Searching ......
Teacher provides students with stimuli, such as a walk, run, shout, play, lie in the grass).
Students brainstorm words to describe the experience (verbs, adjectives, adverbs, nouns).
Students use the words from the brainstorm to create a poem. The focus is on putting the words together to create word pictures.
Students can, if they wish, develop these word-collection poems using more of their own ideas and creativity.
Students shape their poems into a form of their choice to share the feelings and images associated with the poem. First drafts are discussed in pairs and groups, edited and re-worked.
Students draw on the same recollection to write a short feature or letter to inform their audience or set out a point of view that arises from the experience. The focus is on the differences in language use for different purposes.
Students warm up with appropriate Theatre Games.
The teacher leads students in a movement exercise. Students explore how they can make their bodies
The teacher leads the students in movement exercise that concentrates on the movement of weather, seasons, animal and plant life.
Students divide into groups of 4-5. As a group they explore two poems with movement images. (Each student is given a role within the group. Two students are responsible for reading a poem aloud each and the other two students take it turn to facilitate discussion.)
Teacher brings class together for oral feedback of group discussion.
Students return to group. They prepare a presentation of one poem to give to the class. The students must use movement, and every group member is to be involved.
Students write expressively. Focus is on using images of movement.
From all the poems and writing the students have done, each chooses one of their own poems to prepare for publication. Several of the stylistic suggestions from Writing for Publication will be useful in the drafting process. See also Poetry Express.
Final edit and re-write done; final copy made.
Publication possibilities: class book, folio, library, student newspaper, Surfing the Net with Kids.
Publication could include a static image, computer skills, work on a similar theme in another genre.
Consider also:
Class Poetry Slams
Did You See That Poem?
Outline the unit to the students. If possible have students in groups enter the word "war" into a variety of search engines. Allocate a different search engine to each group, such as:
Based on a quick scan of the first 5 sites returned by each search engine, have each group report back their answers to the following questions:
Students need to be informed of the events that took place at Gallipoli. Use the for teacher reference. The ideas and techniques will hopefully be discussed by the students during the groupwork carried out.
Students then view the film, the teacher pausing at times to discuss what is happening. At the end of each viewing session, students should write a summary of the incidents that took place.
group_work (RTF 39KB) in mixed ability groups, students discuss the questions based on the film "Gallipoli" and develop a group poster of the information they come up with. A group report back is needed.
Notes on the visual and verbal features used in film are essential when studying the film. Notes on these should be provided to the students, particularly as they will need to use them to write the essay in the assessment section. A handy way to teach these skills is by using the video "Snail's Pace" by Grant Lahood and the accompanying written work for students. This can be found in the package "Take Five" which deals with short films in schools.
Students should be aware that it is not only poetry that allows people to express their views and feelings in a particular era. Song lyrics are poetry, and they have expressed the emotions and beliefs of many generations, particularly their attitudes to war. Have these attitudes changed over time? With a look at some of the lyrics used over time about war, students can make their own assessment.
A collection of these lyrics can be looked at, as well as some close reading of a few of them.
If students or teachers wish to go beyond the study of WW1 and the war poets and songs of this time, they can look at Poetry and Music about the American Civil War.
The Trenches on the Web site features Italian war poetry and provides a further link to the German war poets.
Instead of using the war approach to the conflict study, possible tangents include: * Novel - The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. The film could be used as as a visual language approach. This could also provide a link into short story with On the Sidewalk Bleeding and The Last Spin by Evan Hunter. They also have a gang conflict theme. They deal with teenage issues of gangs, belonging, sense of self and identity. * Novel - Z for Zachariah by Robert C. O'Brien. This deals with the nuclear theme and a short story emphasis could be added with The Weapon by Frederic Brown and Peter Appleton's The Responsibility poem. These help to question the students' beliefs in the nuclear issue.
Teacher Anne Girven
YEAR
LEVEL
DURATION
Achievement Objective Being Assessed
Learning Outcomes
Processes
Supporting Achievement Objective
Select and adapt these learning activities to best meet the needs of your students, and to fit the time available:
Learning task 1
Learning task 2
Learning task 3
Gather and display a poetry (RTF 5KB) : rhymes, ballads, free verse, narrative poems, nonsense poems, limericks, haiku.
Throughout the unit students to independently read a selection of poetry and keep a record of poems read.
Poetry Express
Students select a poem they enjoy and prepare a presentation of it for their group.
self_assessment (RTF 570KB)
assessment (RTF 7KB)
Students use these skills for writing poems in a selected form. Students share and respond to the poems of others in small groups.
A class anthology could be made and illustrated using the students' writing. See an student_poems (RTF 2MB) of student work.
Read the ballad "The Death of Ben Hall" (School Journal 1991 Pt 4 No. 3)Discussion:
Writers have many ways of making words come alive. Look for them in the ballad "Ben Hall". List the language (simile, metaphor, alliteration, onomatopoeia, personification, repetition) that has been used to describe Ben Hall/Mike Connolly/the bushrangers. Share with class.
Map/timeline the various stages in the plot to arrest Ben Hall.
Design a "wanted" poster using verbal and visual features appropriate to the time and setting of this poem.
In groups select, prepare and rehearse part of this poem to present to the class. Decide whether you will use props and what they might be.
Read other ballads, narrative poems and compare - in what ways are they the same/different?
Discuss the history of rap. Students to listen to a rap. Discuss issues usually communicated in rap. Students create their own rap based on their feelings, emotions, or issues they feel strongly about. Share with the class.
Suggested starter - Red Riding Hood: Walking in the woods, early one day I saw Red Riding Hood coming my way... Other nursery rhymes can be used to create a rap.
Read a selection of haiku poems either shared, guided or independently.
Discuss the format and brainstorm ideas for writing. Record suggestions. In pairs or individually write a haiku, edit and illustrate. Student to choose whether to publish their work.
Encourage students to select words that create a particular mood or feeling and to refer to a thesaurus to find a better/alternative word.
Haiku: Teaching Japanese Poetry Writing Haiku (ARB username and password required to view this resource)
Read a selection of poems. Discuss format and the use of adjectives, action verbs, adverbs, nouns, synonyms. Students to shape, write, edit and share their writing in this form with their group.
Encourage students to read/recite poems in different and entertaining ways, for example chanting, raps, whispers, echoes. Explore the language of a variety of poetry forms, use of similes, metaphors alliteration, onomatopoeia.
Poetry to be shaped and written in any form and on any theme/topic. Brainstorm and chart ideas, for example windsurfing, computers, hunger, pain, memories, smells ...
Students to select a poem they enjoy, and prepare a presentation of it for the group, either independently or with a partner. This could be their own writing.
Teacher models the following process:
Model writing a character_sketch (RTF 6KB) using their mind map/brainstorm.
The language_features (RTF 22KB) of the teacher's writing should be discussed and students encouraged to make suggestions for ways to improve the sketch.
Assessment task:
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