One Crazy Summer

Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

Form Poetry

In this activity, students are asked to select a poetic form and use it to write a poem based on one of the novel’s themes.

1968 was a year of chaos and upending of the status quo. Much like art, revolution and evolution can be messy and full of expression, and can spill over society’s pre-determined “lines.” At the same time, artists, including poets, use limits or constraints to challenge themselves to create something original and unique. Poetry is Nzila’s art and her life’s work, and at the novel’s end, at least one of her daughters shows the potential to write poetry. 

Using one of the poetic forms below, or a poetic form you already know, write a poem based on one of the novel's four themes: 1968, Children and the Black Liberation Movement, Mothers and Daughters, or The Importance of Naming.

• Acrostic
• Haiku
• Tanka
• Elegy
• Villanelle
• Narrative
• Soliloquy/Monologue
• Sonnet

As an additional challenge, you might choose to write your poem from the point of view of one of the novel’s main characters: Delphine, Vonetta, Fern, or Cecile. For example, what would Fern have to say about the summer of 1968? Which poetic form would best allow her to get her message across? Have fun with the possibilities, and don’t be afraid to try something that might not come out perfect! 

Teaching Suggestion: The purpose of this activity is to challenge students to engage with and express an understanding of the novel’s themes through poetic expression. Writing from the point of view of one of the novel’s characters offers an added challenge. Students might also need additional support understanding the different forms of poetry, or additional time to research the historical context of 1968 if they choose to address that theme. 

Differentiation Suggestion: For a more kinesthetic/visual approach, teachers might provide copies of a few randomly selected pages of the novel and allow students to create cut-out poetry or erasure poetry in response to this activity.

Paired Text Extension: “Nikki-Rosa” By Nikki Giovanni 

As you write your poem, consider the tension between historical re-tellings and real lived experiences. What does Giovanni’s poem, published in 1968, say about the lived experience of people in this period? Reflect on historical accounts of “strife” and “struggle” in contrast to people’s day-to-day reality (especially people of color, and especially Black people in America).

How might this perspective prompt you to revise your poem?

Teaching Suggestion: Sharing this poem with students will challenge them to more deeply understand the balancing act that Williams-Garcia performs by telling a story about a family set in one of the most revolutionary years/decades in American history. The poem might be helpful to share with students after they’ve written the first draft of their own poems. This reading can also prompt a class discussion about authority in storytelling: Who should convey details, emotions, and conflict—the person writing about the past from the present with no lived experience other than their own, or the person who lived through the events in real-time? What is the power of writing poetry or creating other art that pulls directly from one’s lived experience? How can our art, recordings, journals, etc. inform future generations?