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Grades level iconsGrades 3–12
Genre information iconPoetry
Video resource type iconVideos

Book Scavenger Hunt Poetry with Amanda Gorman

Amanda Gorman
Presidential Inaugural Poet, activist, and bestselling author Amanda Gorman shares one of her favorite techniques for starting a poem or getting over writers' block.
About the Author

Amanda Gorman is the Presidential Inaugural Poet, the youngest inaugural poet in U.S. history, as well as an award-winning writer and cum laude graduate of Harvard University, where she studied Sociology. She has written for the New York Times and has published three books with Penguin Random House, including “The Hill We Climb” and the children’s book Change Sings.

What Your Students Will Learn

Your students will learn a new technique to spark creativity when writing poems.

What Your Students Will Produce

Students will produce a short, found poem that can be expanded at a later date.

What You Will Do

This exercise from Inaugural Youth Poet Laureate, Amanda Gorman, sends students on a scavenger hunt to find words they can turn into a poem. This prompt was originally a contribution to 826 National’s A Good Time to Write project, an online resource providing new writing opportunities and encouragement to young people during the COVID-19 pandemic. Learn more about A Good Time to Write here.

From Amanda:

“I do this a lot with my poetry because if I’m feeling writer’s block, it’s a great way to force myself to start! The poem you make can be complex, or it can be simple as you want.”

First, watch this video to see how Amanda approaches this prompt. Then, pick up any book you can find. It can be your favorite book, a dictionary, a graphic novel—whatever you have, wherever you are, works for this exercise.

Next, decide how...

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