Level: Intermediate (grades 3-6)

Student Objectives

• Write a free verse poem
• Understand alliteration, assonance, internal rhyme, and onomatopoeia
• Understand and use synonyms to write poetry

Introduce the Poetry

• Free verse poetry is free from the normal rules of poetry. The poet may choose to include some rhyming words but the poem does not have to rhyme. A free verse poem may be just a sentence that is artistically laid out on the page or it can be pages of words. Some forms of free verse separate, or split, phrases and words between lines. Punctuation may be absent or it may be used to place greater emphasis on specific words. The main object of free verse is to use colorful words, punctuation, and word placement to convey meaning to the reader.
• Free verse poetry became popular and acceptable during the 20^th century, although scattered examples of the style were found previously. Walt Whitman is considered by many to be the first English free verse poet.

Teach the Poetry

• Write the following examples of free verse poetry on the board or overhead projector, or hand out a copy of the samples page.

Heroes Are
sometimes
courageous collaborators,
sometimes
originators of opportunities,
sometimes
champions of coincidence or circumstance.
Sometimes
heroes act through intelligence
and at other times
through ignorance.

A Hero Could Be
a main character in some work of literature,
simply a person,
or perhaps a mythological being of great courage and strength,
someone with a cause,
perhaps even a sandwich. . .
or,
a hero could be you!

Heroes May Be
Boisterous, bold, brash, and loud – Yee Haw!
Or swift, silent, and sly – Woosh,
Or even filled with woes – Boo hoo.
They may crave attention – Ta da!
Or they may ask for no one to mention – Shhhh. . .
Just how they made a difference.

• Ask students to point out similarities among the poems. Discuss how the lines in the poems break differently. Model reading the poems aloud. Point out how the line breaks affect the reading of the poem. Tell students that the poet often breaks the lines to make a point. Write a version of one of the poems on the board and have them read it aloud. Then rewrite the poem changing the line breaks and the punctuation and read it aloud again. Ask students to think again about how the punctuation and line breaks affect how the poem is read. Remind them to pay attention to line breaks when they write their own free verse poem.

Model Writing Free Verse

• The first step in writing a free verse poem is to choose a topic. Explain that free verse, like other forms of poetry, can make a seemingly common or ordinary person, place, thing, or experience into something special or extraordinary. Encourage students to use their experiences and feelings to brainstorm free verse topics. List students' responses on the board. Choose one of the suggested topics to write a class free verse poem. Write the topic on the board as a title.
• Remind students that free verse is a controlled list of colorful, thought provoking words about a topic. Encourage students to volunteer words, phrases, or sentences about the topic. Write their responses below the topic.
• After recording student responses, ask them to suggest ways to organize the list so that it conveys meaning in a better way. Remind students that all good writers revise their work until they feel that the words say what they want them to say in the best way.
• Revise the free verse poem several times to model the revision process. Model breaking lines at different points to show how the reading can change.
• Then have students write their own free verse using the same topic. Encourage them to use their own words and phrases as well as those suggested by the class.

Word Work: Alliteration, Assonance, Internal Rhyme, and Onomatopoeia

• Review the meaning and function of the following terms:

alliteration: the repetition of the same or similar sounds at the beginning of words, such as Parson Peters picked a peck of pickled peppers.
assonance: the repetition of vowel sounds within a phrase, such as in crave and rave.
internal rhyme: rhyme within a line or verse, as in boisterous and noisterous.
onomatopoeia: words that sound very similar to the sound they name, such as the buzz of bees, the howl of the coyote, or the snap of twigs.

• Discuss how using alliteration and onomatopoeia can help poets convey a stronger meaning in their poetry. For example, instead of writing the branch broke, they could write "snap, crack, crunch went the branches."
• Have students find examples in the free verse poems of alliteration and onomatopoeia. Underline the examples on the board or overhead projector as students point them out.

Poetry Practice

• Revisit the descriptive words on the board. Encourage students to find synonyms that might be more interesting and concise (noisy: boisterous, screaming, whining; quiet: calm, serene, silent, still). Encourage students to use additional resources, such as a dictionary, thesaurus, or the Internet to help them develop a personal list of words.
• Have students create a free verse poem on their topic. Encourage them to think carefully about where they choose to break their lines.
• Explain that conventional punctuation and capitalization rules don't always apply in free verse poetry. Discuss which conventions might vary and which might not. (For example, proper names should still begin with capital letters; writers should be consistent in their use of words and phrases; writers should also be consistent in their use of writing patterns.) The key issue is comprehension; the poet should use punctuation to convey meaning in order to help the reader understand the poem.
• Encourage students to include alliteration and other poetic devices, such as onomatopoeia, internal rhyme, or assonance in their poetry writing.
• Encourage students to revise their work in order to improve understanding and flow by adding, deleting, consolidating, and rearranging text as necessary.

Using the Worksheets for Practice

• Have students compose a free verse poem using the scaffolded worksheets. There are three choices of worksheets and a samples page.

Worksheet 1 for students who need additional support
Worksheet 2 for students who have a basic understanding of free verse
Worksheet 3 for students who have a solid understanding of free verse
Samples for examples of free verse poetry

Extend the Activity

• Celebrate the writing process by having students read their poetry aloud with fluency, rhythm, and expression.
• Encourage students to share their writing by holding a poetry slam. Have poets perform a free verse poem of their own on any subject. Give them a three-minute time limit. Have the audience, or class, score each poem on a scale of 0.0 - 10.0, considering both content and performance. Have the judges drop the highest and lowest scores and add the remaining scores together. Allow the highest scorer to perform twice at the next slam.
• Have students use their five senses to describe the topic. (Sunlight looks like. . . , sounds like. . . , feels like. . . , smells like. . . , tastes like. . . )