Poetry Journal Prompts for Middle School
Get Students Writing About Eve Merriam's How to Eat a Poem
Sep 6, 2009
Journal writing can be an important writing activity for sixth to eighth graders by giving the students a safe and ungraded space to explore and cultivate their ideas and relationships with their reading assignments. Journal writing can also be used to help build student comprehension and understanding of newly introduced literary genres, such as poetry.
Pre-Writing Activity: Introducing the Poem
To help accommodate a variety of learning styles in the middle school classroom provide each student with a printed hand out of Eve Merriam's "How to Eat a Poem." One strategy to grab the students' attention with the hand out is to print the poem in a large font on brightly coloured paper. It may also be helpful to center the poem on the page, however to be sure to keep the left aligned margin otherwise the form of the poem may appear different from what the author intended.
Once each student has a copy of the poem slowly read it aloud. If time permits allow students who would like to read the poem aloud to do so.
Journal Prompt – Exploring Literary Devices
Verbally ask the students and write the prompts that are being used on the board or overhead projector.
- What literary devices are used in "How to Eat a Poem"?
- Have you seen these literary devices in anything else you have read?
- What do you think the poet is referring to in this poem?
Allow students ten to fifteen minutes to formulate and write responses in their journals. For students who finish early they may be given another poem to read and respond to, or if they are inspired to do so they may write a poem of their own in a style similar to Merriam's.
Journal Prompt – Identifying Imagery
Imagery is an integral part of all types of poetry. The following journal prompts are designed to encourage middle schoolers to consider the purpose of imagery in Eve Merriam's poem.
- Using as many adjectives as possible, describe what is happening in "How to Eat a Poem."
- Imagine the room the poem is happening in and then describe the room and the furniture in it.
- Who is eating the poem?
- What kind of person is he or she?
- What are his or her character traits?
More Poems for Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Grade Students
Other poems to inspire middle school journal writing:
- Robert Frost's "The Armful"
- William Carlos Williams' "This Is Just to Say"
- William Wordworth's "To a Butterfly"
These journal prompts can be adapted and used as warm-up activities, part of a larger lesson plan or unit on poetry, or a simple activity for a substitute English teacher.
Importance of Journal Prompts for Poetry
Using journal prompts to share poetry with middle schoolers provides them an opportunity to relate to and understand poetry at their own pace and maturity level. Journal prompts do not have to be graded for spelling, thoroughness or completeness (although they certainly could be if necessary) and points can be awarded simply for effort and participation in the activity,
By introducing poetry with journal prompts and short activities suitable for adolescent attention spans, students will learn to enjoy poetry and literature rather than dread it.
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