Panning for Poems: Help Students Distill Language and Choose the Best Words

What is the difference between poetry and prose? 

I like to pose this question to students at the beginning of a poetry study. (I usually include a definition of prose, as many students are not familiar with this word!) Popular answers include “Poetry rhymes and prose doesn’t” and “Prose is in paragraphs and poetry is in lines.” 

In addition to busting the myth that poetry must rhyme, one of my key goals is for students to understand that writing poetry is more than dividing words into lines instead of paragraphs. Poetry involves choosing the best words. 

 How do I guide students to understand the economy of language involved in writing poems? I start by sharing this quote by former US Poet Laureate, Rita Dove: 

 “Poetry is language at its most distilled and most powerful.”

We zoom in on the word “distilled.” I compare writing a poem to panning for gold. When a prospector digs a pan into a stream bed, it emerges filled with mud and rocks. By swirling the contents again and again, the mud, rocks, and less desirable materials sift out. If a prospector is lucky, chunks of gold will remain. As poets, we need to sift through the vague, plain, and cluttering words we might write in first drafts (the mud and rocks), to reveal rich, image-evoking words (the gold!)

     

To put this metaphor into action, students and I go panning for poems in prose. First, I demonstrate this process by sharing a paragraph from an article I wrote for APPLESEEDS, a nonfiction magazine for kids. The article, entitled, "Look. . . No Wings!", is about unexpected animals that “fly.” 

The section of prose I share is about the paradise tree snake:

The paradise tree snake, a Southeast Asia rainforest dweller, flies without wings. The paradise tree snake can launch itself from a branch and glide up to 300 feet through the forest canopy. This snake makes itself aerodynamic. (That means it becomes smooth and sleek to reduce resistance to the air.) It flares its ribs, flattens its stomach, and whips its body back and forth like a long, slithering ribbon. By sucking in its stomach, the snake makes a wing. Then the cross section of the snake’s body looks like the cross section of a frisbee. This treetop trick helps the snake make a quick escape from hungry monitor lizards.

Next, I demonstrate “panning for gold” by highlighting those words that jump out to me as descriptive, specific, and striking: 

The paradise tree snake, a Southeast Asia rainforest dweller, flies without wings. The paradise tree snake can launch itself from a branch and glide up to 300 feet through the forest canopy. This snake makes itself aerodynamic. (That means it becomes smooth and sleek to reduce resistance to the air.) It flares its ribs, flattens its stomach, and whips its body back and forth like a long, slithering ribbon. By sucking in its stomach, the snake makes a wing. Then the cross section of the snake’s body looks like the cross section of a frisbee. This treetop trick helps the snake make a quick escape from hungry monitor lizards. 

Finally, I model arranging those “gold” words into lines. This is a great opportunity to explain that poets put a lot of thought into how their words look on the page. Line breaks and word placement guide the flow of a poem. For example, in my distilled poem, I start each line with a verb to emphasize the many actions the tree snake must take to fly. I also spread out the words in the line “glide through the forest canopy” so they glide across the page, just like the snake:

Fly without wings: 

launch from a branch 

         flare ribs 

              flatten stomach, 

                                whip back and forth 

                         smooth and sleek 

                                like a slithering ribbon 

glide          through          the          forest          canopy. 

Make a quick escape 

from hungry monitor lizards.

Now it’s the student’s turn to pan for poems. I choose paragraphs of prose from recent books we’ve read together or books I know students have enjoyed on their own. Two books that work well for this activity are Matilda by Roald Dahl and Wonder by R. J. Palacio. In large font, I print the paragraphs on pieces of paper and distribute them to students. (This activity works equally well with partners or individuals.) After reading the paragraph, I ask students to circle or highlight the “gold” words, those words that jump out at them because they are active, specific, and create a mental picture. 

Once students have sifted out the best words, they arrange them onto a new, blank page. I encourage students to think about their line breaks and word placement. How can the arrangement of words support the meaning and flow of the poem? Finally, students share their results. It’s fun to see the variety of poems panned from the same section of prose. 

Try panning for poems with your students. I hope you strike it rich with the results!

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About Michelle Schaub

Michelle Schaub is a language arts teacher and award-winning children's poet. She is the author of the picture book poetry collections Fresh-Picked Poetry: A Day at the Farmers’ Market and Finding Treasure: A Collection of Collections. She is also the author of two picture books in verse, Dream Big, Little Scientists and Kindness is a Kite String: The Uplifting Power of Empathy. Her poems appear in several anthologies, including  Great Morning! Poems for School Leaders to Read Aloud.  Michelle loves visiting schools and speaking at conferences on the power of poetry to boost literacy. Find out more at:  https://www.michelleschaub.com/.