April is National Poetry Month! Although we are reading poetry with our students all year long, April is often the time we ask students to write poetry. To engage students in this process, it is essential we provide effective prompts.
Do you you remember Shel Silverstein’s poem Sick? It’s a list poem that begins,
“I cannot go to school today,”
Said little Peggy Ann McKay.
“I have the measles and the mumps,
A gash, a rash and purple bumps.
My mouth is wet, my throat is dry,
I’m going blind in my right eye.”
(Read the entire poem here. Or crack open a copy of Where the Sidewalk Ends.)
What to do with this poem?
- Read it in its entirety to students… more than once!
- Examine the structure: the opening and closing lines, and the long hilarious list in between.
- Discuss Shel Silverstein’s word choice. (How did he create rhythm and rhyme?)
- Ask students to begin their poem with the line “I cannot go to school today” and let them decide who will say it (which can be their second line).
- Then, give them time to write a long list of excuses as to why they can’t go to school.
- When they’re ready, they can consider 2 or 3 lines to end the poem. Be sure to revisit the end of Sick at this time.
- As with all poetry writing, encourage students to read their poems aloud to work on rhythm and word choice.
- Revise, revise, revise!
“Poetry: the best words in the best order.” Samuel Taylor Coleridge