Earth Day Celebration: Making Blackout Poems to Surface Ideas

EarthDay BlackOut Poem Blend

We came back yesterday from our week-long April break to Earth Day, and to a double environmental issue of Time for Kids magazine, and in the midst of our poetry unit. It seemed like a good time to bring in Blackout Poetry, for what sixth grader can resist the power of the Sharpie?

After reading some of the pieces in the Earth Day special edition of TFK, I explained the nature of Blackout Poems  — remove text to reveal text, as a found poem inside the redactions. After finding words and phrases, I had them move to their writing notebooks to compose a short poem (at this point, they could re-order words and phrases and add words, if needed).

The picture above is my sample, from an article about re-using bridges and machinery to create coral reef ecosystems. Some students did get a chance to share their poems, and they were wonderful in their eccentricity, as free-style poems with an environmental theme. Perfect writing for Earth Day!

Peace (to this planet),
Kevin

 

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