Two years in a row, we had an artist poet in residence work with our students.
Some of her ideas included:
* "I am" poems- For example: I am a chocolate chip cookie, fresh from the
oven, with a huge bite taken out of me. Keep adding new "I am" lines.
* Pocket Poems- using an item that fits in your pocket, draw a picture of that
item and write a poem from its perspective.
* "Dear" poems. For example: Dear washing machine, where is my brother? From
the red sock.
* Paint chip poems- give the students a paint chip from the hardware store
(cut them apart) and have them work the unusual color names in to a poem.
* As a class, they can do "Trade" poems. One person starts by saying, "I will
trade my straight brown hair for Katie's golden locks that wave like maize in
a field" Then, Katie does her trade, etc.
* Exquisite corpse poems. http://www.exquisitecorpse.com/definition.html
We did this for a poetry night.
* Poems made from words cut from magazines collaged together.
I guess the ideas our poet in residence had were to reinforce that poetry does
not have to be boring or rhyme to be successful.
Denise Pannell
Defiance, OH
>===== Original Message From dougie nicolson <dnicolson@hotmail.com> =====
>Hi Folks
>
>I am looking for simple examples of creative writing lessons that help
>students create poetry. I like using sense poem structure ie I see... I
>hear... I feel... I smell.... I taste.... This simple excercise really
>creates some beautiful poems and students are always surprised with how they
>turn out. List poems are another favourite, but I am looking for other
>techniques that I can try.
>
