Exploration - Blackout Poetry

Dear Reader, 

Welcome to my new series of posts. Each Monday in class we do explorations into different activities. The first one I'll be sharing with you today is Blackout Poetry. 

Blackout Poetry is a form of writing using words that already exist on the page. To sum the process up, you take a page from a book or magazine. Identify words you'd like to use to string together a poem. Using a Sharpie or some other kind of black ink, draw over everything except the words you've chosen for your poem! I'm going to link some helpful articles here, here, and here. 

This was my work! I used a page from a sci-fi novel about being submerged in water.

My blackout poem is on a blue sheet of construction paper. On the right side is the page from the book with words blacked out. On the left is the poem written out. It reads: The Stubborn Girl/The girl sighed./Nobody heard, anyhow./She filled her lungs and gripped her legs./She was very pale./The girl was afraid she might faint.
The Stubborn Girl by Maya Steinke

I completed another, sillier poem using a page from a book about the Mayan people and their customs and practices.

The second blackout poem I completed was also done on blue construction paper. The blacked out page is on the left with the written out poem on the right. It reads: The MOST Stubborn Girl/Maya/Maya/Maya/MAYA/maya
The MOST Stubborn Girl by Maya Steinke

I strongly recommend trying this activity out. It's surprisingly much harder than it looks! It would be a great activity for the classroom, one I'm hoping to try out myself on my future English students.

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