Enhancing a Poetry Unit with American Memory

Alison Westfall and Laura Mitchell

Students explore poetry using American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940 collection of American Memory, which covers personal stories collected by the Works Progress Administration. In particular, students write "found poetry" based on the stories found in this collection.

This unit is best undertaken after students have studied a good amount of published poetry and are familiar with at least several different elements common to most verse. These can be found in any grade-level student text or teacher manual, from junior high on up. Briefly, elements to look for include the following: alliteration, repetition, sensory language, metaphor and simile, imagery, rhythm, stanzas, and line breaks.

Procedure

Broadly speaking, all poetry is "found" somewhere, in something which inspires a writer to want to develop his or her thoughts in verse. However, inspiration is sometimes lacking for both experienced poets and new ones, such as students who are required to write poetry for a class. "Found Poetry" can serve as an antidote to an experienced poet's block, but it can also get a new poet rolling with the use of someone else's language, images, cadences, and, of course, observations about life. It's quite possible to find the basis of poetry in certain newspaper articles and headlines, and even in drier nonfiction texts.

American Life Histories, 1936-1940 provide a wealth of material on which to found "Found Poetry". Because the Life Histories are in the most basic sense the personal property of the people chronicled in them, poets and teachers of student poets would be well advised to approach them with the respect due any human being, and to use them for the good purposes of understanding history and creating art.

This caution is necessary because many of the Life Histories will seem outrageous to students because they depict colorful, often difficult lives and may be told in the most vernacular terms. Bad grammar, too, and dialects have their place in poetry; teachers may need to work on this with their students.

Drawing on American Life Histories, students compose "found poetry" grounded in the WPA narratives.  For an example, see Found Poetry Based on Elsie Wall. Students will receive direction in free text and geographical searching and choose stories to turn into poems.  They will draw on the language (dialect, jargon, descriptive detail, etc.), arrange and rearrange it, add language of their own, and ultimately create new poems which honor the histories, but are indeed the students' own work.

1. The first step for the Found Poetry unit is to identify rich texts from the Life Histories to draw on. A text is "rich" if its story or situation is reasonably interesting to a student and is told in a colorful, spirited, or involved way by the subject or the writer.
   • One such story is "Cowboy Life", found by searching terms "ranch and steers", which could be the basis for some vivid short narrative poems.

   • The story of Anna Potter Davis, found in a search for watermelon and summer, could inspire some descriptive poetry about food and family life.

   • Another history, "The Newton Family", found by searching dogs and chickens, could be used for either descriptive or narrative poems.

   • Based on the "Blizzard of 1888", found with the key words snow and horses, students in our classroom wrote several poems. See Found Poetry Examples with Blizzard of 1888 for two of the student poems.

2. The teacher locates one text from American Life Histories and composes a poem as an example. After distributing the poem to the class, the teacher explains found poetry and describes how he/she wrote the poem.

3. The teacher locates a second narrative for the class to work on as a whole. After a class discussion of the passage's images and themes, and after breaking out the evocative language, the teacher models a short poem of 4-6 lines.

4. Next, the students, alone or in pairs, compose poems centered on one aspect of the narrative.
   • If computers are available, students can search the American Life Histories collection and identify narratives that interest them. The teacher can set the parameters: geographical choices, childhood experiences, occupations (miners, ranchers, factory workers, etc.), pioneer stories, etc. If Internet access is not dependable or readily available, the teacher can select and print life histories to distribute to students.

   • Once students have a narrative to work with, they can read and comment briefly on the life history to show comprehension of the basic points of the story.

     Note - At this point, some students will be quite comfortable with composing "original," yet "found" poetry, while others will need help to get started. The teacher may suggest that the student focus on one aspect of the narrative or on several poetic elements. Setting basic requirements will provide a basis for grading, if necessary.

5. Presentation of results. When the students and the teacher are satisfied with the poetry, it can be published in a class booklet and/or presented in an oral reading. A student presenter could, for instance, present himself as the person in the narrative from the American Life Histories collection and tell his/her story in verse.

Evaluation and Extension

The American Life Histories component of the poetry unit requires students to compose poetry according to specified guidelines, incorporating selected poetic elements. Writing can be published in book form and on-line, and presented orally at a reading.

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