I purchased and placed two fresh artichokes on the corner of my desk for a couple of days. Fascinating to see the responses of the students to such a small gesture. One student walked in, grabbed the artichokes and with one in each hand pretended to be be a cowboy from the Wild West, his artichokes tucked at his side. Later that day, another student walked in, picked up the artichokes, danced about and commented, “These are like nature’s maracas!” I couldn’t have imagined a better lead-in for a unit on Ode to the Artichoke, renowned poem by Pablo Neruda. Students naturally laid the groundwork for the unit by envisioning the artichoke as something other than an ordinary vegetable. Via various recitation activities, seventh graders experienced first-hand the dramatic transformation of Artichoke the Vegetable into Artichoke the Warrior as depicted by Neruda. Once capturing the basic gist of the transformation, students were then challenged to master the art of translation, drafting their own personal take on Neruda’s work. Student artists were also asked to create an Extreme Artichoke Makeover visual to accompany their literature. Just when we thought the unit was over, students thought it would be fun to do our own version of a “flash mob” and barge into the eighth grade Humanities class without warning to present our final dramatization of the poem to a knowing, appreciative audience.