How to Incorporate Blackout Poetry into a Novel Unit

April is National Poetry Month, and for years, I never did anything special to celebrate it because I was always teaching novels in April. When I learned about blackout poetry, I knew it would be the perfect fit for a novel unit. Blackout poetry is an exciting, engaging way to create poetry without stepping away from your novel.

The first time I tried blackout poetry with my students, we were in the middle of our novel unit for The Hate U Give. My students absolutely loved creating blackout poetry using the novel text. Their poems were creative and clever. I learned a lot that first year, and it only got easier from there.

If you want to seamlessly incorporate blackout poetry into your novel unit, try these tips.

Novel pages were copied and sit on top of a paper cutter ready to be cut up to create blackout poetry.

Choose the Pages

Think back to the chapters your students have already read. Which chapters had significant plot events, themes, or symbols? Go back to those chapters and choose pages that highlight those significant elements. Choosing five or six pages gives students options and will drastically vary the end results you’ll receive.

Stacks of copied novel pages are laid out on a table. Each stack is labeled with a quick synopsis. Boxes of markers are stacked to the left of the papers.

Label Everything

To help maximize your students’ work time, label the different page options you provide them. Lay out each stack of pages and label the stacks with a quick synopsis of the plot on each page. The short synopsis will help students quickly choose a page for their blackout poems. Without the synopsis, many students will want to read through all of the options before choosing one, which can significantly reduce their time to write.

Identify a Focus

What do you want your students to accomplish with their poems? Do you want their poems to be related to the novel, or do you want to challenge them to write something completely unrelated? Do you want your students to use specific poetic devices, themes, or tones?

After choosing a goal or focus for your students, test out your requirements using the pages you’ll be providing them. You want to make sure it’s possible to complete the assignment with the text provided. For example, you don’t want to require students to use a simile when the words like and as aren’t in the provided text. Testing out your requirements can save students a lot of frustration when writing their blackout poems.

Three blackout poems created with text from the novel The Hate U Give are laid out on a desk. The blackout poem on top includes an image of a bullhorn, which is a symbol in the novel.

Add Imagery

As an added challenge, students can use symbols and imagery from the novel to create pictures within their blackout poems. Before starting, it might be helpful to have the class brainstorm ideas. Don’t worry if your students claim they aren’t artists. Many of my students found images online, turned up the light on their computer screens, and traced the images on top of their poems. They all became artists.

Rows of blackout poems hang on a bulletin board. The blackout poems are colorful and include images.

I hope these tips have encouraged you to try blackout poetry with your next novel unit. It’s an engaging poetry activity your students will love, and as long as you plan ahead, it’s easy to facilitate.