Found Poem

Purpose: To help learners practice identifying and reviewing the main information from a reading.

Preparation Time: None

Materials Needed: A reading text, highlighters.

Procedure:

1. As the learners read the text, have them highlight key words, phrases and ideas that they find to be important or meaningful from the text.
2. Have the learners pull out the highlighted words and phrases and write (or type) them in a poem format with each word or phrase on its own line.
3. Have the learners get together with a partner and take turns reading their found poem out loud. After both of the learners have read, they should compare their poems and discuss what is similar and what is different.
4. Ask for a few volunteers to read their poems out loud to the whole group.

Modification 1: After the learners have highlighted the words or phrases from their text, have them write each word and phrase on a small slip of paper. Learners then look for themes among the highlighted items, and group them accordingly by rearranging the slips of paper. Once they have organized the papers, they can then copy them down to create their poem.  

Modification 2: Put the learners in small groups. Have them work together to decide what words and phrases should be highlighted from the text, and then present their found poem to the class.

Read a sample found poem.