Saturday, 10 March 2012

Poetry Club - Λέσχη Ποίησης στο μάθημα των αγγλικών της Σχολής Χιλλ!


  • Poetry club


Creative tasks help students realise that learning a foreign language is more than tests and grades. It is mainly about communication and passing on our message to the world. The more autonomous a class is, the more creative you can become with your students. I have found that such tasks promote motivation which is an integral part of the learning process.

  • Poetry as a way to teach a foreign language.
It has been argued by many linguists that poetry can promote learning. It provides a medium through which children can use grammar structures in a non –threatening, creative way, in order to express thoughts and feelings. It helps them personalise knowledge through expression.  I have been running the Poetry Club in my more advanced classes for a couple of years now and the results have been amazing. I have found that it assists students gain confidence in the target language.

  • All one needs to teach Grammar poetry, as I like to call it is a poem template. You can find hundreds on line. Here follow some examples of poems my 6th grade students wrote in the beginning of the year. 


Cinquain type


Winter

Winter
Coming with snow and rain
In our country
In one month time
Covering the blue sky with grey clouds.

By Alkeos V. 



         Five senses poem

       Loneliness

       Loneliness looks like a black sky
       Loneliness smells like an old love
       Loneliness feels like a lost house
       Loneliness sounds like a sad song
       Loneliness tastes like a black tear.

       By Marina K. 

  • As our knowledge of grammar became more profound, so did our writing. We started exploring notions and ideas, rather than objects. Here follows an example of anti-war poems written by the same class a couple of months ago. 


     Earth

    Earth
    Home of life
    Fan of ecology
    Who loves humans
    But hates them too
    Who fears the End
    Who believes in changes
    Who expects that her seas will be cleaned
    Who wishes that ozone hole won’t get bigger
    Blue planet

    Friendship and trust
    (A wh- poem)

    Friendship and trust
    Helping each other
    In a world of fighting
    When most people are angry
    Because we still have hope

    By Zoe K. 

  • Once the creative juices started flowing there was no way back... 
  • We made posters of our work and I even spent some time making small videos of it. They really loved it. For obvious reasons I have removed the student's real name from the video below. 



  • Last week we "published" our first Poetry Collection.The young poets are now preparing for our first Poetry Night. 
    Click here to view the Poetry Collection cover.