Poetry is a great tool for teens to define themselves in the world as well as define the world around them. How they see the world. I Am Poem One of the keys to good writing is developing confidence in your voice - finding out who you are and what you want to say. Students write down five words they would use to describe themselves. On the board, the teacher creates a table like the one below, listing six broad categories across the top.
Students copy the table into their notebooks.
The class as a whole calls out and fills in each of the columns with descriptive words. Students copy those words into their notebooks and circle four of the words in each column. Those words, combined with their original five words, will compose their poetic pallet. Students then use these words to create a poem. Also, the students can use for their pallet the words that they did not circle.