And....action!
I love sharing two-voice poems with students because they are so fun to perform aloud.A two voice poem is:
- written from two perspectives, showing two objects, creatures, or people in conversation
- meant to be performed by two readers
- often divided into columns
- The right column, read by one performer, shows the first perspective.
- The left column, read by another performer, shows the second perspective.
- The middle column (often in bold font) shows ideas the two speakers share in common. It is read by both performers at the same time.
Market.
"Wild Dreams in Two Voices" is also a mask poem, or a poem where the poet wears the "mask" of something that doesn't usually talk. I have students where a zebra and dinosaur mask while performing this poem. (Make your own zebra and dino masks with the template I provide in my Fresh-Picked Poetry Activity Guide.)
"Serengeti Taxi Service" is a two-voice poem that I wrote when I competed as an "authlete" in the 2020 Madness Poetry Competition.
Compare and Contrast
Introducing students to two-voice poems can boost important literacy skills, like understanding different perspectives and comparing and contrasting. After reading two-voice poems, I fill out this Two-Voice Venn Diagram with students. Using the poem as evidence, we determine how the speakers are alike and different.
And...write!
Two-voice poems are also my favorite type of poem to write. What would a spoon say to a fork? A lawn mover to a blade of grass? Imagining conversations between two objects (or people) and then turning them into poems is loads of fun. To make the two-voice format even more accessible to students, I created this Two-Voice Poetry Template.
Here is a two-voice conversation, created by a second grade class, between peanut butter and jelly.
Follow this step-by-step Two-Voice Poetry Lesson to share the fun of two-voice poems with your students.
About Michelle Schaub
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