Rutherford B., Who Was He?: Poems About Our Presidents by Marilyn Singer and John Hendrix

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Bibliography:

Singer, Marilyn, and John Hendrix. Rutherford B., Who Was He?: Poems About Our Presidents. New York: Hyperion Books, 2013. ISBN 9781423171003

Review and Critical Analysis:

Rutherford B., Who Was He? is a book of poetry about forty-three men who have one thing in common: each of them served as president of the United States of America. The poems use rhythm and rhyme to convey the most important facts about each president and their presidential terms. At the end of the book, following the poems, is a section entitled “Meet the President” in which Singer includes a brief summary about what a person must do to become president and what the president’s role is. After that, she includes “Presidential Biographies.” This section includes a brief biography of each of the forty-three presidents, with each one ending with a quote from that president. The final page of the book includes a list of books and websites where Singer found much of her information, and where readers could go for further research.

Each poem is titled with the name of the president, followed by his political party and the dates that he served as president. While the information about political parties is somewhat unnecessary, I found it interesting, and students would likely be inspired to further research former political associations such as Federalist, Whig, and Democratic-Republican. The poems are short - never taking more than a page, and some taking less - but Singer gets straight to the point of the issues or problems each president encountered during his presidency, and this gives readers a great amount of insight into each president. She doesn’t try to make them seem greater than they were, but she portrays them for who they really were in American history. In fact, in the “Rutherford B. Hayes” poem, Singer says, “Rutherfor B., who was he? / Honest and upstanding, or His Fraudulency? / He won a harsh election with disputes and appeals, / (and also quite possibly backroom deals).” In the “William Howard Taft” poem, she portrays him as an unhappy “drudge” who was so overweight that he got stuck in the bathtub. However, for those more upstanding presidents, she portrays them as such. In “James K. Polk” she says, “A powerful president with lots of gall. / Made four promises, kept them all.”

Although Singer’s poems are chock-full of interesting and useful information about our presidents, they are nowhere near dull. Singer uses humor and a mixture of clever rhythm and rhyme to draw readers in and make them want to keep reading. While each poem’s form and style is unique, Singer’s inclusion of rhyme in each poem gives a familiar cadence to the entire book. A couple of the poems are weaved together to portray two or more presidents. Singer writes one poem for Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, and James Buchanan, giving them each a voice in the conversation about the Union and state secession. These presidents were America’s leaders from 1849 to 1861, and by combining them into one poem, she shows the great turmoil our country was in for years, leading into the Civil War and Abraham Lincoln’s presidency.

Without the illustrations of John Hendrix, the poems in the book would not come to life nearly the way they do. With each turn of the page, the reader’s eyes are drawn to the president’s caricature and a picture showing how he is about to be portrayed in his poem. The drawings are detailed and many of them include a quote from the president. John Tyler is drawn with a huge forehead, with the poem resting entirely on it alone, and his mouth wide open yelling, “I can never consent to being dictated to!” What a great picture to show how he “strongly rebelled!” John F. Kennedy is drawn on a Television screen, showing that “Vision and television made him a star,” with Lyndon B. Johnson watching him on TV from the opposite page. Hendrix and Singer are the perfect pair for this informative book of poetry for children.

I was surprised by the amount of information I learned by reading this book of poetry about our presidents. I think it would be best read a second time by turning to the “Presidential Biographies” section after each poem and reading the biographical information to go along with each president. This would give the reader a much clearer picture of each president and who he was. This book of poetry would be an excellent tool for teaching and could easily be used in the classroom as students learn about the presidents of the United State of America. It is up to date for now and even includes a poem on our current president, Barack Obama.

Poem Used to Support Critical Analysis:

Barack Obama

(Democrat, 2009- )

A country disillusioned,

looking for solutions

to problems created

by financial institutions,

by wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Then he told us, “Yes, we can!” -

end the wars and the recession,

offer health care nationwide,

invest in renewable energy sources,

work together to heal the divide.

Now, some say he succeeded.

Some say that he tried.

Others are still angry or dissatisfied.

One thing is certain,

on one thing we agree -

as our first black president,

he indeed made history.

The poem, “Barack Obama,” is typical of the poems in this book. The poem talks about Obama’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as some of the ways he’ll go down in history as our 43rd president.

I would introduce this poem by asking students what they know about our current president. I would ask questions such as, “Who is our current president? What do you know about him? What do you like about him? What don’t you like about him?” I would then display the poem and illustration about Barack Obama and read it out loud. I would discuss with students some of the issues the poem refers to. We would also read together the biographical information about Barack Obama located at the end of the book, and it would further explain and discuss those issues. 
Next, I would lead the class in a discussion about our next president. We would talk about what issues they will face and what qualities are important to have in a president. I would then have students write their own poem about our future president.

What Are You Glad About? What Are You Mad About?: Poems for When a Person Needs a Poem by Judith Viorst and Lee White

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Bibliography:

Viorst, Judith, and Lee White. What Are You Glad About? What Are You Mad About?: Poems for When a Person Needs a Poem. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2016. ISBN 9781481423557

Review and Critical Analysis:

Judith Viorst has created a collection of poems that explores the wide range of feelings children experience on any given day. Her book of poetry, What Are You Glad About? What Are You Mad About?: Poems for When a Person Needs a Poem truly provides a poem for any time a person needs a poem. It holds poems for every feeling (whether it be glad, mad, sad, or bad), for school, family, friends, home, away, and much more. Children will be thrilled to read this book and discover poems that capture their roller coaster feelings in a fun and light-hearted way.

This collection of poetry begins with the “Contents” of the book. The contents is divided into titled sections beginning with general feelings and moving on to specific subjects like school, family, friends, this and that, and more. The section “How Are You Feeling Today?” contains poems for every feeling, whether it’s madness, sadness, gladness, loneliness, jealousy, fear, curiosity, or silliness. “School Stuff” is a section of poems about school - a place where children spend a large part of their lives. It’s not surprising that these poems deal with much more than Math, Science, Social Studies, and English. They show school for what it is - a place for learning how to get along in the world. The poem “What I’ve Learned at School” says, “John F. Kennedy was our thirty-fifth president. / Earth is a planet revolving around the sun. / Not everyone’s mom puts an I-love-you notes in their lunch box next to their lunch. / And not everyone remembers to flush when they’re done.” The poem continues with a clever mix of historical facts learned in school and real life facts learned there as well.

Although each poem in this collection is unique in its rhythm and sound, all of the poems rhyme. You would think that using rhyme in every poem in a collection might get a bit redundant and boring, but Viorst uses rhyme in such creative and innovative ways, that they are not redundant in the least. I couldn’t wait to turn each page to see what wry wit was waiting for me there. Her use of rhyme adds humor and appeal to the poems. It makes them more appealing to children (and adults!), and brings light-heartedness even to difficult subjects like divorce. She even includes a poem entitled “My Least Favorite Things” that can be sung to the tune of The Sound of Music’s “My Favorite Things.” How clever to use this light-hearted tune to list a child’s least favorite things.

Lee White’s illustrations add to the humor of Viorst’s poems. His comical interpretation of the poems gives the reader another dose of light-heartedness. His illustration for “The Best and the Worst” section of poems shows a little girl riding high and carelessly on a unicorn while snakes hiss at the unicorn’s heals. For the poem “Whoops” that says, “I tell you I am tall enough! / Don’t need your help to get that stuff!” he shows a boy climbing a ladder to reach a treasure chest sitting on top of a dragon. White’s use of the color blue in his illustrations brings out the emotion of each poem. Blue is a calming and sad color, and it fits perfectly with these poems to show what you are glad about or what you are mad about.

Poem Used to Support Critical Analysis:

What Are You Glad About? What Are You Mad About?

By Judith Viorst

If you had just one color to paint the whole world,

Would it be orange or gray?

If you had just one message to give to the world,

Would it be grrr or hooray?

If you had just one place you could live in this world,

Would you choose here or away?

What are you glad about?

What are you mad about?

How are you feeling today?

Did you wake up this morning all smiley inside?

Does life taste like ice cream and cake?

Or does it seem more like your goldfish just died

And your insides are one great big ache?

Do you wish you could go in a closet and hide?

Or would you rather go play?

What are you glad about?

Mad about? Sad about?

How are you feeling today?

When they ask you to do something, will you say yes?

Or will your answer be no?

Do you think that you get what you want - or much less?

Are you shrinking or starting to grow?

Is that person you see in the mirror a mess?

Or is that person okay?

What are you glad about?

Mad, sad, or bad about?

How are you feeling today?

“What Are You Glad About? What Are You Mad About?” is an excellent poem to read regularly to students. So many students come to school with no one who ever asks them how they are feeling. This poem has a great deal of “care” in it, and a simple reading of it will let students know they are cared about, and that someone wants to know how they are feeling today.

I would introduce this poem by reading all the way through it one time first. Then, I would read it again, pausing after each question and allowing a student to answer. I would lead students in a discussion of the purpose of this poem, and of poetry in general - to express feelings and emotion. We would discuss how this poem does that and how it allows the reader to think about all the feelings they are having today.

I would then give students their own copy of the poem and have them answer the questions from the poem. They could do this in paragraph form, or with short, simple answers. Then, they would look through their answers to the questions and choose an emotion that stands out to them about how they are feeling today. Then, they would create their own poem, filling in the blank for the title “What I am (Mad, Sad, Glad, etc.) About Today.” At the end of the lesson I would ask for volunteers to share their poems with the class.

Orangutanka: A Story in Poems by Margarita Engle and Renée Kurilla

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Bibliography:

Engle, Margarita, and Renée Kurilla. Orangutanka: A Story in Poems. New York: Henry Holt and Company, LLC, 2015. ISBN 9780805098396

Review and Critical Analysis:

Orangutanka: A Story in Poems tells the story of “big sister” orangutan who wants to dance while the rest of her family wants to rest, “dreaming orangutan dreams.” Margarita Engle writes the story of this family of Orangutans with a series of linked tanka poems, or a “string” of tanka. Engle opens the book with “A Note About Tanka Poems.” In the note, she explains that Tanka is an ancient Japanese form of poetry. It consists of five lines, and traditionally it has a syllable count of 5,7,5,77. However, Engle explains that modern tanka poets rarely actually count syllables. Instead, they follow a basic pattern of short, long, short, long, long. This is the pattern that Engle uses in this book. At the end of the note, Engle invites children to create their own tanka poems about any topic.

After the note about tanka poems, Engle goes straight into the story of a family of orangutans. Each page spread features a bright and colorful portrayal of orangutans in what seems to be a beautifully created and cared for setting. Readers can see tourists looking at the orangutans in the background, as well as caretakers providing food and necessities for them. Each page spread contains at least one tanka poem, and sometimes two poems, telling the story of this family. The story ends with two tanka poems explaining “An Orangudance Activity” for children to participate in and “dance like a happy orangutan.” The book concludes with a page containing facts about orangutans and opportunities to learn more about orangutans with online resources and book suggestions.

In this book of tanka poetry, Margarita Engle writes poems that are true to tanka form and style. Tanka poems are traditionally untitled, and include minimal punctuation and capitalization. Engle’s poems are all untitled, and they contain no capitalization. They only include punctuation when necessary - commas to separate words such as “shiver, sway, rattle, and shake,” or dashes for “hip-hop” and “cha-cha-cha.” The tanka poetry form can include simile, metaphor, opinions, emotions, and some rhyme. Engle includes some of these in her story. She says papa is so big that his weight makes “low branches waltz slowly,” comparing tree movement to a dance. Her descriptive words include emotion in the poems, like “such wild excitement / as forest rangers offer / a feast for orangutans!” When big sister explores the forest floor with “hip-hop / somersaults and cartwheels, / cha-cha-cha- / so many forms of orangudance / with lively arms and legs,” the reader can’t help but feel the happiness and excitement of this little orangutan.

Renée Kurilla’s digitally colored illustrations are a perfect fit for Engle’s verse. The poems feature a happy, excited, vibrant little orangutan, and Kurilla’s illustrations are just as happy, excited, and vibrant. Her illustrations bring this family of orangutan’s to life and will make children “ooh” and “aah” over them. They will likely cause children to stay a little longer when they stop to visit the orangutans on their next zoo visit. My favorite illustration is on the page spread containing the final poem in the story. It shows children dressed in brightly colored clothes joyously dancing like orangutans, while the sister orangutan looks on. With such a colorful, happy ending, children will be inspired to dance like a happy orangutan and even write their own tanka poem.

Poem Used to Support Critical Analysis:

An Orangudance Activity

By Margarita Engle

imagine

rain forest music -

insects

buzz, zoom, and hum

while green leaves swish

twigs rattle

branches drum, and thunder booms -

can YOU dance

like a happy orangutan

with energetic arms and legs?

“An Orangudance Activity” is the final poem of Orangutanka. It is an invitation for children to join in and dance like a happy orangutan. The poem is actually two tanka poems written in the modern tanka style, inviting children to imagine themselves in the rain forest where the orangutans live.

I would introduce this poem at the end of the book like it is intended. I would read it once immediately following the story, and after hearing students’ reactions to the entire book, I would invite them to go back to that final poem with me. I would have students close their eyes and tell them to imagine themselves there, in the rain forest, with the big sister orangutan. I would read the poem while their eyes are closed. After reading, we could have our own orangutan dance party set to rain forest music.

I would then remind students about the elements of the tanka poetry form that they would have learned prior to reading. Margarita Engle encourages children to create their own tanka poems in her note at the beginning of the book, and I would have them do just that. I would have students brainstorm topics to write their tanka poems about - they can be about any topic at all - and then have them write a poem in the modern tanka form.

What My Mother Doesn’t Know by Sonya Sones

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Bibliography:

Sones, Sonya. What My Mother Doesn’t Know. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2001. ISBN 0689841140

Review and Critical Analysis:

What My Mother Doesn’t Know is yet another of Sonya Sones’s beautiful and powerful novels in verse. Once again, she engages her reader immediately with rhythm and cadence to tell the story of 15-year-old Sophie. Sones “tells / the heart-stoppingly riveting story / of my first love. / And also of my second. / And, okay, my third love, too.” Sophie is a typical teenage girl, trying to figure out her very emotional life. She falls in love with sexy Dylan, then with her “cybersoulmate” Chaz, and finally with Murphy, the geek who turns out to be “Mr. Right-and-a-half.” Sones captures the very essence of teenage girl emotions in this verse novel.

Sones writes this novel using free verse. Each poem is the length of one or two pages, and contains a title that very specifically sums up the poem’s subject. Line lengths and stanza lengths vary throughout the poem. One poem, “I Wish,” is even in the shape of a magic potion - the subject of the poem. Although each poem is different in length and style, they all somehow work together to tell this story. Sones’s rhythm and occasional rhyme make the poems flow together in spite of their differences.

The emotional impact of the poems are what make them stand out. Because poems allow a story to be told with fewer words, the words that are used are powerful. They get straight to the point, and in this case, they get straight to the point of teenage girls and their roller coaster emotions. In the poem, “I Don’t Get It,” Sophie explains how she just can’t understand how she used to think the way Dylan’s (her first love) sneakers always squeaked when he walked was so cute. She says, “I used to feel like I was floating / a few inches above the ground / whever he was squeaking along / next to me. / But now when I hear those / noisy Nikes of his, / I feel like / I want to scream.” She just doesn’t get it - how she can be totally, completely in love one day, and find him so annoying the next.

Sones gives Sophie’s character a voice that is hauntingly familiar to any reader who is either currently a teenage girl or who used to be one. She portrays the nervousness of a first date, the jealousy of good friends, the weird reality of realizing you just don’t like a boy anymore, and the joy of finding what really matters in people. Sophie finds that her true love is Murphy, the geek who is “challenged in the looks department,” and who she’s terrified to tell her best friends about. She realizes that when she first met Dylan, she wanted to kiss him all the time, but the more she got to know him, the less she wanted to kiss him. “But with Robin it’s the other way around. / The more I get to really know him, / the more I want to kiss him.” She decides that’s the way it is with real love - a stunning realization for a teenage girl.

While there are no illustrations in this book, there is no need for them. The poems themselves provide enough imagery for illustrations to form in the reader’s mind. However, the reader will realize at the end of the novel that the book cover illustration is a picture of Murphy’s bulletin board from his bedroom. This adds a very creative, intriguing touch by Ms. Sones.

Poem Used to Support Critical Analysis:

I Don’t Get It

By Sonya Sones

I used to think it was so cute

the way Dylan’s sneakers always

squeaked when he walked.

I liked teasing him about them.

Called them his squeakers.

Loved being able to hear

him coming a mile away.

When I’d hear that squeak of his

heading in my direction,

my heart would dance right up

into my throat.

I used to feel like I was floating

a few inches above the ground

whenever he was squeaking along

next to me.

But now when I hear those

noisy Nikes of his,

I feel like

I want to scream

I want to stomp on his toes.

I want to trip him up and run away.

I just don’t get it.

I Don’t Get It by Sonya Sones is a story in itself about how fickle people can be. It shows how quickly we can fall in and out of love, and how something as simple as squeaky sneakers can be a beautiful noise or a treacherous one depending on our current state of emotions.  

I would introduce this poem by asking students to brainstorm a time when their thoughts of someone or something changed - whether their thoughts went from good to bad, or from bad to good. I would have them write their thoughts down and then I would ask a couple students to share their experiences. Then, I would read them the poem out loud and have them reread it on their own. We would discuss the subject of the poem, what changed for the character in the poem, and why. I would have students use this poem’s form and style to write their own poem about a time when something changed for them. Their poem could be about love, like this one, or it could be about anything else. Their poems should exemplify the change of emotions that took place in their experience.

Red Sings from Treetops: A Year in Colors by Joyce Sidman and Pamela Zagarenski

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Bibliography:

Sidman, Joyce, and Pamela Zagarenski. Red Sings from Treetops: A Year in Colors. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009. ISBN 9780547014944

Review and Critical Analysis:

Red Sings from Treetops by Joyce sidman is a book of poetry that explores seasons in a uniquely colorful way. Starting with spring and ending with winter, Sidman’s portrayal of the seasons takes readers on a sensory-filled journey through a year in colors. Each season is described with a series of six or more poems. In the poems, colors are personified, with each color representing one or more objects. The poems speak of some colors you would expect, such as green in spring and brown in fall, but they also include some surprising colors like gray in summer and green in winter.

The poems in this book are written in free verse. However, Sidman’s use of the occasional internal rhyme has great effect. In summer she says “White clinks in drinks,” and “Green trills from trees, / clings to Pup’s knees, / covers all with leaves.” The unexpected rhyme gives the poems a boost - a little extra liveliness. Sidman also uses onomatopoeia throughout the poems in this book to great effect. Birds sing cheer-cheer-cheer, thunder booms, ice clinks, frog tongues snap, apples crunch, and on and on. The purpose of Sidman’s poems seems to be to alert all of the reader’s senses to the seasons. Her use of onomatopoeia allows the reader to hear the sounds of the seasons.

Sidman’s ability to appeal to all of the senses through the imagery in her poetry is quite impressive. Because of her personification of the colors, the reader has an immediate understanding of the color being described. For example, in spring, red is a cardinal, a leaf, and a worm. In summer, black is the sky, stones, bats, and a raccoon’s eyes. This personification, combined with Sidman’s appeal to the reader’s senses of taste, touch, smell, and hearing, creates an incredible sensory experience. In one short poem, she manages to appeal to all five senses: “In Summer, / White clinks in drinks. / Yellow melts / everything it touches … / smells like butter, / tastes like salt.” The reader is transported to a picnic on a hot summer day, vividly seeing the colors of summer, tasting a cold drink, and feeling, tasting, and smelling melted butter and salt on a cob of corn.

Sidman’s poetry is not the only thing that creates this sensory journey through Red Sings from Treetops. Pamela Zagarenski’s mixed media paintings provide beautiful pictures that perfectly illustrate Sidman’s words. In a book of colors, it’s only natural that bright, beautiful colors fill the pages. However, Zagarenski’s placement and mixture of colors on the pages is truly unique. The images for each color aren’t overwhelmed by that color. Instead, the color is sprinkled on the page, mixed with other colors. For red in spring, red birds are perched on branches, dropping red notes like cherries below. Red worms are being picked up by birds on the road, and a red door says, “come in,” as though the reader is welcome to enter into this season of color. Zagarenski’s illustrations give readers the feel of each season. Somehow she makes summer feel hot and humid, and fall has a crispness in the air.

For people who have not lived in a place with seasons, this book may not have as great an appeal. The images in the poems and pictures for spring and fall might not conjure the same feelings as they do for those who are familiar with all four seasons. However, I did grow up in a place that looked much like this book during each season. Sidman and Zagarenski’s combination of words and pictures took me straight to the best parts of each season. These words and pictures will remain with young readers for many years. This is a book they will return to often. 

Poem Used to Support Critical Analysis:

From FALL:

Red splashes fall trees,

seeps into

every vein

of every five-fingered leaf.

Red swells

on branches bent low.

Red: crisp, juicy

crunch!

First, I would share this poem as part of the whole book. I would read the entire book of poetry to students one time. Then, we would focus on this poem. I would show students the illustrated page while reading the poem a second time. I would ask them what object the color red represents in this poem. I would ask them to find that object on the page (the apples on the tree and on the ground around the tree.) I would then ask them what else is red in fall.

Next, as a class we would choose a color to write about. We would brainstorm about the color first. What objects are that color? What feelings does that color give? Then, we would write a list poem about that color as a class. After this, I would place students into groups and have them choose a color to brainstorm. As a group, they would write a list poem together and share it with the class.

Dizzy in Your Eyes: Poems about Love by Pat Mora

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Bibliography:

Mora, Pat. Dizzy in Your Eyes: Poems about Love. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2010. ISBN 9780375843754

Review and Critical Analysis:

Dizzy in Your Eyes by Pat Mora is a collection of 50 poems about love written in the voice of teenagers. Mora introduces the collection with a letter to readers. In it, she explains that she wrote these poems with the intention of showing the intensity of the teen years - that time in our lives when emotions are turned up, “and some days we look at someone and feel dizzy in their eyes.” With the kind of intensity that comes with teens and love, Mora has chosen the perfect subject to capture her audience’s attention.

         Although Pat Mora originally intended to write the poems in this collection in free verse, she took her editor’s suggestion and included many other poetic forms. The collection includes poems written in free verse, tercet, list, acrostic, sonnet, haiku, acrostic, and more. To introduce each new form of poetry to readers, Mora includes its name and definition on the page adjacent to the poem written in the form. Readers will already be familiar with some of them, such as acrostic or sonnet, but many of the poetic forms will be new, such as cinquain and triolet. Mora’s inclusion of these different forms of poetry and their definitions will inspire readers to discover more types of poetry and even write poetry themselves using these forms.

         The poems in this collection are not in a random order. In the letter to readers, Mora explains that as she was deciding the order of the book, she thought of the book as a piece of music. This piece of music has four movements, so the poems in the book are divided into four movements. It moves from love’s initial rush, to love’s heartaches, to love’s healing, and then to falling in love again. Many of the poems include Spanish words or translations, keeping them true to Mora’s Spanish heritage and style, and making them appealing to the latino teen audience.

         Dizzy in Your Eyes is a quick read, but it has the ability to meet teen readers right where they are in the midst of love’s intensity, or to take adult readers back to the time and place when they first experienced love’s intensity. It will allow readers to relive their first heartbreak, like in the poem “The Silence” when a girl asks her childhood friend to the prom, but he invited someone else. Then it will remind readers how it felt to love again, like “Love Haiku” where the teen writer says, “Everything’s in love. / Birds, butterflies, and now me, / dizzy in your eye.” This collection of poetry truly captures the essence of love and the feeling that “No one has felt like this. Ever.”

Poem Used to Support Critical Analysis:

Four-Letter Word

Like breathing, I started when I was born,

    started loving. I didn’t know its name,

    but I knew pleasures: eating, warmth.

One day, like a flash of lightning, I linked

    the four letters, the feeling, with the word.

    The word was never the same.

Very soon, I could list loves galore:

    sunshine, Mom’s smile, Dad’s laugh, our house,

    my bed, jeans, friends; the taste of peppermint,

    music that lifted me soaring off the floor.

Ever since I met you, the word, the same four letters

    became a private place

    your face takes me,

    ours the only keys

    to the invisible door.

Pat Mora’s use of a variety of poetic forms in this collection of poetry makes it an excellent resource for teaching poetry in the young adult classroom. Teens love “love poetry,” so the poems would be appealing and interesting to students simply because of that. Mora’s writing is inviting for teens, so it would go well to use this book to teach poetry to young adults.

During a poetry unit, as each form is taught, I would choose a different poem from the book that is written in that form. We would read the poem together (along with many others written in that form) and students would write a poem of their own using that form. I would share Mora’s poem, “Four-Letter Word,” in the same way. During our focus on acrostic poems, I would introduce this poem. Students would then choose a subject for their own acrostic poems. After peer-revision, students would create and illustrate a final product to share with the class and put on display in the classroom.