Thursday, February 16, 2012

Same old, same old

Admit it, when you are in a class where you nothing but the same things over and over it gets a bit boring, right? Sure, papers and exams are both a great way to assess students, but they aren't the only way. The possibilities are ENDLESS. So don't just keep doing the same old things over and over again. I found this new idea on Pinterest that I would love to incorporate into my classroom someday. I'm sure we've all been given the assignment to write our own poetry at some time throughout our schooling, and this puts a new spin on the "usual" way we are used to either writing poems by hand on a sheet of paper or typing them up on a computer. It's called "black out poetry" and here is one of the examples I found..
You can take an old book (and I mean OLD- falling apart- not able to read from any longer- no one wants to destroy a perfectly fine book,) newspaper, magazine, journal article, etc. and allow the students to write a poem with the words that are already on the page-- by blacking out the other words. It could even be a new spin on the six word stories we talked about in class, blacking out words to create a six word story. The possibilities with this idea are endless as well.

Anyone else like this idea? 

J.A.M.

3 comments:

  1. I'd have to say this is one of my favorite ideas! I remember not knowing where to start when I was told to write a poem in high school. This activity would eliminate that issue. Also, I love art and I think it would be fun to combine the two. Now I want to make one of my own!

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  2. I love this idea! It's so creative and you're right, the possibilities are endless. Instead of struggling to create one poem which many students do, I feel with this activity coming up with a number of poems could be done with ease. Thanks for sharing!

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  3. I, too, love this idea! It's a great entry into poetry. You could even copy the same page so that students could see how different the same text could be.

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