Pattern Poetry Project

Elizabeth Dostert, Luxembourg

Elizabeth Dostert studied at the University of Sussex and graduated in 2006. She started teaching in January 2007 and is currently teaching at the Lycée Nic Biver, Dudelange, Luxembourg. E-mail: elisabeth.dostert@education.lu

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Description of the project
Implementation
Evaluation
Poems

Description of the project

The project took place over one entire week, which on elementary level (ES) consists of six lessons. I decided to work in this way, because focusing on pattern poetry for one lesson every week would have made it last for six weeks. I was uncertain whether I could maintain their interest and motivation for such a long period of time. Moreover, I believed that for the students who would not enjoy this project it would be easier to go along for a week, rather than having to deal with it again and again. Last, it would be sufficient to set the context at the beginning of the week and then work continuously within the same framework.

In the first lesson I introduced my students to the project, informed them about its scope and schedule and explained the objectives. We then had a look at different poems and songs to establish the notion of pattern and familiarise them with spotting pattern in poems. In the second lesson we wrote the first poem collectively on the board, and then the learners started on their first poem in pairs. The next day I gave them a choice of two poems to work on in groups. The following lesson consisted of a nonsense poem which again was done in groups. On the last day, the students wrote individually, but had a choice of two poems. In a last step some of the poems were finished, redrafted, edited and shared with the class. A booklet with all the poems will present the learners with their final product.

Implementation

Monday: Introduction and contrast poem

On Monday I taught two consecutive lessons. This enabled me to use the first lesson as introduction to the project, create interest and motivation and set the schedule for the week. The second lesson then consisted of writing the first poem as a class before asking the students to work on their own.

As a starter I asked my students whether they liked poetry. Most of them said no, an answer which I had anticipated, so I suggested that it might be different if they wrote the poems themselves. I then asked them if they liked song texts and most of them said yes, so that the next step was to have a look at both poems and songs to establish similarities and differences. Before going on to this step, I wrote pattern poetry on the board and explained what it meant. I also gave my pupils the schedule for the week, meaning that each lesson would focus on one poem and told them about the booklet as final product and goal to work toward.

We then had a look at three different poems. I wanted to familiarise them with different styles and types of poetry. I had chosen Roald Dahl’s ‘The Lion’, Philip Larkin’s ‘Love’, and part of Dr Seuss’s ‘Green Eggs and Ham’. I had included any difficult lexis on the worksheet as I did not want this to obstruct a quick reading. I played ‘The Lion’ to them, briefly discussed two or three vocabulary items and asked for their opinion. I did the same for the next two poems and then asked the students to find any pattern in them. We also wrote down some vocabulary for poetry (stanza, repetition, chorus, line,…).

Next were the three songs I had chosen both for their use of pattern, their British origins and their popularity with young people: Let it Be by the Beatles, Billy by James Blunt and Grace Kelly by Mika. While the students listened to the songs they had to underline any patterns (rhythm, rhyme, repetition of lines) in the songs which we briefly summed up as a class.

In the second lesson I introduced the Contrast Poem, a short, relatively simple poem that can be made more complex once you know how it works. Since this was the first poem my students would have to write, we wrote one version together on the board. At first we had a look at the pattern and then at some examples to see how the pattern became a full poem. We then chose a topic (school) and established positive and negative characteristics for it, before formulating the sentences that would make up the poem. Then I asked my pupils to work in pairs. I monitored their writing, reminded them of using their dictionaries if needed and helped finding topics they could write about. Many wrote very quickly so I suggested they make their poems more complex and try out other verbs to work with. I also reminded them of the booklet the poems would appear in, so that if they were not satisfied with their poem they would go back and revise it.

Tuesday: Preposition poem and Who-What-Where-When-How-Why poem

The Tuesday lesson was observed by my mentor. Students were now familiar with patterns and poems and so I immediately set out to explain the poems they had to write that day. I had decided to bring in two poems, so that the students could write the one they were most comfortable with. One was also clearly more difficult, so that I asked the strong students to start with the more complicated one, whereas for the others I let them work according to their personal preference. I first had a look at the two poems with the entire class. We again read the pattern and selected examples. We then established that in the Preposition Poem each (or almost every) line started with a preposition, that it told a story and that the entire poem was one sentence. The second poem dealt with questions words, so we found out that each line answered one question word, that this did not always necessarily happen in the same order, that the poem also told a story and that it consisted of one sentence only.

I gave instructions for the steps the students had to take before writing, and then they split into groups and started working. My mentor helped monitor this session, suggesting ideas and providing vocabulary. Some students even managed to write both poems in one session; quite a few even wrote more than one of a type.

Thursday: Blotz poem

The next lesson started off with a quiz. I asked my students what ‘blotz’ meant, because the poem we would write was called Blotz Poem. They came up with several ingenious and interesting suggestions before I told them that it did not mean anything and that the poem they would be writing was a nonsense poem. We then set out to fill in a grid on the worksheet that asked the students to find words for categories (food, colours, places, sports, objects) starting with the same letter. The poem was based on alliteration so I asked my students to try and make a sentence with five words of the same letter and explained the term alliteration which they already knew from French. We then read the sample poems and looked at the pattern. The students had to invent a creature, give it a name and then follow the pattern of the poem using as many words starting with the same letter as the creature’s name as possible. For visual stimulation I had brought pictures of monsters and strange creatures that I pinned to the board. Then I wrote one example I had made up on the board.

Again students worked in groups of four, while I reminded of the different steps to take before writing (choose a name, brainstorm words with that letter using the grid, use your dictionary, follow the pattern).

Friday: ‘I like Poem’ and ‘I am Poem’ / Wrapping up

The fifth lesson of this week was observed by my formateur. Again, I brought in two poems so that the students could make their choice. One was considerably easier than the other. Both poems were about the students themselves, so that after a week of collaborative writing I asked them to work on their own. I did not want their personal ideas or view of themselves tainted by a classmate’s possible comment. I had deliberately chosen one very easy poem (‘I like’ Poem) to make it accessible for the weaker students because the second poem (‘I am’ Poem) was a challenge for many learners.

As during the days before we read the pattern and samples, established the characteristics of the poems and went through the different steps to take before writing. For the second poem I had not given the students samples because I did not want them to copy ideas rather than write their own personal poem. Every student in the class wrote an ‘I like’ Poem, and quite a few attempted the other.

In the last lesson students revised, edited and finished some of the poems they had written during the week. They filled in a feedback questionnaire about the project and discussed the layout of the booklet. Some students shared their work and read aloud some of their creations of the week. I had asked my students to bring in any songs with obvious patterns and we listened to a few. In the end we collected all the poems of the week, and three students volunteered to type them up over the holidays for the booklet.

Evaluation

In order to evaluate the project I would like to briefly come back to the objectives I set out in a previous section before turning to a general assessment, a personal comment and an evaluation of student learning.

In condensed form the learning outcomes for this project were these:

• improving the students’ knowledge and proficiency of English
• writing skills
• internalising language structures, grammar patterns and vocabulary
• dictionary practice
• preparing the beginners for literary understanding and sensitivity
• motivation
• teambuilding, social competences, communication
• learner autonomy

Assessing their successful implementation and casting a critical gaze upon the project requires detailed analysis and reflection on problem areas, pitfalls and accomplishments of the project.

In general, the project has been successful; the students readily participated as much in the first lesson as in the last of the week. No student refused to work on any of the poems and no critical incident took place. Interestingly, the most motivated students were the weaker ones in the class; some of the stronger pupils did not readily buy into the idea of writing poetry and although they came up with their share of poems, they seemed hasty to finish and be done with the task. Nevertheless, the poems they produced were of high quality and had it not been for their ‘casual’ disinterest in class, I would not have guessed their reluctance toward the project from their writing alone.

On a more personal level, the project was conducive to a positive working atmosphere as much as to a successful learning experience. It also created a space for new ways of learning and interaction within the class that is not necessarily encountered on a daily basis.

What would I change if I had to organise this project again? To answer this question to the fullest extent, I will briefly go through the different lessons to identify pitfalls and advantages.

The very first lesson can clearly be labelled the least successful of the entire week. Even though I believe that an introduction has to be made in some form or other, the lesson felt tedious and the students seemed reluctant to engage because reading the different poems looked like a traditional lesson on poetry. Luckily I was able to counter this attitude when bringing in the various songs. Once the students started working on the poems themselves, they seemed reassured that the week was not going to be one of lengthy, complicated, inaccessible poetry analysis. If I set up this sequence again on this level, I would probably only bring in songs to stimulate student interest and familiarise them with notions of pattern, rhyme and rhythm.

The students exhibited enthusiasm for and presented good responses to finding patterns in the songs. Some even liked showing off their knowledge of rhymes acquired in other subjects.

When writing the Contrast Poem on the board my pupils displayed a certain lack of enthusiasm toward the new task. This was due to the fact that the Contrast Poem is very simple and self-explanatory; it does not require any prolonged explanations. Students probably felt they were not being challenged enough, because once they began writing in pairs, they finished very quickly and without difficulties. What became apparent with this poem and proved to be a problem with some of the others was a lack of ideas and topics. My students were at a loss for what to write about; they simply did not know what topic to pick or idea to focus on. I attempted to help with suggestions and advice; yet that was all I could do to stimulate student input. There was a considerable need for more visual stimulation, which I had not foreseen. Especially at the beginning of the week and with poems that do not ask for specific information determining content, there is a need for thorough and variegated material to elicit ideas and prompt responses.

Giving the students the choice between two poems was one of the major assets of the second lesson. They intuitively went for one or the other and did not lose time deciding for one. Since they worked in groups for this lesson, they had to agree on which poem to choose. Some compromised by starting with one, provided they would do the other at a later stage. I would perhaps try to give a choice of poem for every lesson if I did this project again. It leaves the students much more scope for personal and creative development. Again with both the Preposition Poem and the Who-What-Where-When-How-Why Poem there was a lack of inspiration. I had provided my students with a complete framework for the form of the poem, but left them completely unguided in their choice of topics.

Thus on Thursday I brought in pictures of monsters to stimulate ideas and input when writing the Blotz Poem. It can be said that this was clearly the most successful poem with my students. I will definitely come back to this poem when teaching beginners, because I think that it also works as an isolated writing activity and it has yielded some of the best results. The use of alliteration required lots of dictionary work on the part of the students; this in turn generated a great increase in new lexis.

The last lesson focused on the ‘I like’ Poem and the ‘I am’ Poem. Both incited good responses; since the students wrote about themselves, there was no lack of ideas. They all had a lot to say about themselves, and this granted me valuable insight into their inner thoughts and personalities.

When planning the sequence, I was not sure whether to ask the students to write on their own at the beginning or the end of the week. Making them work in groups first, and then asking them to write individually was one of the best choices I had made for this project. Also, the fact that they wrote the poems about themselves on their own and not in groups proved to be the appropriate choice. The ‘I am’ Poem, being the most difficult one of the project, yielded substantial results. This reinforced my perception that some of the poems could have been even more challenging, provided that there was always some easier option to fall back on. In the last lessons the ‘I like’ Poem in particular was too easy for most students, even the weaker ones. It was also too similar in pattern to the Contrast Poem. Thinking back that the students found the Contrast Poem very easy to work with and finished in such a short time should have made me replace the ‘I like’ Poem with a more challenging one. The pattern of both poems was also quite similar and thus generated boredom rather than present a sustained challenge. Moreover, it did not feed into my original idea to increase the level of difficulty with each poem. This would have to be more thought through the next time.

Some of the aforementioned objectives can be more readily assessed than others. To put a finger on students’ sensitivity toward literature is more challenging than to observe a development of their writing skills or student motivation. Since I had not done anything similar before, there was no reference to compare their productions to. Yet the poems they produced and the questionnaire they filled in gives some feedback on whether learning has taken place. The first aim in the above list is formulated quite generally, and thus I believe I can say that students have improved their English proficiency in a similarly broad perspective. The poems they have written show an extensive use of known and newly acquired lexis; many students used their dictionaries and experimented with unknown words. I observed many heated discussions on the use of vocabulary or grammar items. When going over their completed poems, there were strikingly few grammar and spelling mistakes, so that I believe students did revise and edit their poems, although when monitoring, it frequently looked like they wrote the poems quickly. Hence, I had to remind them that it was acceptable to write down a first version and then alter it. In the first lessons I often explained to students that their drafts could be messy and incorrect as long as they came back to them and that as a matter of fact no writer can formulate a perfect first version.

No student had any problems with adopting and following any of the patterns and some even toyed around with them and moulding them to fit their purpose.

Whether I was successful in preparing students for literary understanding and sensitivity remains difficult to assess. Yet, many showed great motivation and often at the beginning of the lessons when giving instructions I felt my students were impatient to start writing rather than listen to me pointing out language points to focus on.

The usually weaker students of the class exhibited the strongest motivation. Some set out to impress me with their ideas and many attempted to do the more difficult poems when they could choose. The general feedback I earned when telling my mentor and formateurs of this project was that this would be quite a challenging task. The results unequivocally point to the contrary. I did not feel at any point during that week that I was overwhelming any of the students; rather, for some of the stronger pupils of the class, I felt they were bored because they felt they were not being challenged at some points.

Thus the different levels of proficiency in this class became apparent in this project, but they did not constitute a hindrance to student learning. The fact that many of the weaker students were emboldened to show off their skills and knowledge proves that motivation had been created and maintained. Perhaps also the fact that the learners could work outside of the usual ‘test’ framework contributed to their enthusiasm. Last, I did not constitute any of the groups; the students were free to choose who they wanted to work with. At this age, boys and girls do not tend to mix a lot, and they ended up in fairly similar proficiency levels. This fostered a secure and stimulating atmosphere because pupils were comfortable in their groups and did not feel isolated. Additionally, this positive working environment supported the learners’ teambuilding skills, their ability to communicate, discuss and compromise. In addition to these social skills, helping each other definitely catered for autonomous peer learning. The students frequently relied on each other for ideas and issues before turning to the teacher for help.

Poems

Contrast Poem

The surgeon could operate on me.
The doctor could stitch me up.
The nurse could look after me.
The undertaker could bury me,
but the postman couldn’t make me healthy.

Preposition Poem

Here I lie
In the bedroom
On the floor
In my upper body
There is a knife
And I try to survive.

Who-what-where-when-how-why Poem

Matt Groening
created the Simpsons
in a show
in 1985
in cartoon-style
to make us laugh.

Blotz Poem

This is a Soul Sorcerer.
Soul Sorcerer lives in a shadowy suburb of Springfield.
Soul Sorcerer eats sour steaks, salted sandwiches and sexy salami.
Soul Sorcerer likes speed skiing, sand sailing and security shooting.
Soul Sorcerer is sensational at sports.
Soul Sorcerer stole my soul.

I am Poem

I am a computer freak and funny.
I wonder how computers work.
I hear the sound of WOW.
I see a warrior Lintanus.
I want to be Level 70.
I am a computer freak and funny.
I understand all about WOW.
I feel good.
I touch the keyboard.
I worry about dying.
I laugh about the mops.
I am a computer freak and funny.
I am a hero in a computer game.
I wonder why I am the hero and not the villain.
I hear the melody of the game where I am enclosed.
I see the person who I have to attack.
I want to have an idea how I can leave this game.
I am a hero in a computer game.
I understand the sense of my destiny.
I feel the power in me.
I touch my sword.
I worry about myself.
I laugh about the battlefield that I have behind me.
I am a hero in a computer game.
I am chaotic and crazy.
I wonder how the angels fly.
I hear their wings.
I see them in the clouds.
I want to fly with them.
I am chaotic and crazy.
I understand why people believe in angels.
I feel free and light.
I touch the white cloud in the blue sky.
I worry that I can’t touch them.
I laugh about their innocence.
I am chaotic and crazy.

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