Blackout poetry is an easy, and creative way for your students to express themselves through the written word. Learn how to teach blackout poetry as a fun way to link art and literacy!
What is Blackout Poetry?
Blackout poetry is a form of “found poetry” where you select words that catch your interest from a newspaper, book, or other printed text– along with a few additional words to make it flow. Then using a marker, you simply blackout the rest of the text. Blackout poetry is fun and just like a treasure hunt… but with words! Blackout poetry can also be a great exercise to help those suffering from writer’s block.
Who Invented Blackout Poetry?
Blackout poetry was invented by Texas-based author, Austin Kleon. In a 2012 TEDx talk, Kleon traces the evolving history of blackout poetry back 250 years, to a man named Caleb Whiteford who published a broadsheet of found poetry and puns he’d collected from some of the first-ever print newspapers.
7 Steps to Teach Blackout Poetry:
1. First, explain what blackout poetry is. Then show students some examples. There are entire websites and Instagram accounts dedicated to this type of poetry.
2. Bring in old newspapers, books, or magazines. Make sure that you don’t mind these items being completely and utterly destroyed.
3. Make sure that each student has a marker, preferably black.
4. Ask students to read the passage and skim for eye-catching words or phrases that might work well in a poem.
5. As students make their final decisions, have them blackout the rest of the text on the page. When only those words are visible, a brand-new poem is created from the existing text. That’s right, a brand-new poem.
6. Have students either cut out the words or phrases chosen or rewrite (or type) their poem. These may be glued on construction paper and/or decorated.
7. Students can share their poems with the class.
Here is a sample blackout page from Poets and Writers Magazine.
Here’s the poem.
A memory? Earliest and darkest days— words planted in a bed beyond desire sitting on the grass in communion with the earth: it’s simplicity. Of a morning under a tree, the grass— with memory of when I was a kid, normal— in poetry, in life. I stared for hours, a kindred spirit inspiring observations about another memory: years of childnood. My final lesson, a deep breath underwater again. While taking a breath, what do you do with a memory? Wade in it, dive deeper? Right now: breathe. Feel the sun on your face to stay afloat until you’re once again on dry land.
Not too bad, right? Exactly, anyone can create a poem using this form, even from an editor’s letter.
4 Tips for Writing Blackout Poetry:
1 Skim, skim, skim. When making blackout poems, unlike a reading text for school, when picking an article to use, it’s best not to read it too closely. Skimming is the way to go. Tell students to look for words and phrases that jump off the page. That way, students won’t be overly influenced by the original text and they can create something uniquely their own.
2 Have students circle or highlight words and phrases that speak directly to them. Ones that they like the sound of. Have them look for nouns, verbs, and adjectives.
3 To make students’ poems flow, they will inevitably need to add words to link their ideas together. Words like “a,” “the,” “of,” and “so.”
4 Another, less messy, way to utilize blackout poetry is to simply have students cut out words and phrases and arrange them on a desk or table to create the poem. Physically moving the pieces around might just spark a new idea about the poem’s theme or structure.
Are your students ready to start writing blackout poetry of their own? If so, encourage your students to share their blackout poetry with the world by using the hashtags #blackoutpoetry and #teachingwithpoetry to get them started.
If you need more resources to help get your students writing, don’t forget to check out Tips For Crushing Writer’s Block.
