Writing Poems

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Writing Poems

• Teaching your students about poetry by having
  them write poems

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Why have students write poems?

• its fun for the students
• it develops their understanding of the ways in
  which poems work
• it develops their skills in
• using language,
• observing closely and describing precisely, and
• using such poetic elements as rhyme, rhythm, and
  imagery

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Things to do before they begin writing

• lay out the rules for that sort of poem
  (including rhyme, rhythm, line length, total
  number of lines if fixed, and anything about
  subject matter)
• make sure they know what is really important in
  the process

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Things to do before they begin writing

• provide one or more models for students to study
  these should be available to students as they
  write
• talk about the models at some length

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Things to do before they begin writing

• give them time to brainstorm
• give them clear directions about what they should
  include as they do so
• (e.g. be sure to use all five senses in
  brainstorming for a Dream Poem)

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Things to do before they begin writing

• remind them that they can revise--they can wander
  far away from those things they came up with in
  brainstorming

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Where did this stuff come from?
The information that follows comes from Giggle
Poetry at http//gigglepoetry.com/poetryclass.cfm
And the main writer here is the childrens poet
Bruce Lansky.
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I cant write a poem!
I've got a headache. I need to see the nurse.
Time's up? Uh oh! All I have is this dumb list
of excuses. You like it? Really? No kidding.
Thanks a lot. Would you like to see another
one? Bruce Lansky
Forget it.You must be kidding.I'm still half
asleep. My eyes keep closing. My brain isn't
working. I don't have a pencil.I don't have any
paper. My desk is wobbly.I don't know what to
write about. And besides, I don't even know how
to write a poem.
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Roses are red poems
The form of these poems is very familiar and
therefore easy to imitate. Tulips are
red, Hyacinths, pink I dropped the radio Into
the sink.
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Roses are red poems
Gerbils are brown, Parrots are green. The
surgeons by accident Took out your spleen.
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Roses are red poemshow to?
You can start off the students with some very
simple exercises Violets are blue. Roses are
green When we were downtown, __________.
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Roses are red poemshow to?
Purpose give students practice with rhyme and
rhythmand with humor in a poem
Or Roses are red. Violets are blue My
cousin Margie ____________.
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Roses are red poemshow to?
Then put the students to work. Begin by making a
list on the board of color words that are just
one syllable long. These will fit the meter when
substituted for blue.
Lets make a list now.
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Roses are red poemshow to?
Remind the students of the rhythm and the form
write the poem on the board. Then let them loose.
Let their imaginations run wild!
So now go ahead and write.
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And dont forget
Always give your students a chance to read what
theyve written. Always find things to praise in
what theyve done. Try to find positive
suggestions about improvements they might
makebut state these in a cheerful, supportive
way.
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Clerihews
Named for Edmund Clerihew Bentley Sir James
Jeans Always says what he means He is really
perfectly serious About the Universe being
Mysterious
English physicist and astronomer
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Clerihewsthe rules

• They are four lines long.
• The first and second lines rhyme with each other,
  and the third and fourth lines rhyme with each
  other.
• The first line names a person, and the second
  line ends with something that rhymes with the
  name of the person.
• A clerihew should be funny.

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Sample Clerihews
Our art teacher, Mr. Shaw, Really knows how to
draw. But his awful paintings Have caused many
faintings.
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Sample Clerihews
N'Sync Stink. Their music hurts my ears. I
much prefer Britney Spears.
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Sample Clerihews
The President, George W. Bush, Gave the Taliban a
vigorous push. But he couldnt make Osama Cry for
his mama.
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Now its your turn

• Choose someone whose last name
• you can rhyme with
• you know something about
• Think about something funny you can say about
  that person
• Keep in mind the rhyme scheme AABB
• Try it out

Purpose give students experience with rhymes
and form in the context of a specific person
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Yankee Doodle Poems

• Like the Roses are red poems, these make use of
  an entirely familiar form, where rhythm, rhyme
  scheme, line length, and general situation are
  all determined in advance

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Yankee Doodle Poems

• Yankee Doodle went to town
• riding on a monkey. He had to take a shower
  quick, because he smelled so funky.

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Yankee Doodle Poems

• Yankee Doodle went to town riding on a rabbit.
  He rode around in circles 'cause it got to be a
  habit.

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Yankee Doodle Poems

• Y.D. doesnt have to be riding on something
• Yankee Doodle went to town
• Eating tea and crumpets
• Spilled the tea all down his shirt
• When someone blew a trumpet.

Purpose rhyme, rhythm, form
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Yankee Doodle Poems

• Have the students begin by choosing an animal.
• They should make sure that its something they
  can think of a rhyme for
• They should be sure that it will fit in with the
  rhythm (not Yankee Doodle went to town / A
  riding on a Thompsons gazelle)

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Yankee Doodle Poems

• Make sure that they keep the rhythm in mind as
  they work
• DUM da DUM da DUM da da,DUM da DUM da DUM
  da.DUM da DUM da DUM da da,da DUM da DUM da DUM
  da.

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Yankee Doodle Poems

• And give them sufficient time to brainstorm and
  to write.
• Now its your turn.

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Write a Dream Poem
Here's a poem that's fairly easy to write because
it's simply a collection of dreamy images woven
together. All you have to do is imagine some
dreamy place and write down what you'd expect to
see, hear, smell, taste, and feel there. This
poem is in free verse, so you don't need to worry
about rhyme or rhythm.
Purpose give students practice with imagery
and paying attention to all five senses
some attention to a poems unity
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Write a Dream Poem
After tossing and turning for what must have
been an hour or so,I find myself lying on a
tropical beach, the waves gently licking the
sand.I gaze up at the sky and notice some
pelicans soaring and swooping, looking for
lunch.There's a catamaran sailing offshore,
swept by the wind that is cooling my brow. etc.
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Another Dream Poem
Sleepy Thoughts on a Cold Winter Night I'm
cold.I pull my blanket over my head. That's
better. I find a comfortable position and start
breathing slowly.I wonder what it would be like
to be a bear and sleep all winter. I guess
you'd have to have a pretty big last supper, or
you'd have to wake up in January to find
something to eat.. . .
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Another Dream Poem
Sleepy Thoughts on a Cold Winter Night (cont.)
I wonder what it would be like to be a fish
and sleep at the bottom of a lake.I guess you'd
have to have gills, or you'd have to come up to
the surface every ten seconds or soto get a
breath of air. etc.
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A different kind of dream
Every kid needs help with homework. Well, most
of us anyway. So I start an Internet company
called "Homework Helper." I've lined up the
smartest kids in school to explain math and
science, edit papers, and correct homework
before it's turned in. Anyway, as soon as the
kids at school find out, they flock to my
website. When kids from schools around the
country start logging on,I know I'm on to
something. But my parents have no idea what I'm
doing, until the day that a reporter from People
magazine calls my mother and says he wants to
interview her "brilliant" son for their next
issue!
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Time to write your own dream poem!

• Brainstorm first!
• Choose a location or situation to dream of.
• Write down the sights, sounds, smells, feelings,
  and tastes you associate with that setting.

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Lunch for your teacher

• This kind of poem can be lots of fun for the
  students to write
• It gives them a little more liberty than, say, a
  Roses Are Red poem . . .
• . . . and that means they have more
  responsibility, so this one is a bit harder

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Lunch for your teacher

• The idea is to create a yucky, disgusting, and
  thoroughly laughable lunch for a teacher (or
  anyone else, for that matter).
• It would, of course, be possible to create a
  really nice lunch for teacher angel pudding
  with sunlight cream, / a bowl of smiles and two
  dollops of dream
• But yucky is probably better

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Lunch for your teacher

• Begin by listing the nasty ingredients
• Rattlesnake stew
• centipede salad
• seaweed and jellyfish sandwich
• milk mixed with glue
• poohberry pie
• If your students are having trouble with rhyming,
  it can be enough just to have them make up an
  imaginative listpoems dont have to rhyme.

It may help to have the class make a list of
foods that one might eat at lunch salads, soups,
main dishes, vegetables, desserts, drinks
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Lunch for your teacher--model
What Id Serve My Teacher for Lunch (rhyming
poem) If I served hot lunch to my teacher, Id
start off with rattlesnake stew. Then Id serve
her a centipede salad And a tall glass of milk
mixed with glue. Next, a seaweed and jellyfish
sandwichand a large slice of poohberry pie.
When my teacher finds out what shes eaten, I
hope the old bat doesnt die.
Notice the rhyme XAXA XBXB
Notice the rhythm da da DUM da da DUM da da DUM
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Lunch for your teacher

• Once theyve looked at the model, give them some
  time to think about some sort of funny comment
  they might use to finish off the poem
• But nothing too mean!
• Now its your turn to try writing one. Begin
  with listing yucky foods.

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Backwards Poems

• give students a chance to have fun by turning
  things on their heads.
• familiar things, situations, and/or actions that
  are changed to be ridiculous and funny
• putting up the umbrella when the sun shines and
  going swimming in the rain
• eating breakfast before waking up
• calling the dog to get her to run away
• using a paintbrush to eat soup and a spoon to
  paint the walls

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Backwards Poems

• I'm going to give you the first and last couplets
  of a poem by Doug Florian that's published in
  Miles of Smiles. It's called, sensibly enough,
  "Mr. Backward."
• Mr. Backward lives in town.He never wakes up, he
  always wakes down.(Insert your couplets
  here.)He goes to sleep beneath his bedWhile
  wearing slippers on his head.

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Backwards Poems

• This assignment really allows students to use
  their imagination while thinking about the ways
  things actually are. They arent just making
  things up at random, they way they might in other
  poems where silliness is central.

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Backwards Poems

• Be sure to give them guidance and provide models.
  
• Provide a rhythm
• da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM
  da DUM
• And tell them if you expect rhyming (probably a
  good idea here, unless you know the class has
  lots of trouble with rhyme).
• Give them plenty of time to brainstorm.