European Union Found Poem

I created this lesson for a World Geography class. I have since used the Found Poem technique in other ways, and it has become a favorite activity.

This class was just starting to study Western Europe, so I designed this lesson to help the students learn about the European Union.

I decided to use the Found Poem technique to examine the EU publication "Europe in 12 Lessons," in which the European Union is summarized. To create their Found Poems, students read excerpts, circled "big" or eye-catching words, and arranged the words into a poem. I love the Found Poem technique for breaking down difficult literature, and helping students pull out core ideas from the reading. After doing an example on the board, the students were very excited to create their own poems once they saw how it worked. 

Articles of Confederation Acrostic Poem

I also like making use of acrostic poems to work on literacy in history class. This is a very simple, yet challenging way for students to show that they understand a concept. In this case, I use this acrostic poem when we are done learning about the Articles of Confederation in Virginia and U.S. History. I look to see if students are making statements instead of just single words, and how many specific concepts from the Articles they mention.