After students have completed their analysis, the teacher can scaffold learning into creating blackout poetry. Students may benefit from a mini-lesson or review on poetic devices that can be scaffolded into a lesson on creating blackout poetry. Students are encouraged to evidence their analysis skills by creating a blackout poetic piece thematically representative of the studied poets. Through this part of the unit, students are encouraged to amplify their voices as well as the voices of their studied poets. The lesson may follow this format:
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Task
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Material(s)
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Product (Student Created)
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Scan the text (top to bottom and left to right). Identify (highlight, underline, or circle) impactful words to anchor their poem. Explain that the order of words from the original text cannot change.
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Selected anchor texts
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Anchor text that has identified impactful words that thematically connect to overall learning objectives.
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Optional to help with organization
Write selected words on a separate page in the order they appear (remind students that they cannot change the word order of the original text). This may visually help students focus on keywords, decipher meaning(s), see thematic connections, and finalize student word choice(s).
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Organizer (as needed)
Selected anchor texts
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Revised (as needed) version of selected words for blackout poem.
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Analyze word choice(s) by reading through selected words eliminating or adding any that are superfluous or needed. Students should analyze words thinking about how word choices should flow to thematically connect to studied poets, and express key ideas and/or images.
Encourage students to peer-review their work by reading and displaying their work for feedback in small groups.
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Organizer (as needed)
Selected anchor texts
Feedback form (optional)
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Revised (as needed) version of selected words for blackout poem.
Completed peer-review feedback form (optional)
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Create a final version solidifying or finalizing word choices and rationale for choices. Base revisions off peer-review feedback.
Transfer word selection to the original piece blacking out unselected words.
Visual elements (optional). As this lesson is not an art project, blackout poems go hand in hand with strong visual elements. Encourage students to choose thematically connected visual representation(s) of their work.
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Finalized blackout poem
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Finalized blackout poem with (optional) visual element.
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Performance (optional): Encourage students to think back to rhythm and rhyme of poetry. Ask students to consider how they would “read” or “perform” their poems to an audience.
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Finalized “performed” blackout poem
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Finalized “performed” blackout poem
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