Strategy #4: Found Poems
GENERAL SUMMARY:
This is another summarizing strategy. This allows to students to get creative with their summarizing. After reading a full text, there are words or jargon that stand out among the rest, and this is a strategy to help the students recognize the important words in the text. This would be a good strategy to help students understand the text as a whole, rather than trying to understand every little detail. It would also be a good refresher to study before an test because it encapsulates all the major key words in the text. Students who have trouble with comprehension will benefit from this because it helps them figure out the big idea of the text. I would use this when studying a difficult text or a text that is abstract or confusing to the students.
HOW TO IMPLEMENT FOUND POEMS:
Bring in an article, excerpt from a novel, or any other piece of text and give to the students to read. You could even allow the students to bring in their own texts to use. They could choose an article based on something that interests them so that they are more motivated to do the activity. Have the students read their texts through once, maybe twice if needed. Then, they will jot down on a piece of paper the words that stand out to them the most. Words that have the most meaning in the texts, or words that are used most frequently. The students should emphasize on words that are new to them or that help them understand the big idea of the text better. They will use these words to the condense the text into a poem by using only words that are found in the text. After the students are finished, I would suggest a "think-pair-share" sort of activity. They should share their poems with their peers and see which words in their poems that they had in common. They can practice this poetry reciting skills by reading their poems aloud to the class.
Here is a picture of the essence of a found poem:
This is another summarizing strategy. This allows to students to get creative with their summarizing. After reading a full text, there are words or jargon that stand out among the rest, and this is a strategy to help the students recognize the important words in the text. This would be a good strategy to help students understand the text as a whole, rather than trying to understand every little detail. It would also be a good refresher to study before an test because it encapsulates all the major key words in the text. Students who have trouble with comprehension will benefit from this because it helps them figure out the big idea of the text. I would use this when studying a difficult text or a text that is abstract or confusing to the students.
HOW TO IMPLEMENT FOUND POEMS:
Bring in an article, excerpt from a novel, or any other piece of text and give to the students to read. You could even allow the students to bring in their own texts to use. They could choose an article based on something that interests them so that they are more motivated to do the activity. Have the students read their texts through once, maybe twice if needed. Then, they will jot down on a piece of paper the words that stand out to them the most. Words that have the most meaning in the texts, or words that are used most frequently. The students should emphasize on words that are new to them or that help them understand the big idea of the text better. They will use these words to the condense the text into a poem by using only words that are found in the text. After the students are finished, I would suggest a "think-pair-share" sort of activity. They should share their poems with their peers and see which words in their poems that they had in common. They can practice this poetry reciting skills by reading their poems aloud to the class.
Here is a picture of the essence of a found poem:
carrieola.deviantart.com
Here is a link to a video of students sharing their found poem. They took a different approach and found words in magazines and cut them out to create poetry. http://teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=102771
ASSESSMENT:
The teacher can collect the found poems and use them as a tool to see what the students understood the best out of the given text. If many students don't mention an important concept from the text in their poems, then that could be a clue that the teacher will need to go over the lesson again to help the students understand the big idea.
SUPPORTING RESEARCH/EVIDENCE
"Embracing metaphor as method (Prendergast, 2005; see also Prendergast, 2006a, 2006b, 2008a), which I suggest is a key characteristic of thinking poetically and doing poetic inquiry, is the process conveyed in this suite of found poems."
Education and/as Art: A Found Poetry Suite, Prendergast, Monica. International Journal of Education & the Arts 13 (April 5, 2012): 19.
"Found poetry is an ideal tool or starting point for teaching poetic response...It makes students active observers and seekers developing their own poetic sensibilities... Because it challenges them to find poetry in all the "wrong" places, it continues to thrill them."
Let Found Poetry Help Your Students Find Poetry, Gorrell, Nancy English Journal; Feb 1989; 78, 2; ERIC pg. 30
The teacher can collect the found poems and use them as a tool to see what the students understood the best out of the given text. If many students don't mention an important concept from the text in their poems, then that could be a clue that the teacher will need to go over the lesson again to help the students understand the big idea.
SUPPORTING RESEARCH/EVIDENCE
"Embracing metaphor as method (Prendergast, 2005; see also Prendergast, 2006a, 2006b, 2008a), which I suggest is a key characteristic of thinking poetically and doing poetic inquiry, is the process conveyed in this suite of found poems."
Education and/as Art: A Found Poetry Suite, Prendergast, Monica. International Journal of Education & the Arts 13 (April 5, 2012): 19.
"Found poetry is an ideal tool or starting point for teaching poetic response...It makes students active observers and seekers developing their own poetic sensibilities... Because it challenges them to find poetry in all the "wrong" places, it continues to thrill them."
Let Found Poetry Help Your Students Find Poetry, Gorrell, Nancy English Journal; Feb 1989; 78, 2; ERIC pg. 30