We started our poetry unit this past week, and by Thursday I was feeling about as “Blah” about poetry as my students. I hadn’t yet broached my favorite poems as I was using one larger poem in each of my grade levels to teach some of the basic poetry terms, so my enthusiasm was really starting to wane.
I looked around my classroom for some inspiration and discovered a lot of old Close Reading books that needed to be tossed out. Then a brilliant idea struck: Why not rip out some pages and let them create poems?
Blackout poems are poems that students create by selecting certain words or phrases on a page and blacking out all of the rest. I pulled up some examples, selected my own page (part of “The Tell-Tale Heart”), and hoped for the best.
When I announced the assignment to my 1st period class, it was met with uncertainty, but my 6th grade honors managed to pull it off. 2nd period? Some jumped at the assignment with enthusiasm, and others struggled. 3rd period? Questioned everything. 5th period? A single student shouted, “Oh my god, Yes!” She was excited and asked to do more than one. I have to agree. I enjoyed creating mine as well.
The results of this assignment was fabulous. One student asked to re-do her poem because she felt she did it wrong. She didn’t understand that what she pulled out spoke volumes. Isn’t that what writing is all about. Allowing one to make mistakes that fall into place? Creative writing should be a safe space. It’s a teaching moment that allows you to try different ideas until something fits. She was given an opportunity to recreate a poem, but I informed her that I liked the original.
I’m going to share some of my favorites below.
