I love poetry! Next month is national poetry month (not in Venezuela, but I’m bringing it to my classroom!). Yesterday I read a post from a fellow slicer about “found poems” and it inspired a lesson in my third grade class.
We are finishing up a unit on historical fiction but we are also gearing up for national poetry month. I combined these subjects with the help of my class to write a found poem about Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt.
Freedom Quilt Found Poem
When I was eleven
I picked crops as a slave
in the hot sun
Aunt Rachel taught me how to sew
Then I got to work in the Big House instead
A map is a picture of the land
I worked on the quilt for a long time
Then one night the quilt was done
Maybe others could use it
People just follow the stitches to freedom
Teaching Wanderlust 
Nice way to recap a book! They will remember it this way, too!
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It was so cute when we got to the end of the book and had finished writing our poem. I read it aloud and heard several students saying, “that’s so cool!” They were amazed that we could find words and phrases and summarize the book this way.
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What a great lesson idea. It’s a great way to summarize. Thanks for sharing.
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My students loved it! It definitely helped them remember the story better!
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Great poem! Did you just pull out lines from the book and arrange into a poem?
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Yes, most of the lines were partially “found” in the book, but sometimes I “found” a couple of words from the text and summarized it. So fun!
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I was just going to ask what the “found” was and read your reply above.
“Found from the text.” Definitely going to try this with the class vs. just writing a summary. Thanks! D 🙂
P.S. I just read your post about being a Portland girl. I’m here and it’s amazing. I had a feeling you might be west coast. Can’t wait to share these sites with the fam. Thanks!
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Amanda, here is the “Found” poem post you were referring to. https://flukeprints.wordpress.com/2015/03/23/a-found-poem-from-a-yellowstone-pamphlet/
I’m going to do this with my students as part of their Wander Indiana project. 4th graders study Indiana History and they’ve all ordered and received brochures from historical sites. Can’t wait! Thanks for this and thanks to the post above, too.
D 🙂
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Ah, thanks for finding the link for me. I will reference in my post now!
I think there are so many possibilities to use found poems in the classroom!
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