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
