A Poke in the I: A Collection of Concrete Poems
Written by Paul B. Janeczko
Illustrated by Chris Raschka
Publisher: CandlewickPress
Copyright date: 2001
Number of pages: 48
Age Level: 6-9
Children's Poetry
Children's Poetry
This book contains 30 concrete poems that startle and intrigue the reader. The arrangement and size of the letters and words change from poem to poem. Some poems are in the shape of the object it is talking about such as a balloon or the words take shape of a murder of crows flying off the page. These visual poems will capture every readers attention and allows the reader an experience to see the poem!
For a lesson I would have the class come up with a long list of random objects in their lives and I would write these objects on the whiteboard. The students would then choose any of the objects on the board to write a concrete poem on. They would have a lot of creative freedom on this assignment. They could work independently or in pairs. For those who may need a bit of help getting started I would have students pick their object then write down things they associate with that object such as other objects, descriptive words or personal memories. Then I would tell them to circle the words they like best. This would help them get started on their poem.
Writing poetry can be daunting but your suggestion for helping students would be a fun way to help students get into the process of writing concrete poems.
ReplyDelete