Seminar paper from the year 2009 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Pedagogy, Literature Studies, grade: 1,0, University of Education Heidelberg, language: English, abstract: “There is a poetic potential in all of us, it only needs to be wakened.” Altvater 1998, 259 Would the teachers of great poets like Barret Browning, Dickinson, Shakespeare or Whitman have known what great writers were sitting in front of them? How many geniuses might be sitting in today’s classrooms? If English teachers want to get a glimpse of what poetic potential their pupils might have, they should bring poetry into the classrooms and inspire their pupils to become poetic writers themselves. This paper aims at giving an overview of creative poetry writing and giving reasons why and how teachers should bring it into their classrooms. Starting with a definition of the term ‘creative writing’, I will begin by discussing the benefits of implementing creative writing methods followed by the benefits of introducing literature and poetry into the classroom. Those two chapters in total give the answer to the question why teachers should bring creative poetry writing into their classrooms. After giving insight into the language skills that are being supported and discussing the possible challenges a teacher might face, the question of ‘how’ to implement creative poetry writing into the EFL classroom is presented. The paper is completed by a brief discourse about feedback and assessment and tied together by the conclusion.

Project Report from the year 2012 in the subject American Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 1, TU Dortmund (American Studies), course: Cultural and Media Studies, language: English, abstract: The thesis for our project was the following: Using the Whiteboard (WB) in a poetry lesson in the English Foreign Language classroom can enrich the teaching and learning experience and therefore foster a positive learning climate where different learner types are addressed. We tried to create a ninety-minute seminar session, which, firstly, proves our thesis, and, secondly, motivate you to take a closer look at the opportunities that the WB offers for teachers. Thus, we chose a variety of four different sessions that featured various usages of the WB in an entertaining but academic way and should raise awareness of possible and new ways to use the WB as well as to inspire students (who will themselves be teachers one day) for the future. Hence, we tried to incorporate various forms of WB usage to show how it can transcend usual PowerPoint presentations and add more media. As far as the content of the session is concerned, we focused on poetry (creative aspects as well as analytical tasks) as poetry is a form of writing that can be produced and received in various different and individual ways due to its nature. Feelings and ideas can be expressed freely and creatively. As poems are usually in a condensed and short format, connected activities like producing, reading or interpreting them can all be done in the classroom. The individual and creative aspect motivates pupils and can support a very personal access to this format of writing. Combining poetry and WB can lead to a new poetry teaching experience. According to Fleming, pupils’ ideas about poetry will inevitably be formed by the extent and variety of their reading; in fact, as suggested earlier, confusion is likely to arise if poetry is introduced into the classroom only at infrequent intervals (40). Employing the WB offers the chance to have a greater variety of readings and understandings through different channels and input (visual, audio-visual, video). That the WB combines different media also makes it easier to discuss intermedial/intermodal forms of poetry. This is also supported by Shenton and Pagett’s research on the WB in classrooms. They conclude that WBs have “great potential for motivating and engaging pupils in sophisticated forms of multimodality” (135). Furthermore, the frequency of dealing with poetry can be raised. It is much quicker to analyse a poem, save the changes, connect to the internet and be interactive with the WB. [...]

Practical ideas for teaching language through poetry. iCreative Poetry Writing/i is for teachers who would like to give students the opportunity to say something original, while practising new language.

UKLA Academic Book Award 2016: Highly Commended Making Poetry Happen provides a valuable resource for trainee and practicing teachers, enabling them to become more confident and creative in teaching what is recognized as a very challenging aspect of the English curriculum. The volume editors draw together a wide-range of perspectives to provide support for development of creative practices across the age phases, drawing on learners' and teachers' perceptions of what poetry teaching is like in all its forms and within a variety of contexts, including: - inspiring young people to write poems - engaging invisible pupils (especially boys) - listening to poetry - performing poetry Throughout, the contributors include practical, tried-and-tested materials, including activities, and draw on case studies. This approach ensures that the theory is clearly linked to practice as they consider teaching and learning poetry to those aged between 5 and 19 from different perspectives, looking at reading; writing; speaking and listening; and transformative poetry cultures. Each of the four parts includes teacher commentaries on how they have adapted and developed the poetry activities for use in their own classroom.

Creative writing offers multiple genres that give your ELs an opportunity to practice many types of writing skills. Poetry, prose, dialogue, and creative non-fiction are just a few of the myriad styles, forms, and skills that can help ELs broaden their understanding of what writing is all about, while making them better writers. But most of all, creative writing is fun! The new volume offers over 95 creative activities.

Welcome to Poetryland: Teaching Poetry Writing to Young Children draws from Shelley Savren’s forty years of teaching poetry writing in grades pre-K–6 and to focus populations, including gifted and special education students, students in after school programs and at art museums, and homeless, abused, or neglected students. Each chapter begins with a student quote and an original poem, followed by heartfelt stories of working with that particular group, and concludes with lesson plans, complete with introductions of poetic concepts, model poems by professionals, open-ended writing assignments, methods for sharing and critiquing, and one or two student poems. Designed for use in a classroom, this book features thirty-eight lesson plans and twenty-three additional poetry-writing workshop ideas. It provides guidance and inspiration for anyone who wants to teach poetry writing to children. “I wish Shelley would teach the whole world poetry.” –1st grade student. “I want to be a poetry writer when I grow up.” –2nd grade student. “What I found out about myself was that I have an imagination. And a good one.” –6th grade student.