Blackout Poetry

This week during 8th grade library visits, students created blackout poems. They are just kicking off their poetry units, and the awesome ELA teachers and I thought this would be a fun activity for them. One of the teachers suggested we try this as she’d seen some examples on Pinterest. I immediately knew what she was talking about and was excited to give it a try!

I took some of our weeded books, cut out the pages, and gave students markers and pens for to create and design their poems. I created a looping slideshow to project on the screen with some examples to inspire them. Here are some of the favorites that were created this week:

I’m going to pull some of these together to create a fun display in the hall outside the library, but until then I wanted to share their awesome work here!

7 thoughts on “Blackout Poetry

  1. I love black out poetry. I have done it with my grade 5s, but a most basic one. Grade 5 is my oldest class that I work with and I just had to try it. I love how the students drew pictures with theirs. They are so much fun.

  2. I love your examples!!! The kids did a really awesome job. I just sent the link to your webpage to our eighth grade LA teacher–I hope to do this with her in the spring!

  3. I have never heard of blackout poetry, but after reading your post and seeing your examples this looks like fun and something the kids would really enjoy. I have several books that have been discarded from our collection and what a great way to use some of those books and engage the students in poetry. I work at a K-2 school, I would like to try this with my 2nd graders first and see how it goes when they get around to studying poetry.

  4. Thank You! What a great way to inspire kids to write poetry! I am looking forward to using your ideas with students.

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