For teachers · explanatory slides
Found poem
Project this deck before handing out the worksheet. Difficulty band: Building. Then try the form in the builder, or pick a follow-up move from the technique repertoire.
Found poem · slide 1 of 5 · what
What is a found poem?
A found poem lifts its words from a printed page, keeping every word and its original order. Your authorship is in what you leave out and where you break the lines — line breaks change what the words mean.
Say: Read this slide, then ask: who has seen one before? Take two answers only.
Arrow keys work too. Printing lays out every slide, one per page.
Found poem · what
What is a found poem?
A found poem lifts its words from a printed page, keeping every word and its original order. Your authorship is in what you leave out and where you break the lines — line breaks change what the words mean.
Say: Read this slide, then ask: who has seen one before? Take two answers only.
Found poem · how
How it works
1. Read the page and underline phrases that sound different when lifted out of their paragraph.
2. Copy out about six lines without changing a word or its order.
3. Move the line breaks and read it aloud each time; keep the version where the breaks make you pause in the right places. Title it last, from the page's heading.
Say: Walk the steps slowly. Students will follow them on their worksheet.
Found poem · example
Worked example — lifted from an original paragraph about a night train
Page: “The train slowed through country towns where one lamp burned in every station, and nobody got on, and nobody got off.”
Found poem:
The train slowed / through country towns — / one lamp burned / in every station, / and nobody got on, / and nobody got off.
No word changed. The line breaks slow the reading down to the speed of the train, and the last two lines land separately.
Say: Read the example aloud twice. Ask what the writer chose — and what they left out.
Found poem · traps
Common traps
• Quietly fixing or improving a word — that breaks the rule and the game.
• Lifting a whole paragraph unchanged, with no choices about breaks or cuts.
• A title that explains the poem instead of adding something the lines do not say.
Say: Name the traps now so students can laugh when they spot one in their own draft.
Found poem · try
Before you start
Model one line break on the board: same words, two break points, read both aloud and vote on which is truer.
Scaffolding: Words and their order come from the printed page; line breaks are the student's own.
Say: Do the first move together, out loud, before handing out worksheets.