In preparation for reading Inside Out and Back Again, a moving tale of a young girl fleeing from Saigon during the Vietnam War and relocating to Alabama in the 1970s, written entirely in free verse by Thanhha Lai, Ms. Paterson and Ms. Schatz’s Yellow Cluster reading group completed an in-depth poetry study. Students read and analyzed poems written by famous authors, unknown authors, and budding authors before creating their own original pieces. After learning about rhyme scheme, acrostic poems, haikus, and odes, the students were given free topical reign while writing. What they came up with was, in their teachers’ eyes, nothing short of beautiful. Ms. Paterson says that she is, “so proud of what each student was able to create. Several students were hesitant at first, because lets face it, poetry is tricky, but every single one of them blew me out of the water.” This study deepened each learner’s understanding of poetry and brought an added level of engagement to and excitement over an already captivating tale. See a selection of poems paired with relevant images below.
