Poetry Month: Finding Inspiration in Student Writing

Ah, 
April:
a favorite 
month not just for 
crocus, daffodils,
forsythia, lilac
but the time when other joys
arise from earthen slumber, and
burst forth in wonder: miracles of
free verse, sonnet, cinquain, couplet, haiku

The Context

Poetry Month just might be my favorite time of the school year. Each April, I look forward to yearly traditions: the daily poems in my email inbox, my schools turning into living poetry anthologies, and the chance to spend thirty days walking through the world as a poet.

As a teacher who loves poetry, I have several projects that my students and I complete, but one in particular stands out to me as one of my favorites: the Golden Shovel.

For those who have never heard of it, the Golden Shovel is a form of poetry originated by poet Terrence Hayes. Using Gwendolyn Brooks’s poem “We Real Cool,” Hayes takes her words and then uses them to end each line of a new poem, so the ends of the line reveal a message from another poet. You can find his work here.

The Details

Students begin by reading the original two poems above, and then we “give it a go” ourselves using a poem we have previously studied. My perennial favorite is Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken.” I always love seeing the different directions students will often take when starting from the same foundation of words:

The “Level-Up”

It doesn’t take a lot for students to fall in love with this poetic form, but our next steps deepen and enhance the experience even further. Once students have learned how to craft Golden Shovel poetry, we turn to one another’s writing as a source for material. Students read each others’ poetry, noting lines or passages they enjoyed or connected to. Then, they write and share new pieces of work inspired by classmates:

The Bottom Line

Golden Shovel poetry is a useful tool for getting young poets to look for and appreciate strong writing around them. The creativity and synthesis involved in crafting their own work is a higher-level thinking activity that’s fun and easily accessible for all.

Furthermore, the benefits to this activity extend beyond reading and writing poetry. Crafting Golden Shovel poetry based on one another’s work further emphasizes the importance of writing community, and it reinforces the idea that student writing deserves to be read, to be thought about, to inspire. Let the poetry begin!