On Tuesday, I posted a Canva image that I had created with an acrostic poem about my One Little Word, Cherish. Michelle Haseltine commented, “Such a simple poem and yet, so beautiful and touching. I am not usually a fan of acrostic poems, but you have me rethinking my position, friend.”
So I decided to make a case for the acrostic poem.
I understand the argument. This form is simplistic and can confine the writer and stifle creativity. However, if we let it, a form can challenge the writer to search for unique language and a stronger meaning.
This week, we worked on our One Little Word projects. I showed my Canva acrostic as a sample. We talked about words and synonyms, making use of the online thesaurus. Type in your word and click on synonyms to find more words. Some of my students took this task seriously and found new and unusual words, like vivacity and whimsical, as their chosen OLW.
Dictionaries were on hand for finding words that started with a given letter. When Jacob came to the letter R in his word, Inspire, he read rainbow, and created the following line.
Some students stuck to the one word for each letter, but some created phrases. Emily decided to make each line have a simile. This pushed her to think not only about her word choice, but also about what each word meant to her One Little Word.
Acrostics are simple, but it can be a good pattern for word play and a deeper search for meaning.
I love your case for the acrostic poem. I have been hoping you don’t find my finding prompts and ideas in your work too stalkerish! You are just full of inspiration and that includes this post. Thank you!
Linda, stalkerish is so far from it. We are colleagues on this journey. Anything I post you are welcome to use. That’s the point!
What a Poet Does
Poems I stalk
Overcoming the block
Eager to unlock
Tempo’s sweet talk
We all take what we need to keep us fed…and always try to leave something behind! An acrostic for Margaret, and an assurance for you!
I always feel a poem comment is the highest form of flattery! Thanks!
Awesome! I think the biggest thing with the acrostic poem is having strong mentor examples (like you shared) and encouraging students to write lines of poetry and not just a list of random words. 🙂
Margaret, those children are really growing as writers. Your tutelage and guidance is a shining star for them. Are your students interested in joining me this season to create Winter Wonder poems for my gallery?
I’m a big fan of acrostics. They work wonderfully for pulling kids out of writing forced rhymes. They are also great for challenging those maths boys who have no patience for poetry. What great work you’ve done with your students. These poems are awesome. I hope your state has opportunities for students to be published and recognized for their creativity. Wonderful work, Margaret.
I may have to rethink my view of acrostics, too. I have not been a fan, but your students have impressed me with the thinking they show in their poems. Maybe I’ll even try writing one myself.
I love your students’ pieces. They did VERY well on selecting appropriate fonts, too – a difficult thing often for students. I love acrostics and loved doing them with my students. We avoided the stilted one word descriptors and instead used many unrelated words to help the flow. We went to Read-Write-Think to use their poem generator help with some success.
Most likely you have already been here, but:
http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/printouts/acrostic-poem-30234.html
http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/student-interactives/
They are all lovely and thoughtful, Margaret. I enjoy acrostics when they wrap to the next line. I often think the writer is so clever to make that work.
So much wonderfulness in your students’ writing. I love “Rainbow Someone’s Day.” I do a Monday Motivations for our staff. Would it be OK if I used Jacob’s artwork and writing this week to pass out to my colleagues?
Leigh Anne the image was free on the internet. I think everyone should start Monday thinking about rainbowing someone’s day!
I absolutely love Jacob’s “Rainbow someone’s day” !!
What source do you use for your free images for students?
Nothing fancy. Just google and look for free images.
Margaret, you have convinced me! The president of our local poetry society published a collection of his poems and began it with a set of 20 or so, dedicated to members (or former members). He never told us how to figure out who they were written about (but I did–they were acrostics with our names spelled down the left side). It was beautiful, clever, and till the secret was out (I never told) mysterious.
I’m an acrostic fan… I find that it give students a place to start, a rack to hang thinking from, a thread to tie ideas together. It gives them a reason to play with words, to explore new ones and to try old ones in new ways (like Jacob’s “rainbow” as a verb). Your students’ work is wonderful, and thanks for sharing the backstory of their creations.
I HATED acrostic poems when I was in school because they were so often assigned, and graded! Guaranteed to sap the fun right out of poetry! But you’ve definitely made a case for this much maligned style!
Acrostics have unsuspected depths in your children’s hands.
Thank you for all kinds of inspiration. My day has officially been rainbowed!
I’m going to have my students take their OLWs to the thesaurus and then write similes to deepen their relationship with their word. Brilliant, Emily. Can you feel the ripple of your choice?
I think I will have to work on an acrostic for my OLW — thanks for giving me both inspiration and practical tips!
My students love writing acrostics. When they’re rushed and random, they frustrate me. But when they’re good, they can be very good.
I too needed to hear the argument in favor of acrostics, so routinely abused by–sorry to say it–teachers who do not “get” poetry. You make the case strongly and your students demonstrate even more strongly! So much to appreciate in each approach–Emily’s similes (book title?), Erin’s alliterative whimsy, but look how Kaiden’s two words circle around, facing off!
Thanks to all!