Poetry in a Pot...
May. 1st, 2009 04:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
deltamissWhat 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.
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(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-01 10:45 pm (UTC)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)
Date: 2009-05-01 11:38 pm (UTC)I'm hoping the process of haiku will help them think abstractly. Eighth graders are soooooo concrete!