Concrete Poems

While carrying out my field experience last week, I saw awesome writing instruction. My student teacher is currently teaching reading and writing in my field placement classroom. On Thursday, her lesson was teaching students about concrete poems. Students have had some practice with writing poetry. They understand that some poetry does not have to rhyme and that some are expressions and emotions of how people are feeling or what they are thinking. After my student teacher discussed concrete poems and read one aloud to the class, a class discussion as held about how a concrete poem is created. Students loved the fact that a concrete poem was in the shape of something. Students were able to make connections relatively quickly on the relationship between the shape of the poem and the content of the poem.

Following the focus lesson, students were able to create their own concrete poems. They were instructed to first think of a shape of object that their poem would be in the shape of. For some, this was difficult. They wanted to write their poem, then put it in a shape. I thought about the process for writing a concrete poem and I wonder if the steps for creating a concrete poem can be reversed? Could students write their poem before finding an object or drawing their poem in a certain shape? A part of me feels that students might choose an image that may not relate or correspond to their concrete poem if they wrote the poem first. Overall, students thoroughly enjoyed learning about concrete poems and being able to write about whatever was on their mind. I believe the free choice for their concrete poem allowed students to be creative and focus on what interests them or what may be on their mind. Often, I do not see the free choice in writing; however, on that day I saw how excited and creative my second grade students are!