This Prompt's Title:

Start and Stop Poetry

linking introductions and conclusions in structured poetry

This poetry prompt was created by NNWP Teacher Consultant Corbett Harrison. Check out all of Corbett's on-line lessons by clicking here.

There are two intended "mentor texts" to be used when teaching this on-line lesson: Twilight Comes Twice by Ralph Fletcher and If You Give a Pig a Pancake by Laura Numeroff.

Before writing, students should listen to and discuss the writing style of these books' authors.

Washoe County teachers, click here to search for either book at the county library.

Three-Sentence Overview of this Lesson:

A Start & Stop Poem--borrowing the structural concept of Laura Numeroff's If You Give a Pig a Pancake--has a first line and last line that are exactly the same. The first line of these poems might be a single word, an interesting phrase or clause, or a short but complete sentence, but the goal of the poem is to circle back on itself. To inspire excellent word choice in these poems, students should read and re-read Ralph Fletcher's Twilight Comes Twice as they compose, focusing on the author's remarkable style. Teachers: Click here to see the entire lesson plan.

6-Trait Overview for this Lesson:

The focus trait in this writing assignment is organization; the poet will explore the technique of linking one's introduction to a conclusion, and they will explore ways to do this logically.  The support trait in this assignment is word choice; between the repeated lines of the first and last line, student poets will need to choose words that evoke images in the reader's mind.