Poetry+Pots

(http://www.poetryclass.net/lessonm.htm) I devised this writing exercise for junior school children, having used it most recently in summer schools with Year 6/7 children struggling with literacy. It is designed to aid organisation of thought and helps reluctant writers to break down the writing 'task' into manageable bites. POEM POT EXERCISE There's obviously much scope for fun with this exercise, and reluctant writers forget that they are 'writing' a poem as they concentrate hard on 'making' one.
 * How to Make a Poem (Poetry Pots) **
 * 1) Take one poem-making kit (a pot, lined A4, plain A4, scissors and a pen)
 * 2) Fold the plain paper 4 times, creating 16 rectangles.
 * 3) Cut along the lines until you have 16 slips of paper.
 * 4) Decide on a subject you would really like to write a poem about, and write all your ideas - words, lines, phrases, similes - on the slips of paper. Use a new slip of paper for every idea and collect them all in your pot.
 * 5) When your pot is full, empty out your ideas and treat the slips of paper like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Put your ideas in the order you'd like them to appear in your poem. Play around with the pieces until you are happy with your ordering.
 * 6) Take the lined piece of paper and, taking each idea in order, expand your words, phrases etc into complete lines.
 * 7) Check to see if you need to add or take away words so that the lines link.
 * 8) There you have it - your very own poem!

© Coral Rumble Y4 T1 T14 - List brief phrases and words, experiment by trimming or extending sentences Y4 T3 T15 - To produce polished poetry through revision, eg deleting words, adding words, changing words, reorganising words and lines, experimenting with figurative language <span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;">Y5 T2 T13 - To review and edit writing to produce a final form, matched to the needs of an identified reader <span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;">Y6 T1 T10 - Produce revised poems for reading aloud individually