Language Arts – Found Poems
Set (5 min)
Ask the students the following:
- Characters from Freak the Mighty
- 2 or 3 events from Freak the Mighty
- What has happened so far in Max the Mighty?
- Main characters
- A main event so far in the novel
Development (20 min)
Poetry
-
Closure (2-3 min)
What it is
Types of poetry
Have you written or read poetry before?
Introduce Found Poems
o Define noun, verb, adjective if needed
Show an example and the process
Outline steps
Do a Found Poem together as a class on the
board
Remember:
- You can do found poems with any article or
novel that you are reading
- A found poem is another way to interpret what
you are reading
- This poem is another way to express your
understandings
Adaptations
-
Could show more than one example
Have a handout or list of words ready that we
could use
Could work with a partner if not as a whole class
-
Exit slip – define a found poem
Students could do their own poems
Assessment
Found poems
-
Look at words that authors use to create images and express thoughts to readers
Writing activity
Focuses on vocabulary words and nouns, verbs and adjectives
Key ideas expressed in a passage, article or chapter
It is important to look at what you are reading and remember don’\t forget what the author is
saying when you are looking at words
-
Big Idea : use the authors words to create your own new passage
Steps to writing a Found Poem: (Taken from 50 Instructional Routines to Develop Content Literacy –
Douglas Fisher, William G. Brozo, Nancy Frey and Gay Ivey)
1.
2.
3.
4.
Circle or list the strongest words and phrases in the passage – verbs, nouns and adjectives
Start the poem with a strong word or phrase – keep phrases how the author wrote them
Add some words to help with grammar – most words come from the textbook
Title the poem – write the chapter, the book title and author, and page numbers your poem comes
from
*Found poems can come from long and short readings
Information:
Noun – person, place, thing, quality or action
Verb – action word
Adjective – describes a noun
Chapter 1 (pages 1-2) Max the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick
Words and phrases:
-
Maxwell Kane
And ears that stick out
Abdominal snowman
Avoid
Stay hurt forever
Weird
Moping
Why hurry?
Feet that won’t listen
Girl
A shiver in my bones
Turn my ears off
- big dude
- with a face like the moon
- humongous
- weenie
- a coward
- fight
- scared
- prison
- bad apple
- world
- school
- long
- home
- cracks
- sidewalk
- get a life my brain says
- screaming
- loud
- freeze
- invisible
- runaway and hide somewhere else
Example:
Max the Mighty
Maxwell Kane – a big dude.
With a face like the moon,
and ears that stick out.
A humongous abdominal snowman,
a weenie, a coward
who avoids a fight.
Scared, and hurt forever.
Prison - a bad apple in a weird world.
After school moping along, why hurry?
Cracks in the sidewalk,
and feet that won’t listen.
Get a life my brain says.
A girl screaming, loud, causes a shiver in my bones.
I freeze up, invisible; I want to turn my ears off.
I want to runaway and hide somewhere else.
Found Poem from: “Max the Mighty” – Rodman Philbrick - Chapter 1 (pages 1-2)