Sarah Hornsby

English Language Arts & Reading

English 1
Lesson Title/Topic: Poetry
Target Concept: Blackout Poetry
Standards/Rationale: 110.31.14 (B)
(14) Writing/Literary Texts. Students write literary texts to express their ideas and feelings
about real or imagined people, events, and ideas. Students are responsible for at least two forms
of literary writing. Students are expected to:
(B) Write a poem using a variety of poetic techniques (e.g., structural elements, figurative
language) and a variety of poetic forms.
Lesson Objectives:

Assessment:

The students will create an original

blackout poem from a newspaper
page/article of their choosing with 80%
proficiency.

Exit ticket.

Materials: Computer, Projector, a stack of newspaper, scissors, black markers, black crayons,
cut out Rally Table Activity newspaper pages/articles, cutout newspaper articles for the 3 groups
The teacher will:
Focus/Mental Set: (3 mins)

Before class begins, write agenda

on the board.
Show students the YouTube video,
Make Blackout Poetry. Begin the
video at the 1:00 minute mark.
https://goo.gl/0EfGse

The student will:

Watch the YouTube video.

Discuss with a shoulder buddy the

question.

Respond to the question.

Teacher Input: (10 mins)

Ask the entire class Have any of

you ever heard of blackout poetry?
Have students turn to their shoulder
buddy and discuss the question for
30 seconds.
Ask a student What do you think

blackout poetry is?

Explain to the students that the
video they just watched was a form
of blackout poetry (created from
pages of a book).
Go over PowerPoint with students.
o Slide 1: Blackout Poetry
o Slide 2: What is blackout
poetry? The Writers Digest
blackout poetry definition.
o Slide 3: Kleons blackout
poem, Overheard on the
Titanic.
o Slide 4: Who created
blackout poetry? Austin
Kleon popularized blackout
poetry. His website is
linked to the slide.
o Slide 5: A brief history of
censored/blackout poetry. It
dates back to the 1760s.
o Slide 6: Example of a
blackout poem - Anyone
can scribble out words the
cleaver part is knowing
which words to leave.
o Slide 7: Explains how you
can get started on your
blackout poem (find a word
that stands out to you and
go from there). List the
steps.
Explain to the students that the
words that stand out to you
personally will probably be
different for each person. When
you sit down to create a blackout
poem, you want the result to be a
representation of you.
Continue the PowerPoint:
o Slide 8: A 20 second video
of Kleons process of
making a blackout poem.
o Slide 9: Austin Kleons
quote about how amazing it
is to transform the material

Observe the PowerPoint

o
o
o
o
o

you create your blackout

poem from. It is
transformed into something
that is your own.
Slide 10: Kleons blackout
poem, Space
Slide 11: Kleons blackout
poem, Teacher.
Slide 12: Kleons blackout
poem, Open Road.
Slide 13: Kleons blackout
poem, Art.
Slide 14: Lets make some
art! (Begin the activities)

Guided Practice: (20 mins)

Have students partner up with a
shoulder buddy.
Explain to the students that they
will be participating in a Rally
Table activity. The instructions
read:
o With your partner, you will
each take turns contributing
to make a blackout poem by
passing back and forth the
same newspaper article.
o Every 45 seconds, pass the
newspaper article to your
partner to make their
contribution to the poem.
Do a quick demonstration of the
activity.
Have students begin the Rally
Table activity (5 minutes).
After 5 minutes, say to the students
You may have noticed that
when your partner passed the
newspaper article back to you the
poem creation took a different turn
than you had expected. You may
have had an idea of where you
wanted the poem to go; however,
your partner may have envisioned
something entirely different.

Partner up with a shoulder buddy.

Participate in the Rally Table

activity.

Explain that this is what we

discussed earlier in the lesson In
the same article, the words
somebody wants to keep to make a
blackout poem may be different
than the words another person
wants to keep. This is because you
put a little piece of you in your
poem.
Explain to the students that this
concept will be demonstrated in the
next activity.
Break students up into 3 groups.
Pass out the newspaper
pages/articles to every student in
each group.
o Group 1: Actor
o Group 2: Todays
Horoscope
o Group 3: No Sour Grapes,
Just Pickles
Explain to the students that every
group has a different newspaper
article; however, every person
within each group has the same
newspaper article.
Give instructions for the activity.
The instructions read:
o When the teacher says to
begin, you will each create
your own blackout poem
from the article that was
given to you. This is done
individually.
o You will have about 5
minutes to create your
blackout poem.
Instruct the students to begin
creating their blackout poems.
After 5 minutes, instruct the
students to read their poems aloud
to the other members in their
group. Remind the students: Each
of you in your group started out
with the same article.
Walk around to each group when

Get into their assigned group.

Listen to the activitys instructions.

Begin making their blackout poem

out of the article that was provided
to them.
Read their poems to the other
members in their group.

the students are reading their

poems to their group members.
Point out that each of them created
a blackout poem that was different
from the members of their group
even though they started out with
the same article.
Independent Practice: (15 mins)

Give the assignment to students.

Instructions read:
o Create your own blackout
poem from a newspaper
page of your choice. I have
a stack of newspapers you
can look through and
choose from.
o When creating your
blackout poem, be sure that
it is meaningful to you.
Give students the remainder of class
to work on their blackout poem.
Explain to the students that if they
do not finish their poem in class
today, it needs to be finished as
homework.
Explain to the students that their
finished blackout poem will be
displayed on the display board in
the classroom.

Look through the stack of

newspapers the teacher has
provided and choose a page to
create their blackout poem from.

Work on their blackout poem.

Respond to the questions.

Turn in exit ticket.

Closure: (2 mins)

Ask students What do you like

the most about blackout poetry?
Ask students Will you ever write
blackout poetry on your own now
that you know about it?
Remind students that blackout
poetry is not limited to newspapers.
You can also create blackout poetry
on magazine pages, worn-out book
pages, printed articles from the
internet, etc.
Collect the blackout poems that

were created during the guided

practice section of the lesson. This
is their exit ticket.
Options:
Enrichment:

Reteach:

For students who need enrichment, have

them log onto the classroom computers and
go to
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/
multimedia/blackout-poetry.html?_r=0

For the students who struggled with

making blackout poetry during one or both
of the activities, the teacher will pull those
students aside during the independent
practice time and work with the students.
During this small group tutoring, will walk
This website will challenge the students to demonstrate step-by-step how to create a
create blackout poetry out of a short New
blackout poem. The teacher will act like
York Times article that is provided to
he/she is making a blackout poem and walk
them. The website only allows a certain
through the steps with the students while
number of words that can be used. There is actually creating a blackout poem. The
an option to make the allowed number of
students who now understand can go and
words to decrease to make it harder and
work on creating their own poem. For the
more concise. Students can adjust this
students that are still struggling, the teacher
number according to the difficulty of the
will do one-on-one time with each student.
challenge they need.
During this one-on-one time, the student
will work with the teacher to create his or
her own blackout poem. The teacher will
help the student through the steps.
Modifications/Correctives:
The teacher MUST follow individual IEPs
for every student with special needs.
References:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tyw55AmE_Fs
Pinterest.com with a search of blackout poetry
austinkleon.com