Acrostic Poetry exercise

This is a one-hour lesson I completed with 9th-graders. We followed up on “The Raven” and poetic devices we had dicsussed previously. I then read a poem titled, “Do You Have Any Advice For Those of Us Just Starting Out?” by Robert Koertge from the poetry 180 website. It’s theme is about writing and addresses the process of writing. I transitioned this poem and its writing discussion into an grammar exercise, noting that writing incorporates a purposeful choice of langauge for a variety of effects. Writing also incorporates basic grammatical elements,such as: gerunds, infinitives and adverbs (the class was in the middle of studying those parts of speech). So……I had them go on a word search in newspaper and mags to find phrases and words to cut out and create their own Acrostic poem around the word, “WRITER.” I also included examples of the kinds of acrostic poems I was looking for.

They had to include at least one gerund, infinitive and adverb in their poem.

Supplies needed:

glue, scissors, publications, constrution paper or other heavy duty paper on which to mount the poem on.

“Do you have any advice for those of us just starting out?”

Acrostic examples and activity handouts

Some Henry V discussion/writing resources

Some discussion and writing topics that can be used to coincide with the study of Shakespeare’s Henry V.

Henry V discussin/writing ideas

“The Raven”

Please feel free to use all of this, some of this, or even none of it. Maybe it will inspire you to create something.One 50-minute class period.It’s perfect for the Halloween season or a study on Poe and Gothic lit. I hand out the sheet about lit/poet terms and devices. Go over alliteration, assonance, etc. Explain that these are common techniques used by writers to create affect, tone, mood, etc…. Cover poetry basics however you see fit. Discuss Poe some, etc… (depends on where you are in a unit of study) I then pass out a copy of the poem, or have them read from a book. There are 18 stanzas, so most students can take a turn at reading a stanza. Then, I post the “Interactive Raven” from projector onto board and look for specific examples of alliteration, assonance and ryhyme. After going over the specific use of these devices and discussion of the poesm, I show them the Simpsons version of The Raven, a five-minute presentation. Finally, they have in-class or homework to draw or write a descriptive image of their interpretation of what Poe’s chamber looks like. Links and attachments: “The Interactive Raven” http://www.teachersfirst.com/share/raven/start.html The Simpsons version of “The Raven”: http://en.sevenload.com/videos/SCR4nVh/The-Simpsons-The-Raven-engl Literary and Poetic devices The Raven poem