Have you been studying and writing different forms of poems with your students? Haikus, limericks, acrostics, cinquains, diamantes, found poems, pantoums, free verse… others? Are you and your students ready for a challenge?
Spice up the end of your focus on poetry by adding a little bit of chance to the mix. Use a site such as wheelofnames.com to generate custom spinners. Create one spinner with all of the different forms of poetry you have been working on. Then create a second spinner with broad topics such as sports, animals, emotions, colours, the five senses, family, or food.
There will be much excitement and hype as the spins determine each students’ form of poetry and topic.
By keeping the topics broad, there is still some element of choice for students. For example, if a student has to write a haiku on sports, they could write about sports in general, or pick a more specific topic such as lacrosse. Even with intentional constraints in place, try to allow for some student choice.
P.S. Feel free to share some of the poems created through this process! I’d love to hear them.