YOU ARE A POET, DID YOU KNOW IT?

YOU’RE A POET ,DID YOU KNOW IT?



Here is a technique that can turn any group of students into poets.It is entertaining and may even provide insights into sentence grammar and how sentences can come together to form texts.



Step 1: Introduce the idea of poetry by asking students to name poets from different countries.At the end add the students’ names to the list.



Step 2:Cut up scrap paper into strips big enough to write on eline on.Give some strips (five or so depending on time)to each student.



Step 3:Ask the students to take one of strip and put it in a box or bag.Give the students some kind of instructionfor writing the sentence-there are many possibilities.Here are some examples:



…Write a sentence using the simple present/present perfect/simple past/etc…

…Write a question

…Write a sentence using a conditional

…Write a sentence starting:Have you got…/Yesterday…/Where ……etc.

…Write a sentence starting:He…/She…/It…./We…../I saw…

…Write a sentence about something you like.

…Write down three adjectives/adverbs/nouns.

…Write down three words beginning with the same letter or three words that sound similar.

…Write three words or a sentenceto do with love/school/the future.



Step 4:Repeat the procedure with more sentences.



Step 5:In small groups(2,3,4 students) students take six lines of poetry out of the bag or box.



Step 6(optional)Students can correct the sentences they have chosen.It is easier for some students to identify others’ errors than their own.



Step 7:Students decide which order to put the sentences in to create the best sounding poem.Even though the sentences are chosen completely by chance ,patterns stil emerge.Patterns can be based on meaning,for example moving in time from past to present to future.



Step 8:Students decide on a title fort he poem and stick it and the sentences, or write out the poem, on a piece of paper.



Step 9:Students look at each others’ poems or read them out loud.



Step 10(optional)Discuss the way the sentences fitted together.