Reversal Poem: Fun Form Poetry Activity

A reversal poem is a cool free-verse poem that has a negative message when read top-to-bottom and a positive message when read in reverse, bottom-to-top.

I first saw a poem like this in a commercial that ran a few years ago and I decided to try writing my own reversal poem called "Apathy" to share with my students as a motivational tool on the first day of school. It seemed incredibly complicated at first. But once I got the hang of it, I realized that there are a few grammatical tricks that make the poem work.

This activity is a great way to teach:
* Poetry Writing
* Creative Critical Thinking
* Grammar concepts (subjects, predicates, conjunctions, phrases, and clauses)

The download includes the following:
* An example reversal poem (and links to several others)
* An assignment overview handout
* A topic brainstorm handout
* A four-page writing guide
* And several other overheads / handouts to give students extra scaffolding when writing their own reveral poem

I hope your students have a blast with this. You'll be amazed by the engenious reversal poems they end up creating.

Enjoy, and don't forget to write a review!

Created by Arik Durfee