Alliteration in Headline Poems

Overview

Featured Resources

From Theory to Practice

 

OVERVIEW

Students are introduced to the term alliteration and asked to create their own examples of alliteration as well as find examples of alliteration in poems. When students understand the concept of alliteration, they are given a handout that explains the assignment of writing a headline poem. The assignment requires each student to create a headline poem using words that they have cut out from magazines and/or newspapers. The poem must contain at least 25 words, be written in complete sentences with correct punctuation, stick to one central theme, and contain at least three clear examples of alliteration.

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FEATURED RESOURCES

Headline Poem Assignment: This handout provides students with simple steps to create an alliterative headline poem.

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FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE

In Getting the Knack, Dunning and Stafford describe how creating found poems, such as headline poems, allows students to find the beauty in the plain language they hear and see every day: "This exercise gives us a chance to celebrate ordinary prose: its concreteness, its richness, and its surprises...poems hide in things you and others say and write. They lie buried in places where language isn't so self-conscious as 'real poetry' often is. This exercise is about keeping your ears and eyes alert to the possibilities in ordinary language" (3). In this lesson, writing a headline poem also allows students to apply new information on the technique of alliteration and to reinforce writing skills such as use of complete sentences, correct punctuation, focus on a central theme and so on. The book Getting the Knack also provides step-by-step instructions for creating a headline (found) poem and offers excellent examples of student work.

Further Reading

Dunning, Stephen, and William Stafford. 1992. "Found and Headline Poems." Getting the Knack: 20 Poetry Writing Exercises. Urbana, IL: NCTE.

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