Tag Archives: bookspine poems

Bookspine Poems

This artful practice can help your students tap into their reserves of creativity. To start, you can check out Sorted Books Project of Anna Katchadorian to become familiar with the process of creating book spine poems. Introducing the assignment with some examples can inspire your students to compose their own poems.

I suggest giving your students a week to prepare.

Here are the steps for the Book Spine Poetry activity:

  1. Ask your students to visit a bookstore or library to find books with interesting titles.
  2. Students will play with combinations of spines to compose their book spine poems.
  3. Once they decide on the lines (titles), they should snap a photo and bring a hard copy to class.
  4. Create a mini art gallery in the classroom by displaying their book spine poems on the walls at the beginning of class.
  5. Let your students share their experience and discuss the meaning behind their poems.

By following these steps, your students can have a fun and creative experience with book spine poetry, while also enhancing their language skills and appreciation for literature.

Gallery walk

 

Book Spine Poems created by Learners of English Language

 

Book Spine Poems created by Learners of Turkish Language

The next step is to encourage your students to take their book spine poems a step further. Ask them to choose one book spine poem and add another line to it, as shown in the examples below. This will challenge them to think creatively and expand upon the meaning of their initial poem. By adding their own personal touch, they can make their poems even more unique and meaningful.

 

♥ I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to Patricia Sobral, Anna Santucci Leoni, and the class of POBS Artful Teaching (Brown University; Spring, 2016) for the inspiration.