Found poems: Engaging Content Area Activity
Excellent way to involve Multilingual Learners in higher order thinking
Is poetry only for English class? Think again.
Engaging in found poetry can provide a level playing field in almost any subject matter. One definition of found poems is that the poem is created using only words, phrases, or quotations that have been selected and rearranged from another text. The text can be an academic article, newspaper, textbook, or novel from your content area. Students create found poems by choosing phrases from the original text that is particularly meaningful or interesting to them. They then organize the phrases or words around a theme or message. Writing found poems is a structured way to have students review material and synthesize their learning.
Ideas for implementation:
1. Students Create a List of Words, Phrases, and Quotations
Individually, students review a text related to a unit of study in a content area. The texts could be in English or the MLs' primary languages. Give students highlighters so that they can highlight words, phrases, or quotations that are particularly interesting or meaningful as they review the texts. It’s useful for students to identify at least 15 words or phrases within the text, so they have plenty of ideas to choose from as they compose their poems. Depending on the language acquisition level of the student, you could provide shorter passages.
2. Students decide on theme based on the content.
In intentionally mixed language groups, students decide on a theme or message connected to their study content. Of course, there are a lot of different options. Depending on your goals, you can limit or expand the students choices. It might be helpful to suggest the students brainstorm many ideas in a short, timed period. Tell them that there are no bad ideas for this free-form list. That way, they have some ideas to choose from.
Rachel David (2020) shares how she created “found poems” in science. She shares this advice:
“This is where it will get a bit tricky – scientific papers don’t have beautiful language; in fact, they are full or technical, jargony words that you would normally adapt or translate in a piece of science communication (case in point in my paper, abdomen and gastrointestinal tract vs. belly or tummy). But, sorry, this isn’t allowed here! You must work with the words in front of you, so you must be creative and see the potential in those more challenging words (including any double-meaning or colloquial uses). It might help to have an idea of what you want the poem to be about, its key message, and whether you follow the same kind of structure as the paper.”
She said she wanted to tell the story of the vagus nerve and its fascinating role as part of the gut-brain axis as the theme of her paper. To keep it short and straightforward, she used some of the technical language in the paper but ended it with a bonus word ‘wanderer’ to make it more human.
3. Students Select Additional Language
Found poems only use words that have been collected from a previously written source. So, once students have selected a theme and a message, they may need to review their materials again to collect additional language. This process encourages deep-level thinking and the process of connecting ideas. Encourage MLs to use translators and draw on their linguistic repertoires.
4. Students Compose a Poem
To make it easier to arrange, I would suggest that the students cut out the phrases they want to use or write all of the words and phrases on slips of paper so that they can move the slips around until the poem is to their liking. They can’t add their own words when creating a found poem, but they can repeat words or phrases as often as they like. Also, when putting together found poems, they don’t need to use all of the words or phrases they have previously selected.
5. Share Poems
It can be motivating when students have the opportunity to share or publish their work. Writing for an audience can add to their creativity and attention to the poem. There are lots of ideas for sharing their work.
Each group can read their poem like reader’s theater, where some students read lines together, and others read alone.
Poems can be pinned on a bulletin board.
Each group can pass their poems to the next group and ask for feedback or clarification. As a group, they write a comment and then pass the poem again to the left for another comment. Depending on how much time you have, you might allow for three or four passes, or you might have time for students to comment on all of the poems created by their classmates.
Photo by Mimi Thian on Unsplash
Discuss
End the found poem lesson with a final discussion highlighting what the poems reveal about the content or goals of this section. Here are some possible prompts.
What are common themes in all these poems?
How are they different?
What surprised you when reading them?
What did you learn about ________ by writing and reading the poems?
Photo by Barney Yau on Unsplash Have you used this idea before?
What worked?
What would you change?
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