How on earth can you get kids to write quality poetry via a video link?
I’m talking about anxious 5- and 6-year-olds, often stuck on the simplest word and unnerved by the unfamiliar term ‘poem’; fidgety 7 and 8-year-olds bursting with energy, and the super-mature at the top end of primary, in sight of their teens and with far more important matters to focus on than poetry.
How can you get any of these youngsters involved via a rectangular window on a metal box on their kitchen table, amid the breakfast remains and the yapping puppy and the screaming baby and Mum on the phone to her boss and the kettle boiling and the rain pouring down outside?
Answer: pretty easily, actually, I’ve found. You just need a few ingredients, thrown in briskly, one at a time, and whisked up together. But ingredients must include these
5 staples:
Pace – the moment your audience have grasped point a, move on to point b. If anyone’s looking vague, give them a step up, but keep the session moving, or the distractions around them at home could win out.
Fun – you don’t need to act the clown or think up any tricks. If there’s a dash of humour to be had, grab it, and ditto with goose-bumping jitters or mind-bending wonder, but otherwise, variety of activity and a relaxed atmosphere will be enough to generate fun – even online.
Clarity – clear, manageable steps that make sense to everyone. If anyone’s unsure about something, they’ll find it harder to get that across to you online, and you’ll find it harder to pick up, too, so extra care is needed to ensure everyone ‘gets’ each point and instruction.
Interaction – quick-fire questions with swift responses from you will involve the maximum possible children to the maximum degree, while keeping up the pace. Comments to the whole class also help individual participants to feel involved and motivated.
Positivity For many children, it’s all too easy to lose confidence, even in an ideal classroom setting, but when you’re stuck at home, away from all that’s familiar about school and feeling the chilly side of ‘remote’, it can be even harder to stay positive and keep trying. So encourage, praise and celebrate as much as possible, both group-wise and individually. I try never to say ‘no’ anyway, but I’m all the more careful to avoid that response online.
10 MORE INGREDIENTS
Other ingredients can vary, depending what you have available, and what ideas and aims you may have up your sleeve, of course.
Here’s the 10-point list I aim for:
1) A familiar, open-ended topic – e.g. space, seaside, dragons, jungle, colours, castles, moods.
2) ‘Tell me’ challenge – let them teach you – briefly. Pick 4 or 5 volunteers to tell you something they know or have experienced, relevant to the topic, while you control the steering wheel and brakes.
3) Pictures – e.g. print-outs from free photo sites, or your own sketches perhaps, to hold up briefly in front of the screen. Avoid putting the onus on your students to access your pictures electronically: even if they can cope with such a process, it would kill the pace and immediacy of impact. Relevant physical items will also go a long way to bringing your virtual session alive for your remote students. (Picture shows my sofa, dressed up as a spring scene!)
4) Acting – for them and you too! Adjust your screen angle and your own position for whole-body view. It’s a great way to break ice, melt screens, and get under the lid of your topic. Acting out also gives children a chance to stretch, burn off energy, and get the circulation going.
5) Singing – yes, group singing online can work – enough for this session anyway. Ideally, spice up the activity with some sort of musical or percussion instrument (I use a ukulele, on which I can play 3 chords(!) or a home-made shaker). Take any line or two from poetic contributions generated so far and set them to any simple tune, familiar or made-up on the spot. Clap the rhythm, chant together, and invite variations. E.g. ‘The sea is teal as a peacock’s tail, oh, yes, it is!’ Then swap in volunteered ideas for the simile. KS1 children will enjoy adding in actions for the different variations too, with your guidance.
6) Vocab challenge – poetry requires apt vocabulary, and choices too. Delving for appropriate words and images also clarifies and expands ideas, and helps writers to express them effectively. On Space, you might ask: ‘Is space big, or more than big?’ [Elicit words like huge, vast, enormous..] Then refine and shift your questions, inviting imagery too: ‘How huge? More enormous than what?’ Never mind that your pupils are lined up in on-screen boxes, and geographically miles apart – quick-fire throw and catch can still work, and will spark up the session wonderfully.
7) Comedy – best thrown in casually, with a straight face and level tone (I find). E.g. of space: ‘So can you get fish and chips up there?… No? But perhaps the planets are edible, are they?… And what do the aliens use for toothpaste?…’ Of a jungle – ‘Is it okay for me to sit down and have my picnic?’ (Bearing in mind greedy monkeys, tramping elephants, cheeky parrots, soggy swamps.) Let them tell you – through their giggles and dramatic impersonations.
8) Poetic trick – demonstrate a poetic technique, e.g. simile, alliteration, onomatopoeia or rhyme. Then try together. Incorporate this teaching point into your subsequent writing requirement, empowering your budding poets to use the device themselves. This take-away prize – and signal of achievement – will tempt them back to the screen for your next session.
9) 30-second demo – read out a short example poem, or a couple of verses from it.
10) Amaze me! – writing challenge (KS2) – give children a few minutes to jot down words, lines and verses for their follow-on poem. For this stage (or perhaps several stages, to include warm-up and development), scrap paper will do, or for younger – writing frame sheets, pre-typed and illustrated and emailed through for printing out by supervising adults. Some may prefer to type online. Time all writing activities carefully, ensuring they’re not too long for anyone. Then invite them to hold up and/or read out from their work, and be generous with your praise and applause.
Er… did someone say poetry was boring, back at the start? No? Sure? I must have imagined it.
Follow-on: children can now write their poems, with help as needed. Ask attending adults (beforehand, with reminder after) to supervise this activity as applicable. If students have completed the whole poem in the session, suggest they do something else with it, like into a picture. This could be done by decorating or illustrating, for instance, or by re-writing it as a shape poem, or by selecting lines to insert into artwork, perhaps as a collage.
And finally – beg copies of finished creations for your own pleasure – teachers need treats too!
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Feedback:
“The pupils enjoyed every bit of it.”
Nanaksar Primary School, London, December. Year 6 classes, including a 30-strong class of home-learners.
“Thank you very much for the workshop which the children really enjoyed…They produced some fantastic work.”
Torkington Primary School, Stockport, November. KS1.
“Thank you, the children really loved it.”
Chorlton Park Primary school, Manchester, October. KS2.
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BOOKING A WORKSHOP –
Details, including prices, on Virtual Workshops page.
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Worksheets and other lit. resources, most designed originally for my workshops:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resources/shop/katewilliams_poetry
Kate
Email: katewilliams.poetry@gmail.com
