Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices by Paul Fleischman

Do your young readers know that poems can be performed as a team? They listen to a few examples from Paul Fleischman's book Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices, paying attention to how the how readers work together. They examine the roles of different speakers in a poem and perform a contrastive analysis of the two voices. Unfortunately, this exercise is based on a poem called "Pickles and Gummy Bears," but the link may not work and the poem text isn't readily available online. Consider using another example, or writing one yourself. The class practices this style by collaboratively writing two-voice poem on sandwiches, and there is a graphic organizer you could hand out to allow partners to write and practice an original piece.