ESL etc.

We’ve got a group of 50 or so Korean elementary school teachers here at the ELI for a month-long program. Today, I gave them a brief workshop introducing a poetry activity that I have used in the past. Basically, I have students read, write, then discuss poems built around particular structures. I find that students have an easier time writing poetry if they are asked to follow a specific structure.

The two poems I used as examples were “God to a Hungry Child” and “Two Young Women”. “God to a Hungry Child” is written from the point of view of God, addressing a hungry child. Thus, in the writing portion of the activity, I ask students to write something from the perspective of God explaining something to someone. “Two Young Women” has a similarly imitatable (albeit totally different) structure to it.

Here is the handout I used, which explains the activity and includes the two poems.

This is a retooling of an older activity that I used as part of a series of green-themed activities at another language school.