Poetry Unit

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Home : 2005 : May : 9

Poetry Unit
By Sherry

Bridget, I don't know if you can use this, but the activity I have found that gets my classes (6th, 7th, 8th LA) excited about poetry is to talk to them about how the lyrics to the CDs they listen to are just poetry enhanced
by music. I have them choose their favorite songs and print out the lyrics in whatever font style they like (they often use a large font size, too). We then take a class period to create an illustration of those lyrics. This is done on 12" x 18" stock paper.MAny are 3-D, some are collage, some painted, etc. There are no limitations to the artwork.Those who do not finish take it home

and bring it back the next day. We hang them in the hall and post the standards met by the project beside them. I traced and cut out fancy letters from a font that I enlarged saying, "MUSIC IS POETRY" I have never seen so many children stop to look at a hall display. I hope this helps!
OH, and by the way...I reel in my 7th grade boys by making the first poem we study "CASEY AT THE BAT". I have the all of the kids make sports cards of themselves or a player they make up. I pre-cut the cards, they draw the picture of the player on the front and the stats on the back. I laminate these cards for them and have found that a few still have them in 8th grade - being used for bookmarks! After we use this poem to study and recognize the elemnts of poetry, the class partners up and every two people writes a sequel to "CASEY...". Delightful poems have come from this activity.