Before the holidays I was lucky enough to attend a workshop with Jill Eggelton in our school hall. It was nice to be able to put a face to the name that so often crops up at reading time! She spoke a lot about the importance of poetry to the point of SATURATION. She considered it an integral part of the literacy programme promoting creative and critical thinking encouraging children to think and imagine as poetry "wears what it fancies." I enjoy teaching poetry both in the writing and reading sense. I find the boys I have taught like that in writing poetry they are not expected to write much. The actual craft of poetry is often more challenging then a straight recount but the length makes it seem more achieveable to most. It was interesting that she touched on having a collection of little chants or raps to perform to get children used to that natural rhyhm of a chant or rap and the rhyme found in nursery rhymes that so many children can no longer recite off by heart. At the time my class were learning about sound and gearing up for our sharing assembly with the Middle Syndicate and parents I had taught my kids a little chant
"I eat a strawberry
pop it in a bite.
Eat it with some ice-cream
oh it tastes just right!"
The reason for learning the chant was to teach the difference between beat and rhythm. So half the class clapped a steady clap to create the beat while the other half recited the chant to create the rhythm.
She used the example of the Copycat Rap which I am keen to use as much as a singing activity as a reading and listening to the rhythm of the chant activity.
Jill was very much for FREE VERSE over giving them a particular structure to work within the confines of. I do still think that it is important that we expose children to different styles of poetry so that they can choose when one might be appropriate for what they are writing. As well as for those students who struggle to get started often they need some structure to flow because free verse is way to broad. However I will experiment with some more free verse to get the creativity flowing. I have recently signed my class up to the literacy shed (with the idea of opening their blogs up to a wider audience) but it has some cool images that could be used to inspire poetry along with images from Worth1000.
Jill talked about having a picture/photo to inspire children to create a poem about. She then used the idea of creating a thought picture and say the photo was of a tree the children would write to them not about them.
The elements of poetry that Jill went over were;
-Rhyme-letting the words sing
-Rhythm
-Sound of words-such as alliteration, soft words, hard words, lovely words etc.
-Imagery-using personification, similes etc
-Meaning-having emotion to reach the eye, the ear and the heart
-Word order and choice-to get the most out of the limited words on the page
-Tone to bring the poem to life
-Senses-using the five senses in creating poetry
Two quotes that I really liked from her talk that I will end on are "Poetry will dance in a child's head long after the words are finished." And "Future is the past returning through another gate."
"I eat a strawberry
pop it in a bite.
Eat it with some ice-cream
oh it tastes just right!"
The reason for learning the chant was to teach the difference between beat and rhythm. So half the class clapped a steady clap to create the beat while the other half recited the chant to create the rhythm.
Copy me cat! … Come on and rap! …
Copy that boogie … Copy that clap …
Fingers that click … And feet that tap …
Twist your tongue round the copycat rap, yeah
Rap, rap, copycat, copycat rap! …
Verse 2
Put a bit o’ rhythm … In the gap …
Be a drum machine … Pow! and Zap! …
Bounce your lips round the copycat rap, yeah
Rap, rap, copycat, copycat rap! …
Copy me cat! … Come on and rap! …
High voice
Low voice
Quiet voice
Copy me cat! … Come on and rap! …
Copy me cat! … Come on and rap! …
Copy me cat! … Come on and rap! …
OH YEAH? … We’re DONE! … OVER and OUT! …Teaching poetry does give children a love for language, they love discovering that oh the last word of each line rhymes, and in turn we expose children to the power of words. Jill was very much for FREE VERSE over giving them a particular structure to work within the confines of. I do still think that it is important that we expose children to different styles of poetry so that they can choose when one might be appropriate for what they are writing. As well as for those students who struggle to get started often they need some structure to flow because free verse is way to broad. However I will experiment with some more free verse to get the creativity flowing. I have recently signed my class up to the literacy shed (with the idea of opening their blogs up to a wider audience) but it has some cool images that could be used to inspire poetry along with images from Worth1000.
Jill talked about having a picture/photo to inspire children to create a poem about. She then used the idea of creating a thought picture and say the photo was of a tree the children would write to them not about them.
The elements of poetry that Jill went over were;
-Rhyme-letting the words sing
-Rhythm
-Sound of words-such as alliteration, soft words, hard words, lovely words etc.
-Imagery-using personification, similes etc
-Meaning-having emotion to reach the eye, the ear and the heart
-Word order and choice-to get the most out of the limited words on the page
-Tone to bring the poem to life
-Senses-using the five senses in creating poetry
Two quotes that I really liked from her talk that I will end on are "Poetry will dance in a child's head long after the words are finished." And "Future is the past returning through another gate."
Verse 1
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