Poetry-Based Collage
Title: Poetry-Based Collage
Lesson Plan by Madeline Hernstrom-Hill
Featuring: Issue 21.2, “observing a coma” by Alana Stellwagen and Kara Page (as well as the full Folio 21.2)
Audience: Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Continuing Education
Objectives:
- Students will use close reading skills to analyze both poems and art
- Students will consider how a visual element can both complement and complicate a written piece
- Students will produce original collages based on poems
Materials: Printed copies of broadsides, collage materials (i.e., old magazines, newspapers, or advertisements, discarded library books, fabric scraps, photographs), glue sticks, scissors, plain paper or cardboard for backing.
Intro/Discussion (20-25 minutes)
- Begin by reading “observing a coma” out loud. Have students share their initial reactions.
- Read the poem aloud a second time, this time as a class – but only read the nouns and adjectives. As students read, make a list of the nouns/adjectives on the board. Discuss: how do these create a landscape within the poem? (How do these create tone and mood? What concrete images does the poem use, if any? What language does the poem employ – is it conversational, technical, elevated? What parts are familiar, and what is surprising?)
- Discuss: what does the poem not show its readers?
- Next, turn to the visual aspect of the broadside. Discuss the different elements, and how they cohere into a distinct aesthetic. (What actual objects are present? What elements are in the foreground vs the background – what is highlighted vs what is obscured? Are these mostly complete images, or have they been fractured in some way? Is there negative space? Are the colors contrasting or complementary?) Remind students that the text of the poem itself can be a visual element.
- Discuss: how does the visual element expand the world of the poem? How does it complement – or challenge – the landscape?
Generative Exercise (30-35 minutes)
- Have each student select a poem from Folio 21.2. Hand out printed copies of broadsides.
- Break students into groups of 3-4. Assign each group a poem from Folio 21.2, and give each student a printed copy of the broadside.
- In their groups, have students read poems out loud then discuss the landscape of each poem and how the visuals in the broadsides interact with this landscape.
- Give each group a stack of materials to share.
- Have students create collages in response to their poems. These collages can be done on the broadsides themselves, adding to the existing visual elements, or generated on fresh paper.
Review
- At the end of the class period, ask students to take photographs of their collages and email them to the instructor. As homework, the instructor will post the collages (without names) on a shared e-learning platform and have students comment on them, offering a similar analysis to the intro/discussion.
- If instructor/students do not have access to an e-learning platform, ask for volunteers to share their collages at the end of class. Have these students bring their collages to the front of the class (or pass them around) for their peers to discuss.