Found Poems
Last week, I had the privilege of attending the NSTA Conference (National Science Teacher Association) in Atlanta, Georgia with a few colleagues. We arrived back at school overwhelmingly inspired by incredible new ideas and innovations that can be implemented in the classrooms. One of the workshops that I attended was called Using Wonder to Inspire Poetry. It was there that I discovered https://wonderopolis.org/, a website (aptly) dedicated to student "wonders." It includes many, many responses to questions that students submit, and the resulting research covers a wide variety of topics.
I decided to put this workshop to good use today, teaching the students about both electricity and the organizational approach to "Found Poems." After reading and discussing a "wonder" that investigated concepts related to electricity (https://wonderopolis.org/wonder/who-discovered-electricity), we went through the article, found 4-5 word phrases of words that we liked, made a list of those phrases, and then organized them into poems.
Below is an example of the process. I've also included some of the poems that have already been completed. So creative and juicy. More to come!
I decided to put this workshop to good use today, teaching the students about both electricity and the organizational approach to "Found Poems." After reading and discussing a "wonder" that investigated concepts related to electricity (https://wonderopolis.org/wonder/who-discovered-electricity), we went through the article, found 4-5 word phrases of words that we liked, made a list of those phrases, and then organized them into poems.
Below is an example of the process. I've also included some of the poems that have already been completed. So creative and juicy. More to come!
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| Eve meets the Wonder and identifies interesting and evocative phrases. |
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| She continues to explore the Wonder, adding phrases to her list. |
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| She writes down and begins to organize some phrases into a meaningful sequence. |
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| She takes those phrases and writes a poem. Voila! An Wonder-inspired masterpiece! |
Stormy Days (A Found Poem)
By: Alexandra Spindt
Times of quiet and darkness.
As the lights flicker,
when the thunder booms,
lightning lights up the sky.
Electricity (A Found Poem)
By: Orli Friedman
Nature unleashes her powerful forces
when the thunder booms.
We often feel lost
in the static sparks.
Electricity is all around us.
We can't live without it.
Storms (A Found Poem)
By: Suri Valkin
The thunder booms.
Lightning lights up the sky.
In the static sparks
we realize it's power,
unable to do anything.
Fury of the Storm (A Found Poem)
By: Eva Cohen
Watching the storms roll in
as Mother Nature unleashes her power.
Lightning lights up the sky.
When the thunder booms,
the power goes out.
At these times of quiet,
we feel lost.
Mother Nature's Darkness (A Found Poem)
By: Mira Franck
As Mother Nature unleashes
powerful forces of weather,
lightning lights up the sky.
We often feel lost
as the lights flicker.
A dark and quiet world.
Storm (A Found Poem)
By: Michael Kimmelmann
Others love to watch storms
when the power goes out.
Most of us are awestruck.
Electric currents power all.
