Free Verse

Question: How can students create free verse using short excerpts from novels they are reading?

Answer: Students take short excerpts from key parts of the novel and shape them into free verse. Here’s an example from Fishtailing by Canadian author/teacher Wendy Phillips:

Tricia (Page 54)

The only time

I was in the counselor’s office
was for career planning.
the future looks bright.
Ms. Nishi told me then.
It is crowded now
me in one chair
in the other
my mother
stroking the baby hair
of my sister on her lap.
You’ve always been such a good girl,
she tells me
Is this rebellion because of Emily?
You know Jason and I love you both.
I shrug.
Ms. Nishi moves
The desktop Zen garden.
A fluorescent bulb is blown
there are new shadows.

Comment: A good way to highlight key ideas in the novel. RayS.

Title:” Free Verse Provides Freedom to Write.” Margriet Ruurs. Reading Today (February/March 2012), p. 15.