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      Writing a poem: How difficult can it be?
      Submitted by asligokturk on 4 February, 2012 - 12:15
      Many bloggers (MerveOflaz, Singerina, ElenaNikitina, BarriSilverberg, VictoriaKamchatka, Gulnur and Natalya2000, English12345) wrote about poems and teaching ideas using poetry, such as poem rendering sessions. I really liked the posts and I realized that I never use poetry. I think that’s because in my mind writing poetry was the mission impossible. We always write academic essays, paragraphs, response and genre usually does not change. After reading post about poems I thought that poetry could help students to express themselves in a different, motivating and powerful way. Merve’s acrostic poem dedicated to blogathon and Singerina’s suggestion-Haiku were like the light at the end of the tunnel. They inspired to make use poetry to provide students with chances of extensive writing. I read about some other practical ideas in Harmer’s How to Teach Writing. Stem/Frame poems: All you need to do is complete stems or frames given. For example: I like….because….. I like….because….. I like….because….. But I hate … because…. Metaphor Generators: This time instead of describing something literally all one needs to do is use metaphors. For instance: First think about a person/a thing you love/like, and then complete the given sentences. You are … (write about your subject as if they were a kind of delicious and yummy food) You are… (write about the subject as if they were a kind of weather) You are… (a kind of furniture) You are… (kind of transport) You are…(a kind of clothing…etc.) Thanks for the inspiration!
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      evab2001's picture
      evab2001
      Dear AslıI love poems and it
      Submitted on 4 February, 2012 - 19:15

      Dear Aslı

      I love poems and it is such a great tool for drilling preventing boredom. I love shape poems, skeleton poems all forms which can be adapted to the lesson.

      Thanks for sharing

      Eva

      nahla_shaw's picture
      nahla_shaw
      reply
      Submitted on 4 February, 2012 - 20:17

      Dear Asli,

          Thank you for the ideas. I agree that poetry is very important. For some students it comes naturally, but for others it is very difficult, which is why giving them a structure to work with makes it easy.

       

      Nahla

      asligokturk's picture
      asligokturk
      @Eva: Skeleton Poem
      Submitted on 4 February, 2012 - 22:20

      Dear Eva, I am very curious now.. What is a skeleton poem? 

      You said it well; preventing boredom... I will try using poetry more since that I read about lots of good teaching suggestions. :)

      asligokturk's picture
      asligokturk
      @Nahla
      Submitted on 4 February, 2012 - 22:22

      Hello Nahla, it is also very difficult for me and thanks to creative and intelligent framework for writing poetry I have the courage to try it out! :)

      singerina's picture
      singerina
      Way to go Asli! Good examples
      Submitted on 4 February, 2012 - 22:26

      Way to go Asli! Good examples of poetry methods which are a sort of "easy" starters. I am going to use it as well. I will put the link to your post on my post as well so people see it ;)

      asligokturk's picture
      asligokturk
      @Singerina
      Submitted on 4 February, 2012 - 23:40

      Dear Singerina,

      Thank you for the encouragement and courtesy of giving link to this post.

      :)

      singerina's picture
      singerina
      Any time dear friend! ;)
      Submitted on 5 February, 2012 - 11:34

      Any time dear friend! ;)

      evab2001's picture
      evab2001
      Dear @Aslı,İt is the same
      Submitted on 5 February, 2012 - 13:46

      Dear @Aslı,

      İt is the same thing with stem/frame poems :)

      BarriSilverberg's picture
      BarriSilverberg
      Poe Eh? Tree
      Submitted on 5 February, 2012 - 18:08

      You started your classroom poems from the trunk.

       

      I'm going to start from the leaves:

       

      You get the class to do rhyme brainstorms:  one group elicits rhymes for  Tea.

      another with Hi, and so on for several long vowels, short vowels, vowel sound plus letter, CVC,

      bam, Sam, lam.....         hit mit fit...    Slime, lime,time,

      Now you have the rhymes: make some poems!  This can be a l ot of fun and as a fringe benefit, you can review short and long vowels,  'r-'controlled syllables, and more!

      asligokturk's picture
      asligokturk
      @BarriSilverberg
      Submitted on 5 February, 2012 - 18:46

      Hello, your activity is on my agenda of "try it out ASAP

      Thank you. :)