Poetry Madness

Every year it is a challenge to bring in some great examples of interesting and thought provoking poetry which connects to our unit of study.  Each time I am usually met with groans of frustration at "hating poetry."  I even hear the same responses from other teachers and I get it...poetry IS hard because it is often not straightforward, but it doesn't have to be groan-inducing.

An amazing reversal poem
written by an inspired student..
Read each line top to bottom
then bottom to top.

This year I wanted to try a different approach.  I had seen mention online of an approach other teachers take and I decided that what my students really needed was to find enjoyment in reading poetry, not to understand structures and analyze difficult texts. Poetry March Madness was the key to my struggles!

Honestly, I was not expecting this to be as exciting as it ended up being for my classes but it ended up being what they looked forward to every day.  I went from hearing, "Ugh. A poem." to "Are we going to read poems today?" and in the end I even had kids voluntarily writing poems emulating the structures of some that we looked at.  Amazing, right??

Really this was a pretty simple thing once I had it all set up.  Here is what I did.

Five Steps for Poetry Madness Success

1. Select 16 poems. I used lists I found online, poems recommended by other teachers, and poems that connected to our current novel unit. I tried to pair each set of poems by subject or style.  Then I placed them in the brackets.  Poetry March Madness Brackets
2. Read two poems with your students every single day. 
3. Briefly discuss the poem ("What did you like about the poem? What do you think the point of it is?")  Keep the discussion brief and positive. This took no more than 10 minutes each day. I printed both poems side by side and also projected them onto the board.
4. Allow students to vote for their favorite of the two poems. I used Plickers and Google Forms but also sometimes had them get up and move to the right or left side of the room according to their votes.
5. Repeat the process for all eight pairs/16 poems.  Round 2, 3 and the finals will be quick. (See the video for how the bracket works). The whole process takes 15 days.

Things I learned in the process
1. Choose equally amazing poetry so that it is difficult for students to decide.  I was able to turn some of the discussions into an impromptu Philosophical Chairs discussion because they were struggling to decide.  When we read "Nothing Gold Can Stay" and "We Real Cool," I only had a few votes for "Nothing Gold Can Stay." I knew if they talked it through, the votes would change. I let them debate a few minutes and the final vote ended up being really close in all groups.
2. Reflect on the discussions from students and make adjustments. Next year I'll probably adjust the first four poems.  They were great for round one but didn't really stand a chance in rounds 2 or 3 because there wasn't a lot of depth to them. I also ended up changing two poems near the end because of the timing we would have read them. It would have given away a big plot point in the novel we were reading if I had kept them.
3. Don't tell them that "The Rose That Grew From Concrete" was written by Tupac until after they discuss and vote.  I learned this one quickly and changed my approach for the second class!

Our School-wide Read unit after testing focuses on poetry and I know that getting my students excited to read, analyze, and then write poems will not be hard this year!

Comment below with something that you tried out and found that it worked better than you expected it to.  I can't wait to see what you share!

Keep the magic alive,

Kandyce Valverde
Follow me on Twitter for more classroom updates! @valverderules