Experimental Enchilada

Jena Gessaman

Culinary Poetry

Identifying nouns, verbs, and adverbs by choosing from a word bank, students may experiment with form and style to create their own visual and verbal art.

This lesson plan works best for elementary grades K-4.

You will need a chalkboard, crayons, scissors, and paper with an experimental enchilada.
I begin by telling the class how hungry I have been all day. I draw 3 big bowls on the chalkboard and ask them to help me with my hunger by filling these bowls with things that will nourish me. I explain that only certain items will satisfy the appetite of a poet and I write noun, adjective, and adverb over the bowls. I ask them if they are hungry and how that makes them feel, what things they like to eat, if they cook and how they make dishes, and how they feel when they are full and satisfied. Using their answers I fill the 3 bowls on the board with words for their experimental enchiladas. You may want to create a drawing to hand out or the students may draw on paper: a circle for a tortilla, a rectangle inside for meat and different shapes representing pieces of lettuce, tomato or cheese with enough space to fit words into the objects. Choosing from the 3 word bowls: nouns are the meat and the adjectives and adverbs are your garnishes. You may mention that a reader or listener is nourished by a good story, that people are hungry for creative ideas, and your job is to give them the whole enchilada, the entire story. Once they’ve filled in the tortilla with nouns, adjectives and adverbs in colors have them cut out the tortilla shape fold it in 3rds and write on the outside a theme for their enchilada. The theme is solely their idea. Then have them pull from the words they chose while using their theme to write a poem on the outside of their experimental enchilada.

15 minutes explanation

30 minutes writing interactive

15 minutes sharing your enchilada

Wrap up by asking: How does it feel to eat your words?

This lesson gives students a visual exercise where writing is interactive with the class. Allowing students to fill the bowls with their words and choose the words they like to make their enchilada gives them confidence. Repeating the words again in a poem based on their own theme reinforces the ability to identify word usage and marry visual and verbal art.

Jena Gessaman became a poet in 1989. Since then she has self-published four books of poems, co-written, produced and directed four multi-media performance art shows and been a member of two National Poetry Slam teams. Her poetry has been featured on television, in films and newspaper articles. Jena enjoys scuba diving, rollerblading and cooking. Her Poetic Salsa has won Honorable Mention at the Austin Chronicle’s Hot Sauce Festival twice. Jena, her husband and two kids are active in the arts community in Austin focusing their efforts on keeping the arts alive in schools.

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