Sometimes, I don’t give my students much to work with and ask them simply to write a short response called a “two-sentence” essay. The goal is to state an idea clearly in one sentence and follow it up with some detail, maybe even a quotation, in the second sentence, practing the concepts of main ideas and supporting details in the tiniest possible form.
Hope is not always easy or cute. Sometimes it’s a struggle. Sometimes the people most hopeless are “asked to give others hope,” as Ali Liebegott points out in today’s short poem, “Hope.”
After students complete the two-sentence essay, share Ali-Liebegott’s commentary on her own poem, found on the poets.org website link and pictured below.
Tell students to write one more sentence, incorporating something new based on that extra bit of background knowledge form the poet.
Students can share their writing with a table partner (the writing itself, not a synopsis of the writing!) and revise after hearing their work out loud.
If time permits, close with a class discussion: What can each person in a class do to contribute to the hopefulness of the other people in the class? How can we encourage each other?
Looking for more poetry pauses like this one?
Check out my book, Poetry Pauses, from Corwin or from Amazon.
Also, as a companion to this series of posts, check out the re-release of the pre-recorded, thirty-minute webinar, Poetry for the Dark Days with 10 poetry pauses, published in neither the blog nor the book, to help see us through the literal and figurative dark days this winter. It’s available now through November 1, 2025 for download. Once it’s yours, you can watch it at whatever time works best for you.
Note: Amazon links in this post earn a small commission for the author.
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