Abstract
One of the great challenges in education is engaging students and facilitating their connection to the material they are learning. The disconnection between students and curriculum that is often evident in education can be repaired by allowing students to add their own voice to subject content. Found poetry is one way to bridge the gap. It is formed by taking powerful words and phrases from text and reframing them in poetic form. The purpose of this project is to explore the use of the teaching strategy of found poetry as a means of fostering students’ personal connection to the curriculum. This process also serves to improve both academic language acquisition and reading comprehension of expository text. A teaching supplement using found poetry across grade levels and subjects is the culmination of this project. This handbook was developed to provide a model for educators as they implement found poetry into their classrooms as a means of improving student engagement and comprehension and encouraging critical thinking. This cross curricular guide was drawn from personal experience, from research into the power of vocabulary in building comprehension, and from a variety of lesson plans and ideas created by teachers in the field. Found poetry offers a creative way to explore language. It is an innovative method that can effectively bridge the gap between student and content. Adding the strategy of found poetry into a well-balanced curriculum provides one more means to engage students in the written word.