![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Poetry in a Pot...
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.
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.
no subject
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.
:)
no subject
I'm hoping the process of haiku will help them think abstractly. Eighth graders are soooooo concrete!