Austin Kleon, author of Steal Like an Artist and Show Your Work, also has a book called Newspaper Blackout. He recently participated in a Twitter chat, #edbookchat, co-moderated by Chris Couch (@the_explicator), which found its way into my Twitter stream. Austin, who lives in Austin (fancy that!), has posted some of his poetry on his blog here. He creates one of these each day, and posts them on Instagram. I find this method of creating poems so intriguing. To take a piece of writing that is meant to be informative and light on figurative language, and make it into a work of art that speaks deeply and lyrically really appeals to my appreciation for irony, I suppose. I want to try this with my students, but I’m still working out the logistics (which grade levels, how much to scaffold, etc…) And then there’s the newspaper. Do I limit it to certain sections and/or articles? Or maybe I should start with a Scholastic Weekly Reader, or a website, or a picture on the iPad of a textbook page. So many possibilities!
Regardless of the educational implications, it’s Phun Phriday, so you don’t have to stick this in a lesson plan. Just read, and appreciate the talent of Austin Kleon!
(Strangely, right after I saved my draft of this post, I saw a tweet from @PrincipalOgg about a great writing blog. I followed the link, and found a recent post on “Erasure Poetry.” I highly recommend you visit “Two Writing Teachers” for some more awesome ideas!)
UPDATE: After this post was shared on Twitter, Mr. Theriault (@davidtedu) shared this link to a Slideshare about creating Novel Blackout Poetry by Sean Ziebarth (@MrZiebarth). Thanks for the tip, Mr. Theriault! And, one of my Tweeps, @ArinKress, was inspired to create her own Newspaper Blackout Poem and share it. The pic is a bit difficult to read, but it says, “Enough with worrying when falling because we all stumble.” Love it!
UPDATE 2 (3/30/2022): Here is an article I did on an online “Blackout Poetry Maker.” Also, see even more Poetry Lesson ideas here!