Found Poetry

The last couple of months I have had the privilege of having a student teacher in my classroom. My students are really funny about it because they seem to think that the student teacher is harder than I am, but in all reality, she gives them the same assignments that I would give them. She may grade differently, but she still teaches the same standards and often times does more fun activities and assignments than I do. I always enjoy student teachers for the most part because I feel I learn from them just as much as they learn from me, if I don't learn more. Not only do I learn new things, but I am reminded of strategies I have used in the past, and I have time to plan better for the two classes that I still teach.

I'm currently teaching the novel The Things They Carried to my AP Language and Composition class. This is the first time I have read the book myself, and I wanted to do meaningful assignments for the students, so of course I looked to what other teachers have done. As I was looking at various websites and lesson plans, I found one unit that had the students write what is called a Found Poem. The assignment has students write down words and phrases that stand out to them while reading and then they edit and delete those words and phrases to create a poem. Since I was taught by great examples, I learned that I should write with my students. I try to never give a writing assignment that I have not written myself, so tonight, I came home and I created a found poem of my own. I'm posting it here because I actually like what I cam up with, and I usually don't like the poetry I create. I'm excited to share it with my students tomorrow, but I'm even more excited to see what they come up with when they complete the assignment on their own.

Here's the example I wrote for them:

“Not Even to my Wife”

The story makes me squirm

A hard story to tell

Moral Emergency?

A secret hero?

A secret reservoir of courage?

Once people are dead, you can’t make them undead

Feeling the blood

Thick behind my eyes

A silent howl

Rage in my stomach

A disassembly line

Gravity took over

Not pleasant work

Feeling sorry for myself

My life seemed to be collapsing

Toward SLAUGHTER!

I did not want to DIE
It was a moral split

I feared the war

Feared exile

Bitter

Real disease

Something broke open in my chest

Something vague

It was not a happy ending

I went to the war

A coward!