One poem yields many projects; for instance, a poem can supply a narrative line, characters, back story, plot and foreshadowing. Since advanced middle school students need to remember the devices that they discover in future classes, they can record their findings in journals, using narrative forms for creative writing, dramatic forms for presentation or original poetic forms.
Advanced middle school poetic-device activities should occur at the pre-reading and analysis steps to acclimate students to high school models. In pre-reading, a teacher models in-class presentations to show what her students will do in later projects. Themes can include what makes the poem work, why people like poetry, other related poems and academic vocabulary. For example, a poem like Robert Frost's “Stopping by Woods” can begin with students standing apart, silent, with the room dark. Then they write a journal response describing the experience in similes, such as: "Being alone is like hugging air."
In the analysis step, activities become more ambitious. A resource guide from poetryfoundation.org called “Dream in Color” that targets advanced middle school students suggests assigning poetic devices to students in a circle; the students “act out” the devices with the poetic lines. Another method for this age group is reader’s theater, where students pick two poems and then read and explain the devices in presentations. A third activity is to have students create a poem out of a device such as a metaphor, for example: “Fear is a hungry lion disturbing my sleep.” Other devices to use are alliteration, where all lines begin with the same consonant -- "love is a lingering lyric" -- and onomatopoeia -- “buzz, fizz, bang, gurgle” -- to show emotional states, such as: "My anger sounds like a buzz saw."
Prompts should center on two ideas -- what a poem means and what devices the poet uses to show this meaning. If students can achieve proficiency in these activities, they will have a great advantage in moving on to high school honors and advanced placement classes where on-demand essays ask similar questions. Students will become better listeners and critical thinkers as they learn to explain, compare and contrast, describe, quote and analyze poetry.