Blackout Poetry Revolutionizes Assessments in the History Classroom

I've been utilizing blackout poetry as a means of assessing knowledge for a few years now because it's one of the best ways to assess deep understanding of a topic. Yesterday's classwork was no exception.

I've never used music from the hit musical "Hamilton" in my classroom before. I've wanted to but planning lessons seemed daunting because, frankly, many of the songs aren't student-friendly. I located a friendly version and decided to take the plunge--I'm so glad I did! We listened to and annotated the song two days ago and then wrote our poems yesterday.

We are studying the New Nation and the seeds of discord surrounding Hamilton and Jefferson. The song "Cabinet Battle #1" tells the story of the negotiations into paying off state debts in the Northern states, creating the National Bank, and the creation of Washington DC (exciting, right?) I've never particularly cared for teaching this time period but I do now, thanks to this song.

My teaching colleague suggested a blackout poem--she was right, it was the perfect way to process the material. Blackout poetry makes the writer break down a piece of writing and rebuild it in a unique way. Student Historians could break down anything from a speech to, in this case, a song. 

Students needed to start with an Anchor Word (or Phrase) that would summarize the events. I've decided that it's more useful to refer to the word as a Lighthouse Word because that word becomes the beacon that lights the way to a meaningful poem. Once the word is selected students build their poem about the topic. 

This excerpt is very telling of the open-endedness of this assessment. Vicki and Saima created a play on words--plant refers to Jefferson's views, money refers to Hamilton's. These students were able to create an entirely new meaning of the situation in their poem. Simply outstanding!

Blackout poetry writing never, ever ceases to amaze me. Students are incredibly on-task every hour, there's such a positive energy in the room, and we are all working hard: students when they're composing and me when I'm asked by excited students to read what they've wrote. I need to really focus and see if what they're creating makes sense. It's a win-win situation. If a "rework" is needed we talk about areas of improvement and they edit and repeat the process.

Blackout poetry is a creative activity with a huge payoff. Please try it in your classroom soon and let me know what you think!