Poetry homework

Poetry homework

Ode to my mobile phone (FYI Nokia 6500 slide)

Thy shiny sleek exterior,
Is pleasing to the eye,
Screaming and pulsating,
A text message is nigh

Through my sleepy haze,
You rudely awake me with a beep,
No, no I must deny thee,
My eyes close tightly.

Thy ringtone is music to my ears,
Where for art thou my sweet mobile phone?
Alas a distraction in class,
Perchance did I leave you at home?

I pray we shall always be as one,
Together with Sim card and Wap ability,
Behold my sweet modern device,
How did I ever cope without thee?


Inspiration from Imagery

Home is a complicated jigsaw puzzle
Made of many pieces
It must have a solid framework to hold everything in
Each piece is unique and has its own place
It cannot be forced into another space
When everyone joins hands and works together
Only then can the puzzle be complete.

Using Non-fiction to inspire

All this talk of doom and gloom
No more heady glory and boom
Who is willing to take the blame?
Who is willing to name and shame?
Is the fault of the greedy bankers?
Ruthlessly aiming to compete on the bottom line?
Or irresponsible spenders living on credit?
Always to spend way beyond their limit
Or the politicians busy blaming each other
Trying to sway the public to vote their way
It doesn’t matter; the credit crunch is here to stay
It will be a harsh lesson and we will all pay.


Inspiration from sound

Your sweet chirping is music to me
Full of sweetness and charm
Full of passion and yet intoxicatingly calm
Oh how I wish I could understand your gossip
As you chitter chatter twitter twatter all day long.


Inspiration from perspective – penguin on a melting ice cap

This is my home
This is my ice
This is where we dive and skive
Why is there more water than yesterday?
Why does it feel like my home is slowly melting away?
It feels too warm
But I want to waddle and play
My feet are running out of places to stand on
Seems like my world is slowing shrinking from underneath me
Why would this happen?
When I haven’t changed my way of living
My once happy feet feel don’t feel like dancing
A feeling of forebode descends around me
Will I soon be
Extinct


Using rhyme to inspire

I can’t get no sleep
I don’t want to start counting sheep
I know I should have prepared much better
Instead I have chosen to procrastinate and dither
And now I have to write lots of poetry
But at least I have been inspired by the blizzard
For shizzle my nizzle and twizzle
Can you tell I have fizzled?
And no longer
Have the time to
Complete the rhyme....zzzzzz



Children writing poetry

I found that giving me a topic to work with provided me with a framework to write in and was easier than trying to think of a topic myself. I enjoyed writing the Ode as it gave me a chance to play around with ‘old English’ and to incorporate that into a poem about a modern day device. I also enjoyed writing the poem about non-fiction as again it provided me with a basis for how I wanted my poem to sound. I was surprised at how easy it felt to write the poem after reading an article about the credit crunch as it allowed me to express my thoughts and feelings on the subject.
I found it very hard to write on demand, however after I had set my mind on the task it seemed to get easier and I really enjoyed it. I was most challenged by the last task of writing from perspective as I had never thought in those terms before. It was hard to try and express the views of a penguin using English and I also felt the same when writing using inspiration from sound.
In order for a teacher to develop from these starting points, I think it would be a good idea to give examples of poetry using these techniques, especially by introducing sound and visual aids. I did feel inspired to write by using the internet to get images of penguins and reading up about the melting ice caps to try and get a feel from the penguin’s perspective. Sounds and images are strong aides for developing ideas and trying to get a feel for the tone and expression of the poem. A teacher could also try and develop ideas for the class as a whole by doing a class brainstorming session to get words and images up on the board. I developed most of my ideas by writing down words associated with the subject to try and get some ideas together then experimenting with the words for a draft. They could share their first draft ideas as a class and children could perhaps work in groups to try and develop the poems further and extend any ideas explored. For the final presentation, the poetry could be developed to include pictures which should be displayed up in the classroom so that children can share their poems with each other and also take pride in their work.

Directed Task with KS2 class to write poetry

Poetry task to write about their favourite person.
Learning intention: To develop their expressive writing skills.
The lesson would begin by asking the class as a whole to give me examples of their favourite celebrity would ask what particular qualities they like about their chosen person from physical appearance to personality qualities and put these words on the board. I would provide an example of my role model and provide an image of them as well as listing the qualities that I like as well as video clip. I would then ask the children to develop their own brainstorm based on their chosen person using words to describe them. If possible I would also ask the children to find images of their famous person and use this when developing their ideas. They would be give 20 minutes to develop their ideas into a poem which and then develop this into a poster/collage to be displayed in the classroom.