Dear colleagues!
I was tempted by both the sense of initiative
and entrepreneurship and culture awareness key skills, so the present activity is
related to them, as well as to the linguistic one. The activity is designed for
the last two years of High School and it consists of a poetry contest called
“Between Verses and Imagination. Time to Fly”. The event will commemorate the
World Book Day, the 23rd of April. It will be held in the high
school conference hall and chaired by the centre’s English teachers and some
professionals in literature invited as special guests.
For this purpose, students have to present
their own productions amongst various options, such as Haiku, Flash Fiction
(prose poetry) or a free poem (they should choose amongst lyric, dramatic and satirical
poetry). The topics will be “seasons” for Haikus and “love” for the rest. This
activity will last three days, during which we are going to do different
exercises in order to prepare their “masterpieces” as best as possible. Here
you are a notion of the activities programme:
Day 1
- Main
characteristics of each type of literary production: students will be organised
in small groups and they will read some information (at the end of this blog
entry) given by the teacher about Haikus, Flash Fiction and poetry in general. Thus,
there will be Haiku groups, Flash Fiction groups and poetry groups, and each
one will have to give details to the other group by answering the following
questions:
Haikus
What is a Haiku poem?
How many lines does it have?
How many syllables does a Haiku have on the whole?
How many syllables does each line have?
What does a “cutting point” actually refers to?
How can a reference to one of the four seasons be achieved apart from
using the actual name of each of the seasons? Give an example.
Flash Fiction
What is a Flash Fiction or Micro-Story?
How many Flash Fiction varieties exist?
What these varieties of Flash Fiction depend on?
How many words do Flash Fictions have at least? And at most?
What are the main requirements or characteristics to write a good Flash
Fiction? Mention at least four.
Free poem
What does poetry mean?
Can you please mention the main characteristics of lyric, dramatic and satirical
genres?
Which one would you choose for our Poetry Contest and why?
They will have over 30-40 minutes to
read all the information and answer the questions above. This part of the
activity is made to give them some (theoretical) idea about what they are going
to put into practice. It is not a theory lesson, but a way for them to interact,
practice oral skills and learn the main details about every type of literary production.
- After
our first approach to the poetry world, we will do a competition in groups. As
nature, personality adjectives and feelings may be quite adequate for both love
and seasons topics, this part of the activity will consist of
learning/reviewing vocabulary and definitions related to these three fields. To
that end, we will compete in a vocabulary jam or a Kahoot test. In both cases,
students will be organised in groups and speed in providing answers will be at
stake. They normally love this kind of competition, so I think it would be a
wonderful way of practicing related-vocabulary.
Here you are a brief example of some
of the vocabulary:
Nature (environment, animals, colours, etc.)
Sun, hill, mountain, sunset, dawn, horizon, storm, lightning, clouds,
sky, rain, grass, bird, light, grey, blue, ocean, sea, moon, moonlight, river,
lake, path, crystal, night, day, summer, autumn, winter, spring, fall, water,
transparency, clarity, sea waves, spring (manantial), flower, butterfly, tree, leave, branch, tornado, shore, sand, air,
universe.
Personality adjectives
Provocative, sensible, sensitive, confident, friendly, generous,
practical, tolerant.
Feelings
Exhausted, lost, tired, excited, thrilled, astonished, embarrassed,
proud, disgusted, determined, guilty, abandoned, accepted.
Other vocabulary
Mirror, hair, hands, lips, eyes, look, gaze, life, existence, dead,
smile, sparkle, veins, being, living, touch, feel, echo, to fly, to stay, to
stare, to gaze, to understand, to comprehend, to analyse, turmoil, misunderstanding,
embrace, whisper, fingers, heart, heartbeat, pulsation, breathing, arms, skin,
wrinkles, time, tears, boat, words.
This picture can also provide them some more vocabulary about feelings and personality:
This competition game should not
last more than 15-20 minutes. Like that, we would have one lesson done (60
minutes).
They will also have to read at home the following information
about figures of speech, since we are going to work on that the following
session.
Day 2
- Synonyms
competition: they will be given, in groups of 5, a copy with a word list full
of synonyms regarding the vocabulary seen in the previous session. One person
of each group will go up to the blackboard (one at a time) and will be given a
word by the teacher. Right away, the other group components will start looking
for synonyms and telling their partner as much of them as possible; it will be
timed. The group getting the exercise done within the shortest time wins.
A possible synonyms list would be as
follows:
Sparkle: glow, brightness, glitter, twinkle
To look: gaze, glow, glance
To observe: remark, notice, consider, study
Existence: being, living
To whisper: murmur, rustle
Embrace: hug, cuddle, clinch
Horizon: skyline, offing
Sunset: sundown, downfall, dusk, twilight
Dawn: sunrise, daybreak
Some of them are not complete
synonyms, so after the exercise they will be asked about the main differences
and they will be given some examples in context. This activity is intended to
give them some lexical variety to be able to rhyme their verses as much as
possible.
Estimated time: 15-20 minutes
- Figures
of speech identification: after having read the information given in the
previous lesson, they will have to match each definition with its designation.
For that purpose, they will be given two cards (one designation and one
definition). Every student will go up to the blackboard, read his/her
definition and ask “Who is it”. The student who think that may have the figure
of speech concerned, has to say: It’s me. I am ‘X’ (and the name of the
figure). I consider this part very effective and enriching for them to be
flexible in their writings and to put all the tools at their disposal.
Estimated time: 30 minutes
- Brainstorming:
10 minutes to think in some figures of speech that might suit a poem. The whole
group will exchange about that and the teacher will write on the board their
proposals.
Day 3
Production: we will use the whole
lesson to create and prepare their productions. It will be developed at the
computer room, as they might need to look for specific data, music, videos,
images and all the material needed to enrich their writings. The teacher will
be always there for them, to resolve any doubts that might arise.
In my view, this activity will not
also let them practice the language itself, but the oral understanding and
talking, as well as their abilities to turn ideas into action, to create and to
take risks. Finally, they will appreciate (or at least start to) and be aware
of the poetry in different parts of the world and they will acquire some
knowledge about this type of literary compositions.
Haikus
Flash
Fiction
Poetry
