Letter poems are a particularly apt medium for exploring a defining characteristic of poetry—line breaks. As students work to transform narrative-style letters (shown at left) into poetic format, they are encouraged to think carefully about where to end each line. Using the Letter Poem Creator, students engage with the medium of letters and experiment with writing them as poems, with attention to why the lines are broken, where they are broken, and how line breaks affect rhythm, sound, meaning, and appearance.

Visit this interactive tool at: http://www.readwritethink.org/materials/letter_poem/.

ReadWriteThink Lessons That Use This Tool

Letter Poems Deliver: Experimenting with Line Breaks in Poetry Writing (3-5)
Letter poems make poetry accessible, meaningful, and fun. Letter poems are also an apt medium for exploring a defining characteristic of poetry—line breaks. Students explore letter poems and experiment with writing letters as poems, using the placement of line breaks to enhance rhythm, sound, meaning, and appearance.