FOR EDUCATORS

WANTED:

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HIGH SCHOOLERS TO JOIN THE POETIC JUSTICE LEAGUE

The Poetic Justice League hopes that high school students form their own PJL chapters! You will receive a PJL hat and will be included in all publishing and promotional ventures . . . and we will continue to include you in all future PJL political poetry adventures.

 

The only requirement is that students contribute their own collaborative political poems modeled after PJL projects. For now, we’re seeking semi-automatic pantoums--we will post the pantoums on our site.

 

SEMI-AUTOMATIC PANTOUM INSTRUCTIONS FOR TEACHERS

Organize groups of four poets to write "Semi-Automatic Pantoums" about our country's gun violence (the repetition in the pantoum form reflects the repeated firing of a semi-automatic weapon).

 

1-Establish an order for your writers. 2-Take turns writing a line in the first stanza. 3-Then each take turns writing a whole stanza. The pantoum form requirements are below. 

 

 

________________________________ (Line 1)

________________________________ (Line 2)

________________________________ (Line 3)

________________________________ (Line 4)

 

_________________________________ (Line 5—same as line 2 above)

_________________________________ (Line 6)

_________________________________ (Line 7—same as line 4 above)

_________________________________ (Line 8)

 

_________________________________ (Line 9—same as line 6 above)

_________________________________ (Line 10)

_________________________________ (Line 11—same as line 8 above)

_________________________________ (Line 12)

 

. . . and on and on until you all feel it's time to end. Sometimes the final stanza has a neat twist: although its first and third lines are as usual the same as the second and fourth lines in the stanza above it, its second and fourth lines are the same as the third and first lines of the very first stanza. This way, every line in the poem is used twice, and the first line of the poem is the same as the last. Rhyme is optional.

 

Email your students’ pantoums to thepoeticjusticeleague@gmail.com