Using Poems for Multiple Voices to Teach Creative Writing

Finding it difficult to get students excited about writing authentically, teacher-researchers William P. Bintz and Trisha Henning-Shannon took a risk. They used Fleischman’s books of poems for two voices as models, and high school students responded with moving poems of their own. The authors cite a number of factors that led to the students’ success and include examples of the poems that resulted from this innovative assignment.