Poetry: Make that difficult poem accessible to ALL your students!
- Susan de Lautour
- 23 hours ago
- 4 min read
How? With a quick rewrite! Hehe!
You have a weighty poem that you’re dying to get stuck into with your class. You know it’ll open their eyes, get them thinking … and it’s got plenty of meat on its bones for those literary essays and responses. The trouble is, your class has a huge range of literacy skills and just as great a range when it comes to – you know – perseverance.
You’ve probably got plenty of strategies in your toolkit, but have you tried rewriting a poem to make it equitable – ie, accessible to all your students? Rewriting a masterpiece isn’t sacrilege when it’s, technically, ‘translation’ and your intentions are fabulous! Make that difficult poem accessible to all your students!
What led me down this path?
I had a year 10 (grade 9) class that, aside from some ‘interesting’ behaviours, included a massive ability range. I introduced them to the study of film as literature using my old favourite, “Falling Sparrows” (a war film). How could I not then introduce them to Wilfred Owen’s “Dulce et Decorum Est”? But with two boys with a reading age of six, one genuinely gifted student, and everyone else spanning the full range in between, I was on a hiding to nothing.
Fortunately, by then, I had differentiation down pat. Thanks Carol Anne Tomlinson! This was the first time, though, that I decided to desecrate a work of art to do it. Yep, if my strugglers were ever going to experience the horror and message in Owen’s reality check for the war romantics, I was going to have to tickle things up and rewrite it!
I ran three levels in my class and for each, I had my avatar. I rewrote “Dulce” for my struggler and my ‘middle child’.
Note well: No ‘groups’!
Nobody was ever put into a group. Instead, three levels of worksheets were placed at the front of the room. Each pile was clearly labeled with a fitness level. Students could choose their own fitness level. My themes changed, but the sports ones you see here were popular for a long time.
Here’s what the three levels of verse 1 looked like. Not brilliant, but brilliant in the classroom – you know what I mean?!!
As you can see, the cross-fit students get the original.
A few tricks of the trade
Remember, you only have to write two other versions, because your top tier is the original.
For longer poems, where you’re including activities as well, I deliver just one verse per lesson. This makes things less overwhelming for students – it’s important they finish the work so they have a sense of accomplishment. It also gives you time to go over answers together.
When rewriting, use the same line breaks as those that appear in the original version.
The lower the level the more ‘sentence-styled’ your writing should be. Sentences are easier to understand.
Focus on dealing with obscure/difficult vocabulary – replace them with more common words (or even phrases). Your middle level will include a few more of the words/phrases from the original than your lowest level version, of course. (The alternative, if you wanted to put a bit of that difficult vocabulary in, would be to look at the vocabulary PRIOR to reading. Sometimes I just want to get straight into the poem though in a way that students can enjoy. These differentiated versions allow that.)
Give all students the same questions (or at least similar). The differentiation comes in the form of an equitable reading opportunity for this exercise.
End your study of the poem by giving EVERY student a copy of the original. Your strugglers will feel great because they ‘get this fancy poem’!
Worried about time?
It takes a lot less time than you think! YOUR version doesn’t have to be a masterpiece; you’re just the translator.
Remember, you’ll probably use your resource for years!
Think of the trade off when you get students who are more engaged for the next few lessons.
Think of the warm fuzzy longer-term benefits: students who can do the work and can finish the work feel SO MUCH BETTER.
It feels good knowing every student who leaves your classroom is going to go out into the world knowing a well-known text. Sometimes it’s either your version or ignorance, and the latter is a yuk state to be in.
Enjoy!
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Help with POETRY
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For more help teaching poetry, see my YouTube video here.
Help with DIFFERENTIATION
Find resources to help with DIFFERENTIATION:
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⭐ IN OUR TPT STORE here.
For more help with differentiation, see my YouTube video here.
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