A Bear of a Poem: Composing and Performing Found Poetry

To add to students’ growing ways of looking at and listening to words, students will “mine” texts for favorite words from familiar children's literature. Working together, students select words and phrases to create a collective class poem, that they will then turn into a performance. This lesson helps students recast the text they are reading in a different genre, which in turn, makes students more insightful readers and helps develop creativity in thinking and writing.  A shared writing lesson plan which includes students selecting words or phrases from a  children’s story to create a class poem. This lesson uses a shared writing approach to create afound poem. It includes extensions, and student assessment/reflections.

Weblink address (URL): 
A Bear of a Poem: Composing and Performing Found Poetry

Standards & Objectives

Learning objectives: 

Student Objectives:

Students will:

  • identify words in read-aloud books that help make the story appealing. 
  • select a favorite page or passage from a book. 
  • select favorite words or phrases from children's stories. 
  • create a class poem using found words and phrases. 
  • perform their piece of the poem in front of others. 
  • listen to and critique the performance of others. 
  • assess their efforts using a checklist.

Lesson Variations

Blooms taxonomy level: 
Analyzing
Extension suggestions: 

Extensions:

  • Once students have experience creating found poetry, encourage them to experiment with the Word Mover, creating poems from the selected words, or adding their own. 
  • If desired, complete the activities using the Word Mover Mobile App.
  • Invite students to write original poems in the format of their found poems. For an example of this process, refer to the Poetry from Prose lesson plan. 
  • Provide an example of a poem written in two or more voices, and explore how performance poetry for two voices is different from choral readings and reading for many voices. 
  • Encourage students to add some dramatic flair to their poetry performance. Students could add actions to their lines, if time is available. Or perhaps, offer the group some rhythm instruments or other classroom items to enhance the performance.

Helpful Hints

This lesson uses books from the Berenstain Bears series as an example, but any children’s books or book series can be used.

References

Contributors: 
Mary Glasgow
Originator: 
Ayers Institute for Learning & Innovation