From that point, they write a letter to the land, telling the land their feelings, concerns, questions. They sign their names at the end of the letter. From this writing, they are given examples found in Getting the Knack of letter poems, especially poems about nature. Their charge is to come to class the next day with a letter poem to the land of South Africa. I put an example of a pantoum on the overhead and see if students can determine the pattern.
Someone invariably gets it.
We then journal significant happenings in plot up to the point we have read of the novel. These events serve as the lines of our pantoums. I also encourage students to mix in imagery and characterization. I show on the overhead acronyms spelled down the transparency and then fill in the word that each letter represents. They try writing down either characteristics or anything else associated with Absalom, but each line has to begin with the letters of his name.