+ Poem Collage For Grade School and High School Students

+ Max Ernst “invented” a method of pasting together fragments of given or found pictures. By using images that already had a similar ‘look’ (principally engravings illustrating novels, magazines, and technical or commercial publications) he was able to create ‘illusionistic’ new pictures—bizarre fantastic dream-like, ironic or grotesque.

+ IN OUR CASE We’ll be making collages out of words, lines, or found language. Materials: 1. Magazines– You can get a number of free magazines at your public library. 2. Scissors 3. Glue 4. Paste

+ GOALS The exercise demonstrates the malleability of the English Language. It presents opportunities for visual learners, kinesthetic learners, and verbal learners. It invites problem solving. It can involve collaboration.

+ GETTING STARTED Distribute magazines, scissors, paste, and paper. Instruct students to cut words, lines, and images that “strike their fancy. Have students arrange the words, lines, and images that they’ve cut out on a separate piece of paper and have them paste their findings in the form of a poem.

+ VARIATIONS Grade Schoolers:Middle/High Schoolers Use magazines that cater to this specific audience. You can get copies of magazines for younger students at the public library Keep the exercise simple. You may decide to pre-cut some of the words or lines for the students. Allow them to include pictures they’ve cut in addition to words or lines. Also allow students to work on this project collaboratively—pooling words, letters, and images together. Include obstructions. For example, allow them to only use five adjectives. Like the grade school students, consider collaboration, allowing secondary ed. students to team up and pool their words and lines together. Prompt students to find and cut out items that fit certain parts of speech, e.g. have them choose proper nouns, have them eliminate prepositional phrases, etc.

+ BREAKDOWN OF THE TIME Allow students to gather and cut their words for the first minutes of the exercise. Take another minutes to paste the words, letters, and lines. Use the remaining time to allow students to share the work with their peers. Reserve additional time to talk about the decisions they made on their discreet poems.