1. Free write Please take the first few minutes of class to write with your non-dominant hand about how you are feeling right now, in this moment. What is on your mind? How does your body feel? What are you bringing to class today?

2. Free verse poems Let your creative sides run wild!

3. You choose the topic: Your poem can tell a story, describe a person, animal, feeling or object. It can serious, sad, funny or educational. It can be a combination of these things or completely different from anything I have written.

4. No rules! Elements to consider: Beginning, middle, and end Word choice Punctuation: correct or incorrect? Why? Length of line: complete sentences? Clauses only? Enjambment? Visual shape of poem. Sound: musicality, rhyme, alliteration, and again, length of lines.

5. Show, don’t tell: Instead of ¨Sally was very sad,¨ describe what that sadness looks, feels, sounds like, etc.: ¨Sally dragged her feet across campus, head down, softly sniffling, her arms crossed tightly across her body.¨ Descriptive language, active verbs, simile, metaphor, personification.