Last week at my Community Service Learning placement, I lead a lesson for my grade 7 students about ABC Poems. —An ABC poem usually has 5 lines, but sometimes it is a little longer (which is great for differentiation!). Essentially, the poem has very few rules and restrictions except for the following 2:

1. The first word of each line (1-4) is in alphabetical order from the first word (ex. G-J, P-S, etc.).
2. —Line 5 is one sentence, beginning with any letter.

I instructed the students to choose a topic and brainstorm as many different things about the topic as possible. Next, the students chose a letter that they would use as the first letter of the first line. And was I surprised by the positive reception and amazing work from my students! What started as a simple writing strategy to introduce students to a different approach of poetry turned into something much greater. Some students decided to write from A-Z, while others combined two ABC Poems into one. The best part: the select few students who typically refuse to write or complete work were passionate about this activity and actually asked to perform their written piece to the rest of the class!

I definitely recommend this activity! Check out some of the final products below (Note: spelling, grammar, etc. was not assessed).