One-pagers are an entertaining and effective way to get your students engaged with literary interpretation of any kind, but I’ve found they work especially well for analyzing poetry in particular. Poetry one-pagers bring the act of reading poetry closer to the act of writing it. They invite a deeper understanding of the poem in a way that is sure to entertain the students and you at the same time. By the end of this activity, you will have a stack of beautifully unique pages of poetry analysis on your desk.

WHAT IS A POETRY ONE-PAGER?

A poetry one-pager is an activity that gets students to present their interpretation of a poem onto a single piece of paper using both text and illustrations. At the heart of this fun, artistic exercise are the elements of strong literary analysis. And the result is a colorful, enlightening product that will give you further insight into your students’ perception of the poem.

 

WHAT TO INCLUDE ON A POETRY ONE-PAGER

An effective poetry one-pager gives the students creative freedom as to what they want to showcase on their individual pages, while also providing the necessary parameters for it to be a productive learning tool for their literary interpretation skills. Of course, you want them to have fun. Trust me, they will! But ultimately, this should be a way for them to apply (and develop) their skills.

Here are some ideas for what you can require the students to include on theirs:

• • An important theme in the poem (represented both visually and with text)
  • What they think is the most important quote (with an explanation)
  • A drawing of key symbols and images that are evoked by the poem

These are just a few examples that I include in my poetry one-pager assignment resource. I also include lots of detailed examples and instructions for students.

HOW TO INTRODUCE POETRY ONE-PAGERS

There are a couple of things to consider doing before sending your students off on their own to create their poetry (analysis) masterpieces…

MODEL THE SKILLS

• Make sure the students have strong background knowledge of literary terms:

The students should have already had the opportunity to discuss terms like theme, symbolism, and imagery, for example, in a more conventional context. They should be used to drawing on textual evidence to make connections in the poem. The poetry one-pager assignment allows students to bring their poetry analysis skills to full fruition. The added artistic component of the assignment will help to solidify this knowledge.

• Give your students clear instructions:

Present this activity as an exciting way for students to prove their knowledge on the subject. At the same time, make sure you give them clear instructions by showcasing an example. This kind of assignment is likely new to them, and they may not know where to begin! You might want to draw a large rectangle on your board and show students how you might create a poetry one-pager for a poem that you studied together as a class. This will model the process for them and make them feel more comfortable with creating their own.

• Use poetry one-pagers as a culminating assignment:

Poetry one-pagers work best as a culminating assignment at the end of a poetry unit. The more experience and knowledge they have with poetry will improve the end results. Students must have prior experience analyzing poetry, and this should not be their first experience doing so!

USE TEMPLATES

It can be a good idea to provide your students with a template for their one-pager. These can be as simple as pieces of paper that have empty shapes (or boxes) for each required component. Many of your students will appreciate this added structure at the outset. As is true with the act of writing poetry, formal constraints can be liberating.

Providing a simple formula also serves as an effective way to scaffold and differentiate the activity so that it becomes accessible for all your students. It can be intimidating to start from scratch! When I assign a poetry one-pager assignment, I provide five templates, along with an example, for this reason.

 

FOR EVERY KIND OF CLASSROOM

Part of the appeal of the one-pager is no doubt its hands-on quality. Maybe you’re teaching virtually and are trying to include more of this in your online classroom setting, or maybe you simply like the added potential professionalism afforded by a digital version of the assignment. Honestly, the results can be equally stunning. Whatever the circumstances, the poetry one-pager can be easily adapted to a digital context by having students insert text boxes and images onto a Google Slides.

You might also want to give your students both options. Some students might want to show off their budding computer designing skills. Others may feel more comfortable drawing by hand. Hey, maybe some poetry one-pagers will be a combination of both methods!

 

ANALYZING POETRY ONE-PAGERS WITH LEARNING STYLES

The hands-on, tactile nature of this activity engages kinesthetic learners: students who learn best through physical activity. This is important as this learning style is often left out of traditional poetry analysis. I talk about this—and about other ways to engage student interest in poetry—in another blog post.

This assignment will resonate also with visual learners. Visual learners are also known to better understand information when they can visualize it as a whole. For these reasons, poetry one-pagers are especially fitting for these individuals, perhaps even more so than for kinesthetic learners.

 

HOW TO ASSESS POETRY ONE-PAGERS

You might be wondering: How do you assess poetry one-pagers? Good question! I typically use a basic rubric for the assignment that considers the quality of the graphics, content, and overall effort put into the one-pager as a whole. In a strong example, these elements would cohere to provide an effective analysis of the poem that is as much grounded in the textual evidence as it is in their own creative imagination.

Or maybe you don’t want to grade this assignment at all. That’s ok too! There is something special about engaging with a poem in such a deep way. I hope you and your students can experience this specialness through this activity!