Poetry Lesson

Being at the same school for a second year is a great oppurtunity to improve upon lessons you used last year. One of my favorite lessons from last year was my poetry lesson. It was successful last year and it was even more so this year. Students don’t often get the chance to be creative so I try to give them a chance to use those brain muscles for something fun.

Students made a simple four line poem and a simple acrostic poem for this lesson. The first thing I had to do was explain what a rhyme was. Most students did not know so I posted a few examples on the board.

Zach…..Black
Lazy….Crazy
Book…Look

Once I did that, students understood rhyme. I then put a simple four line poem on the board.

My name is Zach                           A
I am very tall.                                B
I like to wear black.                     A
Opps I hit a wall!                          B

I explained to students that lines A must rhyme and lines B also must rhyme. I put an incomplete poem on the board and had the class make one.

The students are very _________.    A
They want to _______________.     B
They _____________________.    A
Students _________________.      B

They were able to make a good poem in a few minutes. I put another one up on the board to make sure they underood the concept of this poem.

Zach is ____________.  A
He is very __________. B
He wants __________.   A
He always __________. B

Once this poem was done, I moved onto acrostic poetry. I told students to write one word going down their paper. One student wrote the word girls.
G
I
R
L
S

I used girls as my class example and made a poem with it for the class to understand what was happening.
Girls are
Inside the school
Reading many books about
Love and
Super Junior

I would also use a student’s name as an acrostic poem example.
Ji Yun
Is eating a

Yellow banana
Under the
Night sky

Students then had 20-25 minutes to come up wiht one simple poem and one acrostic. Most had both done in 15 while some struggled to finish one type of poem. I chose the best 10 poems to be read aloud to the class and reward them with candy. Students generally enjoyed this lesson and it made me smile to see them having fun with English and having an oppurtunity to be creative. Here are some poems below from my classes.

You go to school! You’re late!
Ummmm. Oh my God! Teacher is there!

Go go go. Hurry!
You are chased by teacher.
Excellent!
Oh. Hummm. Oh
N0! Oh my
God. Sorry teacher. ㅠ.ㅠ

Jane Goodall is
Ugly?
No! She is
Great beautiful and

Her skin is
Yellow? She works for
U.N.?
No! You wrong!

Candy is delicious but I’m very
Angry because Jach
Not take candy.
Don’t forget candy Jack! When
You come to classroom.

Big Bang is my honey.             A
Flowers are very pretty.        B
Big Bang has alot of money.  A
They are sweaty.                       B

I’m so cool.                                            A
I have a friend.                                    B
I want to go to swimming pool.   A
What is trend?                                      B
Someone is fool.                                 A
I like piano that is grand.                B

I hope you enjoyed these poems as much as I do.