Fourth-graders Create Blackout Poems

Fourth-graders in Melissa Foraker’s Language Arts class created their own blackout poems to celebrate National Poetry Month, which is held in April. Foraker wanted students to have a fun and creative way to make poetry.  To create the poems, students started with a piece of text, such as an excerpt from Roald Dahl’s “The BFG” or a biography of a changemaker, and circled words in the text that stood out to them. Next, students made word choices that formed a poem. The final step was to black out the text they didn’t use. “Students had fun using programs on the iPad, such as Procreate, to make unique pictures that tied their words to images,” Foraker said. “The imagery and creative scenes students produced were beautiful!”