Welcome to This Lesson:

Start and Stop Poetry

linking introductions and conclusions in structured poetry

This poetry prompt was created by NNWP Teacher Consultant Corbett Harrison. Check out all of Corbett's on-line lessons by clicking here.

Twilight Comes Twice by Ralph Fletcher and If You Give a Pig a Pancake by Laura Numeroff contain structural and inspirational ideas that can be discussed by student writers learning to write Start & Stop Poems.

Three-Sentence Overview of this Lesson:

A Start & Stop Poem--borrowing the structural concept of Laura Numeroff's If You Give a Pig a Pancake--has a first line and last line that are exactly the same. The first line of these poems might be a single word, an interesting phrase or clause, or a short but complete sentence, but the goal of the poem is to circle back on itself. To inspire excellent word choice in these poems, students should read and re-read Ralph Fletcher's Twilight Comes Twice as they compose, focusing on the author's remarkable style. Teachers: Click here to see the entire lesson plan.

6-Trait Overview for this Lesson:

The focus trait in this writing assignment is organization; the poet will explore the technique of linking one's introduction to a conclusion, and they will explore ways to do this logically.  The support trait in this assignment is word choice; between the repeated lines of the first and last line, student poets will need to choose words that evoke images in the reader's mind.