Bright Hub Education

Reflection Poem Lesson

 One way to wrap up the school year for your middle school students is to have them write a poem in which the they reflect: The student can think about each quarter and write about the memorable events throughout the year. The memories can be good ones or bad ones. For middle school, it does not hurt if the poem is humorous.

The key for this poem is that the personality of the student comes through in the poem. Events or things that are important to individual students will make each poem unique and interesting.

End-of-the-Year Poem Directions

Students sometimes struggle when teachers assign students to write a poem about a specific topic, especially at the end of the school year. This lesson will give specific steps on how students can write one. A good resource to complete this activity is a rhyming dictionary.

Step 1: Brainstorm three or four memorable events that happened during each quarter of the school year.

Students can take their notebook paper and fold it in half. Then, they need to fold it in half again. Now, the paper has folds that delineate four blocks to brainstorm ideas.

Events can include every day events in a middle school student's life, such as classes, clubs, sporting events, lunch, friendships, texting, siblings, boyfriends, girlfriends, religion, music, fashion, movies, video games, etc.

Step 2: Write a draft of the poem using the brainstormed ideas. It should have four stanzas that are quatrains. The four quatrains will represent a different quarter in the school year.

Quatrain Basics

A quatrain is a four-line "paragraph" in poetry. Each quatrain should have a rhyme scheme or rhyme pattern. This is the pattern of rhyme at the end of each line in the quatrain. The students can choose ABAB, ABBA, AABB, etc.

Example Template and Poem

Sample Poem Template

The following is a sample template for the end of the school year poem. Teachers can tweak and change the template to help students write the reflection poem.

Stanza 1

Line 1: Walking into the school doors on the first day

Line 2: My good friend _________ met me in the hall

Line 3: Talk about an event and the last word of the line needs to rhyme with day

Line 4: Talk about an event and the last word of the line needs to rhyme with hall

Stanza 2

Line 5: Days turned into weeks and second quarter began

Line 6: Talk about the friend in line 2 and end with the word bad

Line 7: Talk about an event and the last word of the line needs to rhyme with began

Line 8: Talk about an event and the last word of the line needs to rhyme with bad

Stanza 3

Line 9: The holidays are over and third quarter drug on

Line 10: Talk about the friend in line 2 and end with the word ten

Line 11: Talk about an event and the last word of the line needs to rhyme with on

Line 12: Talk about an event and the last word of the line needs to rhyme with ten

Stanza 4

Line 9: Summer is almost here and the end to testing is near

Line 10: Talk about the friend in line 2 and end with the word rule

Line 11: Talk about an event and the last word of the line needs to rhyme with near

Line 12: Talk about an event and the last word of the line needs to rhyme with rule

Example Poem

If the teacher chooses to share this with students, please make sure to point out to the students the stanzas and the rhyme scheme.

Reflection Poem

Walking into the school doors on the first day

My good friend Jen met me in the hall

A text or two or ten or twenty and my heart belonged to Jay

My math teacher hates me and the quarterback drops ball

Days turned into weeks and second quarter began

Jen talked behind my back, making my day super bad

Jay moved on to Zoe, and I need a new man

Math is drag and my favorite new fashion statement is plaid

The holidays are over and third quarter drug on

Jen and I made up, our friendship was a ten

The slam-dunk star held my hand and his name was Jon

Order of operation kicked my butt -- again

Summer is almost here and the end of testing is near

Jen helped me with algebra by following the rule

Ben danced with only me and my heart wanted to cheer

My vacation plans are set, summer will be so cool