Have you ever found a poem? I’m not talking about something with stanzas, line breaks, and the other traditional things that typically make a poem a poem. I’m talking about finding something poetic in ordinary prose, on a street sign, in an advertisement, or even inside of a fortune cookie. The Arrow Finds Its Mark: A Book of Found Poems debuted on Tuesday. It’s a wonderful collection of found poetry edited by Georgia Heard and illustrated by Antoine Guilloppe.
This book will inspire you and your students to comb the world around you for poems you can claim as found poetry. Take a look at three examples from the The Arrow Finds Its Mark for some (initial) inspiration:
While I believe a love of poetry should be instilled in children year-round, it’s challenging for many teachers to fit poetry into their curriculum outside of the month of April, also known as National Poetry Month. Therefore, if you’re gearing up for a month-long poetry study, then The Arrow Finds Its Mark: A Book of Found Poems is a book you should consider adding to your classroom’s poetry resources.
Giveaway Information/Rules:
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A special thank you to Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group for sponsoring a giveaway of one copy of The Arrow Finds Its Mark: A Book of Found Poems for one of our readers.
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To win a copy of the book please leave a comment about any experience you’ve had with finding a poem. If you’ve never found a poem before or are just learning about found poetry for the first time, then explain how you might use one or more of the poems above to help you find a poem going-forward.
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Please leave your comment in the comments section of this post by Sunday, April 8th, 2012 at 11:59 p.m. EDT. A random drawing will take place on Tuesday, April 10th and the winner’s name will be announced in a blog post later that day.
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Please be sure to leave a valid e-mail address when you post your comment so I can contact you to obtain your mailing address and have my contact at Macmillan send the book out to you. Please note: Your e-mail address will not be published online.
TWO WRITING TEACHERS 
I’m student teaching right now and just began exposing my second graders to writing poetry. They love it! They have written all kinds of poems and read tons. The students are in the midst of creating their own poetry book right now and would love the concept of found poetry!
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I often use the notion of found poetry with my pre-service teachers. It’s great to post poetry all over our classroom and encourages them to do the same in their field placements.
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I love doing Found poems with my 6th graders. It can be a great activity and also challenging at the same time. But once they order and re-order their lines, the poems can be so insightful! This would be a great addition to any teacher’s classroom.
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I haven’t yet worked with Found Poetry per se, but always enjoy finding it in the environment… especially now that I know what it is. What an awesome way to promote not only love of poetry with my middle school students, but literacy and word play. Definitely something I am adding to my bag of tricks,,,, as we speak!
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I have my 8th graders write found poems based on a novel they’e reading. Found poems are a great way to help students recognize the importance of word choice and it is a creative way to summarize a passage of text.
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I found “found” poetry through a high school teacher I had to observe while I was still in college. Her students wrote beautiful found poetry based on a novel they read in class, A Lesson before Dying. I had a profound experience listening to the found poems that evolved from what spoke to the students as they read the novel.
I love Georgia Heard’s work and I’m sure this book of poems will be amazing!
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For several years, I have my fifth grade Enrichment class plan our annual Poetry Night for our entire 5th and 6th graders. This book would be a wonderful addition to my library of poetry because I have actually used found poetry in my classroom. I was first introduced to found poetry when I attended the Illinois State Writing Project. The students have really enjoyed this type of poetry because it doesn’t rhyme and they don’t really see it as typical poetry.
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Found poetry is my go-to first strategy for my most reluctant writers. Love it!
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I’ve found poetry when my daughter speaks. Thanks for the giveaway!
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I have used Found poetry before, it’s a great way to get reluctant writers to write!
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As a veteran teacher (43 years and still going), I’ve been using “found poetry” for about 40 of those years. I was introduced to this concept at a creative writing workshop I attended years ago with my 9th grade students at our local university campus. I couldn’t tell you who the guest writer was, but I fell in love with the idea. I’m in a different school system now where I’ve been for 30 years, and I use “found poetry” at least once a week. Of course, at the beginning of the year my 7th graders argue with me “that’s not poetry,” but they quickly catch on to the idea and are soon finding their own poems everywhere they look. Their journals are full. As someone mentioned above, one of my best “found poems” came from the back of a cereal box.
blyon@semo.net
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We like to “find poems” in texts we’re reading by looking for important words or phrases that jump out at us and then restructuring them into a poem. 🙂 Would love to have this book — thanks for the giveaway!
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Found poetry is so helpful for my 5th graders. I use it to help make poetry less abstract. It also helps them realize that poetry is all around them!
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I would love a copy… after teaching poetry for years a new resource would add some “life” to my unit.
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Poetry needs to be done throughout the school year! The collection of “found poems” would be (and will be if I don’t “win”) a great addition to my collection of poetry books for my students! 🙂
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Until the slice of life challenge, I didn’t give poetry a second thought. I’m thankful that Im enjoying poetry a bit more and would like to be able to instill that a bit more in my own children that I teach.
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This book sounds like a terrific book to use with students. Until this post I really had never explored found poetry before. After reading it I had the idea to use it with another area of study – Marian Anderson. Here is the link to my “found poem” Singing Contralto http://windows2mylife.blogspot.com/2012/04/singing-contralto-found-poem.html
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I would love to have a copy of this book. I’m going to introduce poetry to my first graders during the month of April and this book would make a great mentor text. I’ve never used “found poetry” before. In “Find A Poem” I think it’s interesting the way the writer uses other words to define the word, find. I think my first graders would love exploring this type of poetry.
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Poetry overall can be intimidating. As a teacher of English learners I love using found poetry to make a concrete introduction to the tools poets have to make their Poems. In turn I am constantly surprised about how much my students benefit from found poems. This book would be a great addition to my instruction!
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I love finding poetry with K students. They love to go on walks and find poetry in nature such as “bubble gum trees.”
My e-mail is caroline.gonzalez@sbschools.org
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I can’t wait, I may just need to run out and get this! I love poems, instilling love of poetry, and I still find it hard to sneak it in as much as I would like. I love it when a student has written something and it almost naturally lends itself to a poem…telling a student they may have just written a poem without knowing it is like finding treasure! Found poems, what a lovely idea.
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One more idea to put into my poetry month toolbox for after the break. Thanks for sharing.
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I’ve done many workshops on Found Poetry. There are lots of ways to write them, but no matter which method you use, it is probably the easiest way to hook kids on free verse. Georgia Heard has long been my mentor when it comes to poetry and I can’t wait to see this book on found poems. I have many great student samples but would love to compare!
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I hadn’t heard of about found poetry before this, but I love the idea. Because of my personal fear of poetry, I wonder if this might be easier/less pressure, or more difficult for me. But, I have made a bargain with myself. While traveling this week for spring break, I will be searching for poetry. I want to give it a shot, since I assume traveling should provide a decent amount of opportunities. Whatever I am able to collect, I will share with my students when we return from break to kick off some poetry studying, together. Here’s to trying! Thanks for the opportunity! 🙂
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We always talk about how everything is good writing material, even things that look too simple. This book will take the point home!!
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I had never heard about “Found Poem” before. I actually had to google it. I found great websites explaining what it is and how to write it. This site gave examples: http://foundpoetry.wordpress.com/. Just thinking, this was my first new learned lesson during my spring break (which started this afternoon). Now I just have to plan how to use it in classroom. Thanks for teaching me something new!
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A found poem I got from a cereal box and posted as an earlier slice:
http://iteachatec.edublogs.org/2012/03/24/found-on-a-cereal-box/
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This sounds like a great way to share found poetry with students. Thanks for the chance to win the book.
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I use found poems with my reluctant readers and writers in a small group setting all the time. I often suggest a beginning like, “Andrew really wanted freckles,” and then they add a few lines about the character. They LOVE to hear that you do not have to worry about punctuation or even sentences and are spurred to write. I think it takes some of the risk out of writing. I also WRITE LOTS OF poems for these students to both reinforce what we have read and practice vocabullary. However, my favorite way to use found poems is with my grad students. They are so close to being THE TEACHER and yet most are SO RELUCTANT to write until I make them do found poems about their reading and thinking several weeks in a row. At first they are SO hesitant to share, but when they start to realize the power, they are like different people! I hope that by modeling effective teaching strategies AND by making them TRY IT, I change the course of their teaching and students lives.
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When I think of found poetry I think of the art challenges for ATCS for All. Take a pagef from an old book and using words only found on that page, create a poem. Not quite the same as you have described but a lot of fun.
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I try to find part of my students’ writing and suggest that, with a rewrite including a few line breaks, that it becomes a poem. Perhaps this is found poetry. I heard Georgia Heard speak at Reading for the Love of It conference in Toronto a few years back, and purchased many of her books. I use them often.
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I think I’ll use the Nicknames in the NBA poem to help my class get started with found poems. I teach poetry all year and have no idea why I haven’t thought of teaching found poetry before. It seems like it would be such a great way for kids to get started on poetry writing (without a bunch of rules to follow) and to pay attention to word choice. LOVE Georgia Heard as well.
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I am new to found poetry-but I have been reading the spines of book piles to see if they say anything funny or profound. I am excited to talk to my students next year about poetry and found poetry so they begin to look for it in unlikely places, and recognize the beauty and magical fun in words.
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I love this idea and can’t wait to share this strategy with my students on Monday! We are in the midst of our poetry unit now and I know my kids will be excited to try finding their own poems! thanks for sharing and offering this great giveaway!
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My dad always told us “You’re a poet and you don’t know it…” when we were kids. So I guess I’ve been finding poetry for a long time, but never really paid attention. Looking forward to sharing this with my 5th graders to see what poetry they find that I have overlooked.
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I love found poetry–this would be great for some of my creative writing students who still insist they can’t write poetry…
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I haven’t written found poems with my own students, but I remember writing some back when I was a student in high school. We used our history books to find poems about historical figures. I’d love the chance to explore this poetry form a little bit more.
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I used a weather forecast once to write lines like “partly sunny, no, partly cloudy, but continued dry” and “feels like 61 degrees, although it’s only 55”. The weather people say such funny things, all amounting to the same thing. Thanks for the chance to receive a fun book.
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I love, love, love found poetry. I often use it when I do scripture readings in the morning to help it go deep into my head and heart. I use it with my fourth graders when we read historical documents, e.g. famous speeches, to help them look at the quote and understand it differently. I’m dying to own this book!
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This book looks so fun. I hope to add this one to my collection. Thank you so much for sharing.
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My FAVORITE found poem is really just a line of lyrical language that made me hoot out loud until tears ran down my face…. we were in the Bahamas with students and I saw a huge sign on a pink wall….
Protect Ya Tings!
It took me a few to process, to translate it into a Bahamian voice, and then to read the rest which said,
“Wear a condom every time.”
It was a catch phrase for the rest of the trip and had us looking for other found language that we loved.
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I find poems everywhere! I post a Haiku of the Day in my classroom to remind my students that there is poetry in the simplest aspects of everyday life. I would love to have this book to include in my lessons.
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Good morning, ladies. I’m looking forward to getting this book! Found poems are much more difficult than they seem to be — it takes a great eye. Love the NBA Nicknames poem, what rhythm! A long time ago, I posted a found poem at my blog. It was a flier about someone’s missing cat. It is hands-down the most viewed post I’ve ever done.
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I have used found poetry by having teachers use a page from our resource book to create a poem from the words/phrases. Some teachers I work with have used it with their content texts.
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Just when you think you’ve begun to grasp the tip of poetry, you realize just how massive the iceberg really is! Found Poetry is a brand new concept to me. I’m a Georgia Heard fan, and can see the idea and the text would prove to be a wonderful mentor text for my classroom.
Huge baseball fans this year….I can see the NBA poem being something that would get my baseball fans intrigued to spin it their way.
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I love found poems. It is a great way to show students who are apprehensive about writing their own poems that poetry does not have to be confusing, filled with rhymes, or anything cliche that they have been exposed to. I’ve used newspaper headlines to create found poetry with my students. This contest got me thinking… you could create a found poem using famous quotes or even put together all of those inspirational posters that we all display in our classrooms!
This book of found poetry would be a great mentor text for my students!
mrlchock@gmail.com
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I tried a found poem for the first time during the SOLSC using an article I was reading for school by Richard Allington). I really enjoyed the process and want to try it more on student friendly topics and with students.
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The kind of found poetry I’ve done is where you have specific lines to write about-pretty prescribed for primary kids. “I come from a home of please and thank you, of saying grace, of I love yous.” That’s the kind of found poetry I know of. I’m curious to see what this book holds…I absolutely LOVE Georgia Heard! 🙂
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Ooh I can’t wait to get that book. Thank you MacMillan. I have a couple of found poems on my blog. They are great fun to do with students.
macrush53 at yahoo dot come.
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I visited TwoWritng Teachers to see if the link for March 30th was there, uncannyingly my ‘post in waiting’ is a found poem. The inspiration to try this came from fellow slicer, Amy. So my experience with found poems is brand spanking new and I can highly recommend you all having a go.
Amy’s Slice: http://www.poemfarm.amylv.com/2012/03/chickens-found-poems.html
My first attempt: http://thelitladies.edublogs.org/2012/03/30/slice-27-what-does-it-mean-when-johnny-cant-write/
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I’ve never heard of Found Poetry but love the idea! I love poetry and I plan on using poetry with my Reading Intervention groups. I think it would be a wonderful way to make kids more aware of their surroundings and let them know they can always “find” something to write about. Thank you for the opportunity to add to my library.
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What a super idea for a contest! I am not entering it since I review books also, but love how you are promoting it. Makes poetry so accessible.
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