Building a Love of Poetry Through Choice Boards

Poetry is something that often makes students a little nervous, even just the mention of it, but poetry can be such a magical thing and students are so incredibly creative without even realizing it. It can sometimes take a lot of work to convince students that poetry is awesome and that they have all the skills necessary to be amazing poets.

I had recently done a great lesson that my students enjoyed where they researched authors for Black History Month and then they built this great slide showing us everything they’d learned about their author. They liked it so much that we did the same thing for Women’s History Month. I built one for National Poetry Month, but then I realized that maybe the kids were kind of over it. Also, I knew that it wasn’t going to take the whole class period. I needed more options for them. Then it hit me! A choice board! This year I’ve built a lot of choice boards for my lessons because they work so incredibly well. They are engaging, they give students plenty of options, and they really show you what students know through creative outlets.

As I started brainstorming what kinds of things the kids could do, the ideas just rushed through, like opening a floodgate. I wanted to do Blackout Poetry with them. I wanted to do some found poems with them. What if they could put a poem to music? What about my online learners? As I started to work through the ideas and then started looking for others, I found all kinds of great ideas.

One of the teachers I work with, Amanda Ross, had built an awesome option for Black Out Poetry for her eLearners that she shared so I took that and made some adjustments to it. One of the amazing media specialists in my district shared a Poetry Excursion activity with me, so I made my own Google Form and added that in for my students. Another teacher I work with sent some great links to online tools that she found through TikTok and I grabbed some of those and adapted them for the activity too. Collaboration is key! I don’t have to know everything or be able to think of everything because I have some amazing people I can bounce ideas off.

As I built their activities, I just had to think through a few things:

• What tools do they already know how to use?
• What tools are available that they could easily figure out?
• What resources do I need for my in-person learners?
• What will they need to complete each activity independently?
• What might they already know about poetry?

Some of the students I was going to be working with are in an advanced reading class where they’ve been writing their own poetry all semester. Other students have not been studying poetry. I knew I wouldn’t have time to teach them a ton of different types of poetry and then still have time to create, so I needed to give them enough information in the slide so that they didn’t need to be “taught” and could read what was there and get to work.

I gave the students their choice board options and then I walked them through what the expectation was for each option. After we went through that, they were given the freedom to choose what to work on and the chance to let their creativity bubble through to the surface.

They made some AMAZING things! They had so much fun using magazine words to build poems, running all over the library to find book titles that they could make book spine poetry from, and they LOVED the Blackout poems. Our online learners had a lot of fun too.

One of my favorite things about this lesson is that it can be used for any time of the year and it is something I can pull out at a moment’s notice now and have a highly engaging activity for all levels of learners. Students can work on it from home or in the library or classroom and be successful, no matter the circumstances. The best part is that it is an interactive way to show students that poetry isn’t so scary after all!

If you have questions about the choice board options or would like to make your own poetry choice board and want to bounce ideas off of someone, please feel free to reach out to me. I love hearing from other educators! We are all better together!

CARRIE FRIDAY
Media Specialist
Southwest Middle School
Palm Bay, Florida

Carrie Friday is a 2018-2019 Teacher of the Year Finalist for Brevard Public Schools, and a 2019-2020 Space Coast Public Service Heavy Lifter award winner. She isn't afraid to take risks and will do just about anything to encourage the love of literacy in students and teachers. She is a co-founder of the #swms20bookchallenge and total YA author fangirl. Carrie is a Follett Community contributor and has presented best practices at the district level, FAME, AASL, and FETC. Most recently, Mrs. Friday’s library program was awarded the designation of a Florida Power Library School by the Florida Department of Education. She believes in innovation, collaboration, and the power of really good books.

She is also a wife to a rocket scientist and a mom to the sweetest two girls you'll ever meet. She loves Gilmore Girls, Pinterest, coffee, and porch swings. She is a proud graduate of Auburn University. War Eagle!

You can reach her through email at friday.carrie@brevardschools.org or on Twitter at @CarrieFriday. Follow along with her adventures in the Media Center at alwaysfridaylibrary.blogspot.com or on Instagram with @swmsmediacenter or @CarrieFriday.