Cormier's Corner: Middle School ELA Lessons: Black Out Poetry

After reading about this activity from my favorite blog, Musings from the Middle School, I HAD to try it with my students. I love trying artsy things because my students always impress me. This activity did not disappoint. Of course, a few students really stood out, but I was able to see everyone's personality shine through in their work. I had my boy athletes create poems like this:

My budding artists gave me these gems:

Everyone really joined in on the fun. I even gave the students an end-of-the-year survey and asked them to write down their favorite lessons. We've done so many fun activities, but this was the one they voted for over and over again. And to be honest, it was so simple. The kids really enjoyed it, and the planning was a piece of cake for me. I emailed the librarian (our school's librarian is A-MA-ZING) a week ahead of time asking for any old books and newspapers. My students had a "Dead Poets' Society" moment in which they gasped in horror at the thought of tearing out pages from perfectly good books. Some even begged to keep a few books to spare them from destruction. They crack me up! I had to refrain from standing on my desk and shouting, "Carpe Diem" in hopes that they would call me Captain. Who are we kidding? That would NEVER happen! Moving on...Most of my students were more than happy to destroy their books, and even offered to help tear out pages for my next class.

For the materials, I put the old books in separate crates around my room and my students were given markers and colored pencils. I showed them Google images of other black out poetry samples. I explained that they basically had to choose random words from their "word bank pages" to create a new poem of their own. I reminded them of their six word memoirs that we had done earlier in the year. I explained the shorter the message, the better. But I stressed that I wanted them to make the reader feel something. I told them to evoke an emotion or paint a picture. They did not let me down. Here are some more examples: