Poetry for Pleas
A Teachers’ Guide to
Poetry Writing for Junior Stud
Sponsored by e Quality Education FundContents
Introduction
Animal Poems
Colour Poems
Food Poems
Haikus
Happiness Poems
Hong Kong Poems
Place Poems
Sky Poems
Things I Love Poems
Water Poems
References
Acknowledgements
il
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37Introduction
| first started writing poetry with my students after reading
one of Mike Murphy’s poems, ‘Bird Street’, with the class,
The students responded well to the poem and went on to
write their own ‘Poems about Places’ following the
pattern of “Bird Street’. I was impressed by both the high
standard of these poems and by the students’ positive
response towards writing them, so felt encouraged to try
poetry writing with the students on a more regular basis.
There were several reasons for choosing poetry in
addition to other forms of creative writing. Poems are
short compared to compositions.
e Students have more flexibility with regard to
grammar.
«* Rhyming schemes can be helpful when students
are searching for words.
« A set number of syllables (e.g. in Haikus) can also
make poetry writing easier.
Vocabulary extension.
Poetry writing makes a pleasant change from using the
English language textbook.
Despite initial resistance to writing poetry, perhaps due to
Jack of familiarity with the genre, most students were
pleasantly surprised when they realised they could do it.
And they were also proud when they produced a finished