Poetry in a Pot...

[deltamiss]

What a week!

For the Poetry in a Pot project the students have to write a haiku. It is a difficult form of poetry, at best, but for some reason the kids enjoy them. I use the traditional model of three lines, five-seven-five syllables, about nature and with a contrast. By the time I've read two or three dozen, they all begin to sound alike. Next year, the poem comes first...then the pot. It is exhausting trying to guide seventy/eighty kids in writing poetry of any kind, but perhaps if they complete the difficult part first, they'll be more likely to create some fair images.

I have discovered that haiku is an exercise in:

1. Futility if a teacher fully expects to get a top-quality poem. :/

2. Discipline for the student when I am the teacher and he has to edit time and time again.

3. Patience for the teacher when she is working diligently to guide the student to a decent first line.

3. Revelation for the teacher when she discovers a kid who just won't give up no matter how many edits are required.

Only a few of the students have finished their poems, but all have finished the pots. I think they turned out better than last year's group. I really like the use of different textures and colors together. Even the all-leaf pots turned out great. :D



We began a little later this year so the students had more greenery and flowers to choose from. They brought in many, many more blooms than last year's students.

Comments

[bojojoti.livejournal.com]

I like the simplicity of the all-leaf pot. Perhaps you'll share a bit of the poetry?

[deltamiss.livejournal.com]

I really, really like that one, too. A boy did it...very painstakingly. It took him nearly three days! :D

I'll share, but don't expect too much. :D

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

Yes, the leaf pot in the middle is lovely but also like the one featured in the second picture with the purple flowers.

Haiku can be hard but it's hard because of the synthesis of thought required. Still, I find it amusing that they all finished the pots first.
:)

[deltamiss.livejournal.com]

I took four pictures of the one with the purple flowers so I guess I really, really like it, too. ;)

I'm hoping the process of haiku will help them think abstractly. Eighth graders are soooooo concrete!

[jeffholton.livejournal.com]

stillness of poets
looking for inspiration
hear not the T Ching

By the way, I don't know who pondhopper is, but I took this userpic years ago for ntiva. Interesting...

[deltamiss.livejournal.com]

Ha! Coinkidink! :D

Um...I hate to be so technical, but that's not a haiku. It's a senryu. ;)

[jeffholton.livejournal.com]

I dunno what it is.

I like gyoza and sashimi.

[heartmart.livejournal.com]

I thought it was a pun.

[jazzyglo.livejournal.com]

Wow, I'm impressed! Those are lovely.

[deltamiss.livejournal.com]

They are lovely this year, and now my room smells like a garden. :D

[heartmart.livejournal.com]

Wow. They are beautiful! What did you use to stick the bits onto the pots?

On the way home recently, Gabi and I were talking about haiku - I don't even remember why. She and the A-Team tried coming up with some. She had the idea, but they couldn't get past rhyming words. No haiku was born. But it was fun to try.

Getting the form is easy - getting substance is not.

[deltamiss.livejournal.com]

We use plain old Elmer's Glue. It's the only thing I've found that works. I show the kids how it works best if you allow a few seconds to get tacky before applying the leaf or flower. Then I have them put a nice coat on top around the edges the next day.

You're right...the form is easy. Kids are so concrete, though. My students have the worst time with the contrast.

[heartmart.livejournal.com]

Oh, well if white glue works, then I would try Mod Podge. It has the same stickiness, and dries clear - but would seal out moisture and air so the color would last longer - but it would cost a bit more.

They are so pretty, it would be nice to make them last a bit longer.

Any way - I am going to try your pots with the A-Team for Mother's Day gifts! But we will put a flower in them.

OH! I have a friend who used to write haiku on strips of brown paper or parchment - she did it in calligraphy. Then she hung them in the trees with thread. Depending on the season, they would last a few weeks to a few months.

[deltamiss.livejournal.com]

I've thought about buying a couple of jars of Mod Podge just for this project. It's the only one of the year we do that requires white glue. Maureen used to use Mod Podge.

What a neat idea with the haiku!

[heartmart.livejournal.com]

One spring she filled my leafless little crabapple tree with haiku about spring and related topics all on pastel parchment. It was beautiful!

[sandypfeff.livejournal.com]

If it's any consolation, h.s. seniors are also very concrete. They could get the haiku form but rarely wrote any good ones. Have you ever tried limericks with your 8th graders? My seniors really had fun with those although many turned out rather risque! Ha!

[deltamiss.livejournal.com]

Whenever I point out the poem has no contrast, the kids begin using opposites...hard rain/soft soil. It drives me bonkers. No matter how many times I show them an example, they fall back on antonyms. :D

We wrote limericks back in the winter. I had good luck with them last year and the year before, but this year...oh, my! For some reason they can't 'hear' the anapestic rhythm. :/

[sandypfeff.livejournal.com]

Have you tried clapping the rhythm?

I have even done rocking motions to show rhythm. For example, with Frost's "Stopping by Woods. . ."

"My LIT-tle HORSE must THINK it's QUEER
To STOP withOUT a FARMhouse NEAR..."

I would read the whole poem accenting the all cap syllables while rocking as if I were moving to the rhythm of a horse just slowly plodding along. Of course, some kids caught on more easily than others, but by the time I finished reading almost all of them were "riding" along with me.