In this online tool, students can learn about and write acrostic poems. An acrostic poem uses the letters in a word to begin each line of the poem. All lines of the poem relate to or describe the main topic word. In addition, as part of the online tool, students are prompted to brainstorm, write, and revise their poems, thus reinforcing elements of the writing process. Students can also print their finished acrostic poems.

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

ReadWriteThink Lessons That Use This Tool

A Directed Listening–Thinking Activity for The Tell-Tale Heart (6-8)
In this lesson, students participate in a Directed Listening–Thinking Activity (DLTA) to improve their listening comprehension and prediction skills. At the end of the lesson, students compose a written response to the story in the form of either an acrostic poem or comic strip.

Acrostic Poems: All About Me and My Favorite Things (K-2)
Students write two free-verse acrostic poems about themselves. One uses the letters of their names to begin each line; the other uses a word from in their name poem for the letters beginning each line. Both poems are recopied, illustrated, and mounted for display.

All About Alliteration: Responding to Literature Through a Poetry Link (3-5)
This lesson for third and fourth grade students uses a read-aloud to teach about alliteration. It then has students brainstorm alliterative word lists using a variety or print and online resources. Students create and illustrate a poem using the poetry they have read as a framework for their writing.

Alliteration All Around (3-5)
Beginning with Pamela Duncan Edwards' award-winning picture books, students identify the meaning of alliteration. They then put alliteration into practice by creating acrostic poems, tongue twisters, alphabet books, and number books. ReadWriteThink's Acrostic Poems interactive tool and Bruce Lansky's Giggle Poetry article add a technology component to the lesson.

Building Classroom Community Through the Exploration of Acrostic Poetry (3-5)
This lesson explores the genre of acrostic poetry and reinforces positive community practices in the classroom. After looking at various acrostic poetry websites, students participate in a shared writing experience. Students then write an acrostic poem about one of their peers using online resources such as thesauri and an interactive writing tool.

Casting Shadows Across Literacy and Science (K-2)
As they read about shadows in fiction, informational text, and poetry, students bring their own background knowledge and experiences to the text and extend their understanding of concepts. Lesson activities encourage students to use their observational skills, both in science and in literature, and to create their own shadow poetry.

Choosing One Word: Summarizing Shel Silverstein’s “Sick”  (K-2)
After reading a text in the classroom, students work together to determine the one word that summarizes that text. This comprehension activity requires students to work together and highlights their ability to justify their word choice.

Color of Silence: Sensory Imagery in Pat Mora’s Poem “Echoes” (6-8)
Moving from personal experience to practical application, students use their senses to discover new ways to read and write. Pat Mora’s poem “Echoes” is used to demonstrate that our senses are powerful tools for literary analysis and comprehension.


Dancing Minds and Shouting Smiles: Teaching Personification Through Poetry (3-5)
In this lesson, students reflect on the use of personification in three classic poems, comparing and contrasting how each poet uses it. Students then complete a prewriting exercise before writing their own poems using personification.

Dr. Seuss’s Sound Words: Playing with Phonics and Spelling (K-2)
Boom! Br-r-ring! Cluck! Moo!—you are bound to find exciting sounds everywhere. Whether you visit online sites that play sounds or take a sound hike, ask your students to notice the sounds they hear then write their own poems, using sound words, based on Dr. Seuss's Mr. Brown Can MOO! Can You?

Dynamite Diamante Poetry (3-5)
This lesson combines grammar and spelling instruction with creative writing. Students review nouns, adjectives, and verbs and are introduced to gerunds. They then write and revise diamante poems using these types of words.

Earth Verse: Using Science in Poetry (3-5)
Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith's picture book, Science Verse, serves as a model for students to use poetry to improve content area knowledge, vocabulary, and comprehension—in this case, for the science curriculum.


Let's Read It Again: Comprehension Strategies for English-Language Learners (K-2)
This adaptable lesson for Spanish-speaking second graders learning English uses a bilingual picture book and a variety of reading strategies to help students improve fluency and retain what they have learned.

More than One Way to Create Vivid Verbs (6-8)
One way to spice up your verbs is to learn new vocabulary. Or you can just use ordinary verbs in a new way! This lesson teaches students how to use old verbs in a new way, thus creating new and fresh descriptive phrases.

Peace Poems and Picasso Doves: Literature, Art, Technology, and Poetry (3-5)
Students and teachers employ think-aloud strategies as they read literature, compose poems, and create artwork related to the theme of peace. This unit is designed for collaborative teaching among classroom, art, and technology teachers, and school librarians. A single educator can also teach this unit.

Writing about Writing: An Extended Metaphor Assignment (9-12)
Using Richard Wilbur’s poem “The Writer” as an inspiration, students examine the literary element of metaphor then write their own extended metaphor, describing themselves as writers.

Zines for Kids: Multigenre Texts About Media Icons (3-5)
Using ReadWriteThink.org online tools, students write short pieces in a variety of genres about a favorite media icon. After working with each tool, students print out their work and assemble the documents into their own zines.