How To Teach Poetry To Adults

by Jeffrey Norman

Unfortunately, poetry sometimes can petrify. A reputation for ambiguity and pretension has hindered the art form; students, especially adults, can greet a haiku or sonnet with apprehension. But poetry's bad rap can be cleansed for learners. Outstanding poems with manifold satisfying meanings and interpretations do exist -- it's up to educators to locate them and present them to students with grace and optimism. Adults also can benefit from the creation of their own poetic material.

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Maintain a positive, warm attitude. Poems can seem cryptic and inaccessible, and grown-up students can be results-oriented and skeptical about new ideas. This can translate into students who give up on a poem when the meaning is not immediately clear, or the subject of which doesn't seem at first to be important or relevant.

Demonstrate patience and understanding motivated by these reasons. Present the idea of poetry as a set of questions, not as a search for any definite meaning. Clarify what readers should expect in a poem: interesting images, engaging words and sounds, unique ideas and viewpoints -- but no single interpretation set in stone.

• 2. Capitalize on the well-rounded opinions, maturity and independence of adult learners with exposure to many different types and figures in poetry. Diverse material will elicit equally diverse attitudes and thoughts on that material, making for a lively setting where everyone can benefit from the multiple assessments of the work. Encourage students to even bring in poems or collections from poets that they themselves select and offer to the class. This is a way to interest adult learners in poetry while respecting their self-sufficiency.
• 3 .Harness adult learners' capacity for self-direction and life experience by encouraging them to write their own poetry. Expose them to basic elements of poetry: rhyme, image, rhythm, metaphor, alliteration and more. Once they have seen fundamental principles at work and in practice, set them free to create works based on their lives, their imaginations or (ideally) a combination of the two. Remind them that "right or wrong" doesn't exist in poetry. Invite adult students to read their work if they'd like to; don't pressure anyone to expose work before they're comfortable.
  
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Types of Poems for Kids

A poetry composed for kids usually follows a rhythm, the lines rhyme with each other and they are easily understood by them. However, if they know the types of poems they are learning then it shall help them learn quickly and get a better insight at the tender age.

Different Types of Poems for Kids

Kids' poems although might sound similar, are a lot different from one another. Finding out the difference becomes easy when they understand the variation clearly.

Alphabet (ABC)
Each line in the poetry begins with subsequent letters of alphabets. The poetry need not be rhythmic rather the flow of alphabet is given more importance.

Example

A young girl was walking in the rain.
But her umbrella didn't open.
Couldn't run, couldn't hurry,
Dressed in new shoes,
Entered a house full of chocolates.
Found all her friends enjoying them.

Ballad
Ballad is a popular type of children's poem which is rhythmic. The poetry retells a historical event or one can also pen down personal experiences in the form of rhyme.

Example

Little Daddy Longlegs played in the sun,
Climbing up the front steps just for fun.
from Turtle Trouble
Tell me if you think you know
How to make a turtle go.
from Tomorrow's My Birthday
Tomorrow's my birthday and I'll be four
And I won't have to stay home anymore.
from Nature's Shows
Nature puts on little shows
Every time it rains or snows.
from It's Snow Wonder
It's snow wonder that we cheer
Snowflakes when they fall each year ~ Charles Ghigna

Acrostic
This is a typical form of poetry where the first letter of each line form a word itself. The letters are vertically aligned to form a word, which might be the subject of the poem.

Example

Crisp and colorful
Adorable and crunchy
Nice and tasty
Delicious and tempting
Yummy and best

Autobiographical
It's actually an essay about oneself written in the form of a poetry. Your kid can easily pen down an autobiographical poetry by writing about himself in rhythms.

Example

I'm a Jilly Joe
I love to sail and row
I love flying kites
only to end up with fights
My friends hate me
For I'm a wannabe
I love myself
For I'm Jilly Joe

Cinquain
Cinquains are composed of 5 lines. Each successive line has more words than the previous one. The last line again has fewer words, generally re-establishing the concept given by the first line. The first line is a noun or subject of the poem. The lines that follow describe it. Here's an example of the American cinquain, a form developed by Adelaide Crapsey.

Example

Listen...
With faint dry sound,
Like steps of passing ghosts,
The leaves, frost-crisp'd, break from the trees
And fall. ~ from 'November Night' by Adelaide Crapsey

Diamante
This is interesting. A diamante is a diamond shaped poem and it has nothing to do with the content. The following example shall make your concept clear.

Example

'Happy Birthday'
Birthday
Joy, Surprises
Cake, Candles, Balloons, Cards
Party, Laughter, Hugs & Kisses
Sharing, Gifts, Special, Wishes
Special Day,
What Fun! ~ Dr. Maisie M


Rhyming
Rhyming is a kind of poetry having a rhythmic pattern and flowing in the form of couplets, triplets and quatrains. The examples are cited below.

Example

'Couplets'
Twinkle twinkle little star
How I wonder what you are!

'Triplets'
I love my red balloon,
I want it to reach the moon,
To my grandpa very soon. ~ Dr. Maisie M

Color Poems
In this type of poem, you choose a color and relate that color to different types of events and characters.

Example

White is the milk
As tasty as could be.
White are the clouds
Like cotton balls in the sky.
So is the light white
That brightens my day. ~ Dr. Maisie M

Haiku
It's a kind of poem that evolved in Japan and is based mainly on nature. The poetry usually has three lines, wherein the first line contains 3 syllables, the second line 7 and the third line 5. Here's the example of a Haiku poem.

Example

Sick on a journey-
Over parched fields
Dreams wander on. ~ Basho.

Imagery
In this genre, the poet puts forth his/her imagination in the form of a poem. Kids find it amusing because they can pen down their imaginary thoughts randomly. Have a look.

Example

I'm the fairy of my garden
My white wings and golden crown
make me charming.
I can weave magic
with my magic wand.
I'm the fairy of my garden.

Limerick
It's a poetry of 5 lines. The last word of the first, second and the fifth line rhyme, and the last word of third and fourth line rhyme. This way the poetry goes.

Example

There was an Old Man with a flute,
A sarpint ran into his boot;
But he played day and night,
Till the sarpint took flight,
And avoided that man with a flute ~ Edward Lear

Question Poetry
As the name suggests, in this type of poetry several questions are asked to a person or an object. It can be a free verse (without rhyme) or rhyme. Have a look.

Example

Tree
Oh, Tree!
Why are you so sad?
Why aren't you glad?
Did someone hurt you?

Oh, child!
I am sad because my family
has been cut down.
Nobody has hurt me yet!! ~ Shania

Read more at Buzzle: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/types-of-poems-for-kids.html

 

How to Write a Haiku

What is haiku?

Haiku is a Japanese poetry form. A haiku uses just a few words to capture a moment and create a picture in the reader's mind. It is like a tiny window into a scene much larger than itself.

Traditionally, haiku is written in three lines, with five syllables in the first line, seven syllables in the second line, and five syllables in the third line. 

Haiku examples

 

Here's a haiku poem written by a poetry student:

The last winter leaves
Clinging to the black branches
Explode into birds.

Characteristics of haiku

The following are typical of haiku:

• A focus on nature.
• A "season word" such as "snow" which tells the reader what time of year it is.
• A division somewhere in the poem, which focuses first on one thing, than on another. The relationship between these two parts is sometimes surprising.
• Instead of saying how a scene makes him or her feel, the poet shows the details that caused that emotion. If the sight of an empty winter sky made the poet feel lonely, describing that sky can give the same feeling to the reader.

How to write a haiku - try it!

You can use the pictures lower down on this page to give you ideas. In your haiku, try to use details related to the senses -- sight, hearing, touch, smell, or taste. 

Or look out your window, and describe what you see. Try to "zoom in" on a small detail that contains the feeling of the larger scene.

Or follow the steps below to write a "surprise-ending haiku." This is based on an exercise from the poet Ron Patchett which is described in The Haiku Handbook by William J. Higginson:

1. Write two lines about something beautiful in nature. You can use the pictures below to give you ideas. Don't worry about counting syllables yet.
2. Write a third line that is a complete surprise, that is about something completely different from the first two lines.
3. Look at the three lines together. Does the combination of these two seemingly unrelated parts suggest any surprising relationships? Does it give you any interesting ideas?
4. Now rewrite the poem, using the 5-syllable, 7-syllable, 5-syllable format and experimenting with the new ideas or perspectives that have occurred to you.

http://www.creative-writing-now.com/how-to-write-a-haiku.html

How to Write a Limerick

What's a limerick?

A limerick is a poetic form that can be particularly fun to read and to write. Limericks are often humorous, mean-spirited, or pornographic. I'll explain the form, and you can decide how down and dirty you want to get.

Limericks consist of five lines. The rhyme scheme is aabba. In other words, Lines One, Two, and Five all rhyme with each other, and Lines Three and Four rhyme with each other (in some limericks, Lines One and Five end with the same word and rhyme with Line Two).

Here's an example of a classic limerick by Edward Lear, where the first and last lines rhyme:

There was a Young Lady whose eyes,
Were unique as to colour and size;
When she opened them wide,
People all turned aside,
And started away in surprise.

 

Here's another example by Lear, where the first and last lines end with the same word:

There was an Old Person of Dover,
Who rushed through a field of blue Clover;
But some very large bees,
Stung his nose and his knees,
So he very soon went back to Dover.

 

The typical rhythm of a limerick is like this:

bah-BAH bah-bah-BAH bah-bah-BAH
bah-BAH bah-bah-BAH bah-bah-BAH
bah-BAH bah-bah-BAH
bah-BAH bah-bah-BAH
bah-BAH bah-bah-BAH bah-bah-BAH

http://www.creative-writing-now.com/how-to-write-a-limerick.html