Book Spine Poetry

Today Mrs. Yawn’s 2nd grade class made book spine poems.  This is a project that I started with classes a couple of years ago, but over time it has developed.  I’ve learned more about crafting book spine poems that make more sense than randomly pulling books off the shelf.  One tip that I give students is to look for book titles that don’t have character name in them.  I also suggest looking for one book title that speaks to you in some way and building upon that.  For example, the book I know Here refers to a place, so you might look for other books that refer to place to make a strong poem.  Here are the results of today.

Book Spine Poetry 2011

Two classes have come to the media center so far to create book spine poetry.  I got this idea last year after reading the 100 Scope Notes blog.

To make a book spine poem, you arrange a stack of books so that the titles create a poem.  Each title of a book becomes a line in the poem.

In my lessons, we’ve done some examples together and listened to past examples from classes.  Students get in groups of 3 and wander around the media center browsing the shelves for interesting titles that seem to fit together.  Once they make their decisions on 3-5 books, they pull the books off the shelf and arrange them in a stack.

Stacks of books go to tables and a teacher helps students take a picture of their stack.

Next students bring the camera to a computer where another volunteer helps them download the picture into a class file.  Students then find a space to practice reading their poem aloud.

Once ready, students come to me and use Photo Story 3 to record themselves reading their poem.

When students finish checking out, they sit on the carpet to hear their final product.

Enjoy listening to one of the book spine poems here.

Mrs. Brink’s Book Spine Poem

Mrs. Yawn’s Book Spine Poem

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