Summer is finally here, and I’ve got some really exciting projects in the works, including a series of poetry workshops for tweens at a local public library! I’ll admit I’m both excited and terrified going into this – I’ve been teaching writing workshops as a librarian for years, but this is the first time I’ve been hired to host one as a writer, and it’s giving me a bad case of imposter syndrome – I’ve published a few books, to be sure, but I don’t really feel like I’m qualified to teach anyone how to write, and I certainly don’t feel like any of the tweens are going to be too impressed by my picture book bibliography. Still, I do love poetry, and I hope that if nothing else, the tweens will leave my session having experienced some amazing poems by inspiring poets, and that sounds like a pretty good outcome to me.
We’re going to be exploring different poetic forms over the course of the workshop, reading some inspiring mentor texts and trying our hands at creating and sharing our own poems. Of course I had to include haiku as one of the forms I cover, as it’s one of my personal favourites – deceptively simple, but when done well, able to express and convey so much with so little.
The workshop runs for two hours, which is a long time for anyone to sit still and focus, let alone a child, so I’m incorporating a lot of stretch and movement breaks into the program to keep everyone energized and engaged. I thought it would be fun to use a poem as one of the stretches, so I came up with a simple tree-inspired haiku that would have the kids standing tall like oaks, crouching down like little acorns, then reaching up again into the sky. Everything’s a teachable moment when you used to be a teacher. 😉
Do you have a favourite poetic form, or one you find yourself gravitated towards again and again?
Good luck, Jane! It sounds like you are really thinking about what your students will appreciate and I’m sure it will pay off! As far as poem forms that I like, golden shovels have a certain appeal.