Classroom Poetry Composition Step One: You come up with a topic based on literature. My students had just read "The Purloined Letter" by Edgar Allan Poe. The topic/theme of the piece was REVENGE. I gave the class a 7 minute writing time, and asked them to write four to five lines about what causes a person to want to take revenge on another. Step Two: The teacher has to use his/her creativity. The teacher goes home and takes the best line out of each piece and puts it into a free verse style poem. Repetetive lines become those that repeat themselves in the poem( if several students say the same thing in their individual writings). Step Three: The teacher reads the "Classroom Composition" to the students, making eye contact with each student as she/he reads them their line. A classroom discussion follows the piece addressing: theme, literary components, purpose, meaning, etc. Step Four: The composition is used for analysis on the next classroom test. RESULTS: The students begin to believe that they have a voice. Their work has been put into print, discussed as a viable piece of writing, and placed on an exam. It has been based on the work of a viable author. Thus, they begin to see themselves as author. Following the composition, students are then encouraged to write their own piece as a reader's response to the next piece of literature they study. Here is Semester II Adolescent Literature's CLASSROOM COMPOSITION: REVENGE PAIN IS THE ROOT OF THE EMOTION by Ad Lit II, 2000 They have taken something away from us, Even after we trusted them. We called them FRIENDS- They think they are better than us. They judged us. They picked on us. They got us in trouble. They think they are better than us. They talk badly about us behind our backs. They don't say things to our faces. Then they stab us in our backs. They think they are better than us. They yelled at us. They made smart remarks. Then they sucked up to us. They think they are better than us. They were our best friends. But they abused the situation. Now they look at us in the halls. They think they are better than us. Sometimes we are afraid we'll say something. Sometimes we are afraid we'll do something we shouldn't. Sometimes it makes us so mad. They think they are better than us.