Out of the Dust Prompt Worksheet Sample

 

Below are two creative poems I made up to answer the prompt for Out of the Dust included in my lesson plan. The first poem below is my poem about my life. I included the hardships and problems that I and many other Americans face on a daily basis. Then I continued the poem into what comforts me during the hardships I face. I believe that many people would be able to relate to my “today” poem. The second poem is about Out of the Dust. It is in Billie Jo’s perpective. This poem is extremely different than the free verse novel because my poem doesn’t actually tell a story, just gives a brief understanding of the novel and the hardships faced. I went on to explain what Billie Jo was comforted by and all I could think about was her house and how her life actually comforted her. No matter how hard she tried to escape her harsh life she was ultimately comforted my her home and her father and the life she had.                                                                 

 

  By: Laura Chapin

 Today

 

Today I can’t find a charger

Today I didn’t get enough ‘likes’

Today I have to study for hours on end

Today I am worried about my safety

Today terrorism exists inside and out of our country

Today I am constantly on the look out

 

Today I find comfort in my family

Comfort in my country

Comfort in my dogs

Comfort in my protectors

Hope in God

Dust Past

 

The past was filled with dust

Flip over the glasses and plates

Chew the milk

Poverty and despair

Pail of kerosene, burning me and my Ma

Death all around

It’s all my father’s fault

I’ll die if I stay

 

I find comfort in my home

I cannot leave it no matter how hard I try

The dust is apart of me

And I am apart of the dust

 

 I think that these two poems relate to teaching and to verse novels. I believe strongly that this lesson plan and my sample responses can be integrated into a classroom very easily with this book or many other novels. I could see making your own poems for any novel, even novels that don’t include poetry. Teachers could adopt this for traditional novels by having the main characters (the students) write their own poems and having the student doing a contrasting poem relating to their own individual lives. 

In my poems I did a free verse style with a lot of repetition in my “Today” poem. I also used some aspects of a found poem in the Out of  the Dust poem. The line “I’ll die if I stay” came from page 1312 (kindle addition).