Press Play: 10 Ways to Gamify Poetry

by Stefani Boutelier

Who doesn’t enjoy a game? Whether a gameboard, a video game, an athletic competition, or a mental challenge–we can all connect to some form of engagement through gamification. 

I have had the pleasure of “playing with ideas” as I’ve been collaborating, learning, and writing with Dr. Sarah Donovan over the last few years on a digital poetry project. This morphed into the book: Teaching Poetry in a Digital World Inspiring Poetry Writing through Technology in Grades 6-12 (published by Routledge in April 2025: Discount Code 25ESA2). My knowledge around human-centered writing and design has increased through my connection with Sarah over the years. I also have networked, learned, hosted, and presented with some of the other amazing educators who regularly participate the Open Writes and beyond. Thank you all and congratulations Sarah and the Ethical ELA community!

To celebrate ten years of the Ethical ELA’s Community of Practice, I am pulling from our book and sharing ten ways to gamify poetic creation.

Gamifying poetry can make the writing and analysis process more interactive and fun. This is also a great take in making poetry more accessible and low-stakes for those who are hesitant to call themselves a poet. 

Let’s play tomorrow

Here are ten gamified strategies to consider implementing immediately in your classroom:

1. Gameboards: Design a poetry-themed board game where players advance by completing writing prompts or analyzing poems. This might be a poetry quest board where landing on certain spaces requires composing a haiku or identifying figurative language. Here is an example centered around e-poetry:

2. Brackets: Set up a poetry tournament where different poems or poets compete based on creativity, theme, or audience votes. This might be a March Madness poetry battle where students vote on their favorite verses in head-to-head matchups (digital poetry bracket example)

3. Metaphor Dice: Use dice with words or phrases that players roll to generate unexpected metaphors for poetic inspiration. This is built from the metaphor dice game. You can have students use the words to practice metaphors and creative writing. As of 2025, the digital dice roll is no longer available (bummer), however, see the randomizer idea below to create your own digital metaphor “dice.”

4. Badging: Award digital or physical badges for writing different types of poems (e.g., sonnet, free verse, limerick). Think of this like micro-learning to squeeze in poetry throughout the school year. You might even have levels like a  “Haiku Master” badge for successfully crafting five original haikus around five different themes.

5. Digital Poetry Escape Rooms: Solve poetry-related puzzles to “escape” a themed challenge, incorporating literary devices and/or poetry analysis. You might be inspired by this paid option (Poetry Review Escape Room) or create your own to unlock multiple codes by analyzing a –fill in the poet or genre. Google Forms is a great place to start.

6. Poetry Scavenger Hunt: Find and match poetic elements in existing works or real-world environments in the analog world. You might even think about place-based alignment and
locate examples of alliteration in public signs, advertisements, or natural occurrences.

7. Tic-Tac-Toe Board: Complete a three-in-a-row poetry challenge with tasks like “write a simile,” “create a rhyming couplet,” or “analyze a stanza.” This strategy works well for all age groups (start your own tic-tac-toe board with this template).

8. Create a Randomizer: Spin a wheel to get randomized poetry challenges or prompts. This might be topic, genre, or length with combinations such as: “nature,” “villanelle,” and “12 lines” to shape a new piece. Flippity’s randomizer is a free and easy tool to try.

9. Quiz Platforms: Turn poetry analysis and terminology into an engaging, competitive quiz game or whole class competition for review. A Kahoot!, Gimkit, or Blooket quiz can test knowledge of poetic devices with points for speed and accuracy all while increasing engagement.

10. D&D Dice Roll: Even if you don’t play Dungeons and Dragons, the dice can inspire gamification in the classroom. Roll dice to determine poem structure, topic, length, etc. If you have a 20-sided die then come up with 20 poetry-themed activities to respond to. Maybe it is a whole class exit tick where you roll a 6-sided die to decide between writing a cinquain, nonet, or sonnet as a summary of the day’s activities.

I look forward to hearing how you used gamified resources and feedback on our newly published book: Teaching Poetry in a Digital World Inspiring Poetry Writing through Technology in Grades 6-12 (Boutelier & Donovan, 2025). Connect with me on LinkedIn or email me sboutelier@gmail.com if you have additional suggestions or to let me know how these work out for you in your classroom.

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Dr. Stefani Boutelier is an Associate Professor of Education at Aquinas College in Michigan. She is also an ISTE Certified Educator and Trainer who teaches courses for pre-service and in-service teachers focused on instructional design, diverse literacy, technology, and research methods. Her K-12 teaching was in Southern California prior to moving into teacher preparation and she has multiple publications in academic and creative genres.