Review: Deep Memory Poem on Teachers Pay Teachers

The Deep Memory Poem activity guide is a free download available on Teachers Pay Teachers. This special lesson on poetry and poem-writing is designed to fill an approximately 60-90 minute window. Students who go through the whole exercise will write a poem while practicing the important elements of poetry including concrete language, deliberate line breaks, and revision. The goal is a satisfying poem based on personal memory.

The curriculum is a combination of teacher guide and PowerPoint presentation. The guide offers a well-rounded introduction to the material and the important elements of the lesson that teachers need to be sure to impart. It also includes a helpful guide to each of the presentation slides, indicating approximately how much time to spend on each step of the instructions and the important lessons of each one.

The lesson presented in this poetry activity is hugely helpful, especially for the student who has never written poetry before. Students are guided and supported through every step of the process of writing a poem drawn from a personal memory, while simultaneously learning about what constitutes strong poetry and how to consciously read poems. Poetry reading is a skill that can be practiced and learned, and the lesson teaches the skill well. The emphasis on writing based on a memory offers a structure for learning, using emotions and memories from that experience give the writer access to the thought processes necessary for writing effective poems.

Learning to read poetry has the potential to make a profound impact on a student’s life, both academic and otherwise, and the experience of writing a personal poem will be meaningful to many students who are guided through this activity. The activity introduces the craft of writing poetry in a way that can be practiced again and again with different results, making it a powerful addition to any creative writing course and a valuable lesson for any student wanting to learn about poetry and how to write poems.

You can download your own copy of the Deep Memory Poem activity here.

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