Love That Dog by Sharon Creech

With encouragement from his teacher, Jack learns to find meaning in poetry. And soon discovers poetry can become very personal to him. Since this book is written in free verse, it meets the needs of many reluctant readers. Its rhythm, satisfies those that love music. Through its play of language it reaches those that love words. And best of all, this format along with other poetry can help those "not so good at reading" gain confidence. The flow of the language helps them read more smoothly, quickly and accurately.

Activity: We introduced the students to a new format of poetry called "Blackout Poetry". Instead of the traditional starting point of a blank page, poet, Austin Kleon starts with a newspaper and permanent marker. He blacks out words that he doesn’t want and leaves words that form his poem. Check out his website at http://www.austinkleon.com
We gave all of the boys the same newspaper article and asked them to create their own blackout poem.