character Stopthief. Before I bore them with monotony, I decided I needed to do something new for this holiday reading assignment. I was flipping through one of my AVID books and spotted a lesson on found poetry. I have used this strategy before but not for a few years now. I am trying to work in some different writing genres, however, so I am glad I ran across this when I did.
Here is what they will be doing (for some reason, my spacing on Kidblog is not working this evening):
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For this assignment, you will be writing a found poem.
Due Date: Wednesday, December 4
What is a found poem?
A found poem is one composed of phrases from another text (Milkweed).
How do I write a found poem?
1. Choose one of the following topics (you must identify this at the beginning of your blog post).
a. identity
b. hope
c. discrimination
d. survival
e. justice
2. Choose a minimum of one phrase from each of chapters 10 - 21 that relates to the topic you have chosen.
3. Create your poem.
a. Your phrases do not have to be in the same order as the book.
b. You may change punctuation as needed to make your poem work.
c. You may add, delete, or revise words to make your poem work.
d. Your poem must be a minimum of 11 lines (one phrase per chapter),
a maximum of 22 lines (two phrases per chapter).
e. You must include the chapter number and page number at the end of each phrase.
f. Your poem must have an original title.
You may use this Word Mover once you have your phrases chosen. You can type them in and then rearrange them until you have the poem you want.
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Samples to come!
