Seventh Grade English.com

I don’t usually try to teach poetry writing. It’s just too hard to read the results most of the time. However, now that I’m teaching some 8th grade this year, and poetry plays a larger role in the standards, I busted out an old lesson I hadn’t used in years.
It starts with the Robert Frost classic, “The Road Not Taken.”

(Follow the link for the poem and discussion questions, then come back for the poetry-writing part.)

I stole/mutated this from a presentation I attended at my first English teacher conference. (CATE 1994 – I only went to one more conference like that, the next year, and then the money ran out for conferences, and so forth…I really should go again sometime on my own dime.)

Anyway, it’s a fairly painless and very cool way to show that what you cut is just as important as what you add.

FROM PROSE TO POETRY

Prose is the usual form of writing.  It has complete
sentences, paragraphs, capital letters, and punctuation.  When we
write poetry, we can often ignore those conventions to produce a special
effect.  We are going to take your rough draft essay and turn it into
a poem using the revision  strategies of cutting, adding, changing,
and rearranging.

What you need:

1. Your rough draft essay.
2. A pencil (so you can erase).
3. At least one or two extra sheets of paper.

What to do:

1. Count the words in your essay by counting the number of words
   in one line, counting the number of lines and then multiplying.
2. Using a pencil, cross out at least half of the words in
   your essay. Try to remove all the dull, utilitarian words and leave
   the colorful, descriptive language.  Remember the elements of good
   writing and keep them:  surprise, comparison, vivid verbs, nouns,
   sense details, maybe even dialogue.
3. Make sure the story can still be followed,
   but don’t worry too much about complete sentences…
4. Now make changes in line length and punctuation.  Rewrite
   the piece as a poem arranging it on the page as you wish.  Think about
   pauses and the effect you want to make as you add your own punctuation.
5. Remember that poems LOOK different
   than essays:
   The lines don’t go
   All the way to the end;
   Sometimes there might be
   Only
   One
   Or two
   Words on a line
   (for a special effect).
   The lines should  have a sort of a rhythm.
6. Rearrange the words if you want.  Also, you may add
   a  few words here and there if you need to complete a thought.
7. Copy your final poem on to a separate sheet of paper.
8. Capitalize the first word of each line.
9. It should be 1/2 the number of words of your original essay.
10. Final Draft due Friday.

A Sample

PROSE:
from
Summer of My German Soldier, Bette Green

If there were not mirrors or mothers, I probably
never would  know how ugly I am.  But it was all there, plain
as my reflection in the glass.  Skinny bones, skinny face, feet too
big, nose too long. In the mirror I could also see my mother’s profile:
a high cool forehead and a slender nose that stopped where a nice nose
ought  to.  A lot like Sharon’s.  And there were lofty cheekbones
that gave my mother’s face form, symmetry, and on occasion great beauty.
Sometimes I think God lavished so much beauty on her outsides that when
he got around to her insides there just wasn’t much of anything left over.

(112 words)

POETRY:

Mirrors

It was all there

plain as my reflection in the glass.

Skinny bones,

skinny face,

feet too big, nose too long.

Mother’s profile:

high cool forehead,

slender nose,

lofty cheekbones,

form, symmetry,

on occasion great beauty.
God lavished so much beauty on her outsides,

there wasn’t much of anything inside.

(50 words)