Found Poetry: Success for All
April is National Poetry Month in Canada. It is the perfect month to explore the power of poetry in all of its forms. The theme this year is intimacy and is defined on the League of Canadian Poets website:
This is a powerful theme, especially with the state of the world. We all need to feel connected and safe as we move to new stages in the pandemic. Our world feels desperate in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine and other world conflicts. It also feels fragile because of the dramatic impacts of climate change felt worldwide over the past few years. It is so easy right now to be desperate, alone, and scared. Moments of intimacy at many levels will help us all feel connected and that we can make a difference.
Poetry is the perfect medium for this. Kids can find success in poetry and its many forms. Moving beyond rhyming couplets and the perfectly counted 5-7-5 haiku structure is essential for kids to find the power of poetry and affect change. Poetry allows for intimate moments and sharing hard, yet beautiful ideas….
Number the Stars Found Poetry
Found poetry is poetry that is quite literally found within the words and lines of other text. The rest of the page is modified or blacked out in some way to make the words stand out. This can be done with ANY text. Are you finishing a unit on water right? Maybe your students could create a found poem from a nonfiction article about water. The possibilities are endless.
For the found poems my class made this week, I went one step further by creating the base text from their words. During the last six chapters of Number the Stars by Lois Lowry, I challenged my students to write down powerful words and phrases. I collected all of their sheets and typed up everything they wrote to be the base text.
I handed out the text and gave the kids the prompt:
Use the text we created to make a found poem that (1) sends a message about war and peace OR (2) reflects how this story impacted you.
Creating the Poetry
The students read through the text with a pencil and lightly circled what seemed powerful to them.
The students read out loud what they had circled to think about the story their poem was telling and if it fit their choice of a prompt before doing any revision.
The students CIRCLED the words with sharpie and erased pencil marks.
The students picked up the watercolour pallets and painted a background.
The students CAREFULLY carried their work inside to a drying rack…because I am in a portable.
The students glued their work on a background the next day and I have made a class book of the poems.
Success for All
Every child dove into this assignment and ALL kids were done within 90 minutes. I had photocopied a few extras and a few asked if they could do a second poem with a different focus….sure…yes…create more! I want to take a few moments to break down WHY all kids were able to be successful:
Student Voice and Choice = HIGH Engagement
The novel Number the Stars was requested by the students
The words used for background were collected by the students
The students got to choose which prompt they wanted
The students got to choose which words they wanted to circle to tell their poetic story
The students got to choose the colours for the background
When one student wanted to cut out the words to make their own format…I said ‘sure’ and we made it work
When a few students wanted to make extra…I said ‘sure’
Structures for Success = Success for All
The language was all accessible because the kids were the ones who found it
The kids only had to CIRCLE words and now WRITE, which helped students with output challenges or who were scared of their spelling/letter formation
I had extra copies if people felt like there was a mistake
There was a sample in the room from the start of the day for kids to look at
I had the paint organized including the cleaning clothes and water buckets
Painting in a Portable
Painting in a portable with no water can be a challenge. I have been in a portable for three years…here are my tips for success:
Get two large buckets and label one DIRTY WATER and the other CLEAN WATER.
Have cloths easily available to clean up spills or soak up water. I cut cheese clothes into 4-6 pieces.
Buy/get the large paint trays. You can mix water with acrylic paint to make ‘water colour’ in a cheap way.
Have a bucket for dirty brushes and a second for dirty pallets.
Have a classroom in the school that you can send your kids in to do the cleaning. (Thank you Kenn!)
Check with a classroom teacher inside the school to see if you can borrow their drying rack for the day.
Painting in a portable without water can seem very challenging, but it is doable. The kids LOVE it, which makes the extra effort worth it.
Final Thoughts
I saw a tweet about found poetry with painting last week and I just had to try it. Unfortunately, I cannot find the original tweet…or I would cite it! Thank you someone I follow on Twitter who did something cool that I did in my class. Found poetry can be used with any text and kids love it. Also, you can use felts or pencil crayons to black out the background instead of paint.
Poetry is incredibly beautiful and accessible. National Poetry Month in April is a great excuse to dig into this art form where every single word carries so much importance. I challenge you in April to try something new with your class and build poets who see the world in unique ways.